Photo courstesy of Bari Wesna As we close out 2025, I’m reaching out with gratitude — and a simple request. We asked for your support recently, to raise $110,000 and inspired donors have already given $95,000! Today, a $20,000 matching grant means that if you MAKE A DONATION TODAY, the value of your donation will be doubled! CONTINUING GLOBAL IMPACT … Read More
Gratitude for Nearly 30 Years of Work Together
On behalf of myself and the Tribal Trust Foundation Board of Directors, we want to express our heartfelt appreciation for you, our collaborators, donors, partners, and friends. Thank you for caring about Indigenous-led programming to preserve and uplift ancient wisdom ways to meet the challenges of our time. Thank you for believing in a worldview anchored in reciprocity, collaboration, and … Read More
Traveling to Bhutan for Documentary Film and Friendship
In 2006, the Tribal Trust Foundation answered a call from the Monpa people of Bhutan to document their ancient culture, one of the last Indigenous communities in the Himalayas still living in close harmony with the natural world. Upon their request, while the government had begun plans for a genocide of these peace-loving people, we began filming in order to … Read More
Monpa Elders Prioritizing Indigenous Language Preservation
UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032 recognizes, “Languages are one of the most significant emblems of human diversity, revealing how we can perceive, relate to, and understand the world differently. Languages are vehicles of our cultures, collective memory, and values. They are an essential component of our identities.” The Monpas are translating their oral language into Dzongkha and English … Read More
Responsiveness in Support for Hadza People
In times of great change, it is wise to go back to what we know has worked throughout millennia: the ways of Indigenous people, who have built cultures and traditions anchored in ancient wisdom that is perhaps more relevant today than ever before. Indigenous communities are also most vulnerable to the life-threatening effects of climate change and the extractive practices … Read More
Did You Know Plants Speak to Us?
Illustration by Holly Sherwin Did you know that plants speak to us? Most of us have lost our ability to hear them. Fortunately, there are Indigenous peoples around the world, many of whom are shamans, who have not lost this ability. Shamans work with the energies and intelligence in Nature that we cannot … Read More
Celebrating the Monpa People of Bhutan
Image: Pamos Nguntimo by Karma Jamtsho We’re happy to announce the Tribal Trust Foundation (TTF) has successfully funded a grassroots cultural revitalization and research initiative for the Monpa, a tribe of Indigenous hunter gatherers who live in the Black Forest, a remote area in Central Bhutan. The Monpa community is rich in culture and they recognize “it is on the verge of disappearing”. This funding will empower the … Read More
Monpa Medicinal Plants: Indigenous Knowledge From A Himalayan Healer
Inspired by her time in Bhutan with the Monpa people and with teachings from wisdom Elder Ap Tawla, professor Dawn A. Murray wrote the book Monpa Medicinal Plants: Indigenous Knowledge From A Himalayan Healer, a book about the Monpas and their intimate relationships with the plants, the land, and cultural practices. Murray’s book illuminates the Himalayan medicinal plants that the … Read More
Getting to Know the Monpa People of Bhutan
Within Bhutan, a small Kingdom in the Himalayas, hidden away in the deep forest and high mountains, live the Monpa, the indigenous people considered the country’s first inhabitants. The Monpa asked the Tribal Trust Foundation (TTF) to help them preserve their ancient culture, which is based on living in harmony with nature and each other. In 2014, we were the … Read More