Kristopher Kohl Miner (Ho-Chunk Nation)
FNCI Program Director
Kristopher Kohl Miner (Ho-Chunk Nation) comes to us with a wealth of resource development experience (more than 15 years). He has worked alongside Mark Murphy (current Executive Director of Disney Hall’s Red Cat Theater) as Director of Development for Seattle’s ON THE BOARD’S, the Pacific Northwest’s premier performance space. Kohl has also served as Director of Development for the PAWS (Progressive Animal Welfare Society) and SAFEHOUSE, a program that provides housing to homeless individuals living with HIV/AIDS. He cut his fund development teeth working with such phenomenal organizations as AIDS Project Los Angeles, Covenant House California, Changing Spirits and the American Indian Healing Center.
Kohl is also a playwright & performer He has performed with The New York City Hysterical Society, In the Heart of the Beast, The Ark Improv, The Blood & Milk Poets and American Indians in the Arts. His solo work includes; "Christopher Explained", "Native Fruit", “Left at Life,” "Heartflight Kohl Miner OR How my heart was hijacked by a handsome terrorist. This is my story.", "Dreams of Cheerleading", The Trip" and "The Semi-Conscious Memoirs of a Negligent Native" He has performed at Highways (Los Angeles), On The Boards (Seattle), Bumbershoot Wild Stage (Seattle), Alice B. Theater (Seattle), Josie’s Cabaret & Juice Joint (San Francisco), “In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theater” (Mpls.), The Walker Art Center (Mpls.), Southern Theater (Mpls.), Red Eye Collaboration (Mpls.), ABC No Rio (NYC) and others. While attending U.W.-Madison (BA Theater) Kohl was a member of the ARK Improv, (a student comedy troupe with alums Joan Cusack and Jimmy Doyle).
Jewell Arcoren (Sisseton/Sicangu)
FNCI Program Coordinator
Jewell is an enrolled member of the Sissteon Wahpeton Sioux Tribe and comes to FNCI with a background in the arts and a passion for American Indian people. Jewell loves to assist in setting up programs and see them develop to their full potential. Most recently she has set in place a youth program for Dream of Wild Health, an Indigenous Farm program that works with inner city American Indian youth. Jewell has also been instrumental in setting up two women’s groups; the Dakota Women’s Society and Dream of Wild Health Women’s Cooperative. Both of these groups are vibrantly alive and functioning well among the local Native community. Jewell also provides presentations on traditional Indigenous foods in correlation with health and wellness for American Indian people and diabetes prevention. She loves to research, collect and cook old/new traditional recipes. Jewell’s passion and interest in revitalizing Dakota quillwork designs led her to develop and coordinate a four part series of quillwork at Intermedia Arts of Minnesota designed to reach and teach urban Dakota men, women and children the importance of quillwork. She has also coordinated a four part series of presentations at Fort Snelling, Minnesota with Allies: media art, sponsored by the Minnesota Historical Society. The series, created for Metro area Dakota people, offered information and experience in Dakota cultural history and art, including quillwork. Jewell has been a video producer, associate producer and has helped produce Dakota contemporary media. She has served as an associate curator with Two Rivers Gallery. In her spare time she quills and researches Dakota quillwork designs. Presently, Jewell is pursuing her BA at a local Twin Cities college. She is a mother of three and grandmother of four.