First Foods

Tipai (Kumeyaay) people, including the Kwaaymii Band, have long used places like Mine Wash and Little Blair Valley as seasonal food landscapes, where community labor turned desert harvests into daily nourishment. Bedrock mortars and grinding slicks are not just “features,” they are work marks: repeated pounding, repeated grinding, repeated meals made possible through skill and time.

This is living cultural heritage, and you visit sites like these, treat them responsibly: stay on the trail, leave everything as you found it, and never remove artifacts. Looting does permanent harm, and once a site is disturbed, that knowledge cannot be put back.

The grinding stone echoes through eternity.

Today is Native Nonprofit Day, a national giving initiative focused on increasing support for Native-led organizations. At Grinding Stone Collective, we know that Native-led work requires more than project-based funding. It takes flexible support for the everyday needs that keep programs moving: staff time, planning, administration, transportation, supplies, outreach, and the unseen labor behind community care.

When you give to GSC, you help us continue our work in Indigenous food sovereignty, Native food access, education, stewardship, and support for Indigenous producers.

Your donation helps Native-led work grow, not just for one event or one program, but for the long-term infrastructure our communities deserve.

Support GSC today:
https://bit.ly/givenativegsc

Thank you to for amplifying work like ours!

See you soon @ Silberman School of Social Work: 2180 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10035