Discover qualified Native American professionals in New York across all industries and specialties. Connect with lawyers, doctors, accountants, real estate agents, therapists, and other service providers who understand your cultural background, speak your language, and are dedicated to serving the Native American community with excellence and cultural sensitivity.
Native American Community Services (NACS) is a non-profit organization founded in 1975 to provide quality health and social services to the off-reservation Native American population in Erie and Niagara Counties. In keeping with our “Tradition of Caring,” we have since grown into a full-scale human services agency committed to helping the entire community, regardless of race or background. NACS has developed innovative and evidence-based approaches that are intended to significantly improve the lives of those who engage in our programs and services. NACS has offices in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Lockport, New York.
NACS began as a single program to address unemployment in the Buffalo Native American community and was originally incorporated as the “Native American Manpower Program.” Through this initial work, barriers to successfully obtaining or retaining employment and other pressing needs of local Native families were identified. Following the establishment of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978, further programs were initiated that began to focus on advocacy and support for Native American children and families. Soon after this expansion, the corporation changed to its present name so to reflect these additional services. Youth programs and casework services became available in the 1980’s.
Native American Foster Care and culturally-based approaches to alcohol and substance abuse prevention programs were initiated later that decade. In the early 1990’s, NACS was one of the first agencies to begin addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS in the local Native American community. By the 2000’s, NACS had expanded its programs to include services to Elders and the developmentally disabled. In 2009, NACS co-produced a documentary titled “Unseen Tears” that explored the intergenerational impacts of historical trauma on our local Native population. Soon after, culturally specific interventions to address those issues were developed such as our Healthy Generations project, Stages of Life Empowerment (SOLE) program, and Healing Our People through Empowerment (HOPE) approach, in addition to expanded cultural and community programming and resources.
The Redhawk Native American Arts Council is a not-for-profit organization founded and maintained by Indigenous American artists, performers, and educators residing in New York and New Jersey. Since 1994, Redhawk has been dedicated to supporting the urban Indigenous community and educating the general public about Indigenous American heritage through song, dance, theater, and other works of art and cultural forms of expression with a diverse group of Indigenous artists from the Americas to around the globe.
Redhawk offers programs with an Indigenous lens on issues such as climate change, water rights, Indigenous stereotypes, land preservation and programs for our local Indigenous communities with a special focus on our youth. In addition to the programs Redhawk offers, we also produce four of the largest Indigenous and Indigenous heritage celebrations in the Northeast. Redhawk’s educational programs serve to help students and educators gain a better understanding of Indigenous American history and of the diverse cultures represented within Indigenous America. We also encourage educators to re-think the current and outdated curriculum and integrate the knowledge we share and teach them.
American Indian Community House (AICH) was founded in 1969, by Native American volunteers as a community-based organization, mandated to improve the status of Native Americans, and to foster inter-cultural understanding.
AICH is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization serving the needs of Native Americans residing in New York City.
The mission of American Indian Community House (AICH) is to improve and promote the well-being of the American Indian Community and to increase the visibility of American Indian cultures in an urban setting in order to cultivate awareness, understanding and respect.
