INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TASK FORCE is a Native American provider of HIV education and direct services to the Native community in Minnesota. For over 26 years, IPTF has developed and implemented culturally appropriate programs to prevent further transmission of HIV, increase access to traditional and western medical services, and improve the quality of life for clients, families, and communities.
This will be the new home of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force (IPTF). It will be built on the property adjacent to the current home of IPTF and Manidoowahdak Odena Housing Complex at 1335 East 23rd Street.
This will not just be a building created of bricks and mortar. This will be a building built from dreams and inspiration.
Over ten years ago, during a visioning session, the Board and Staff of IPTF drew up the designs for a building that would house our bodies and nurture our belief that we are the caretakers of this hemisphere. As caretakers, we need to take care of the land and the environment.
This new building will be made of compressed earth blocks, it will host an array of solar panels and be heated and cooled by the sun via a geo thermal system.
It will host a theater space for the Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble, one of the oldest ongoing Native theaters in the United States.
It will host a healing room, where people can be joined in quiet meditation, and it will host clinical space for our work with individuals.
This new space will have a commercial kitchen where we will feed people a good breakfast and healthy lunch made from foods we grow in the gardens just outside our doors.
It will host an art lab where we can begin to teach our youth and adults traditional tribal carving, basketry, feather boxes and whatever they wish to learn. Our community center can be a place for visiting artists in residence and pottery!
If you wish to see the plans or donate go to Indigenouspeoplestf.org.
