Rising Hearts Brings Awareness to the Lands and Lives of Indigenous Peoples

Building Community

Rising Hearts is an Indigenous-led grassroots organization founded in January 2017 by Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone. Jordan created the organization because of the lack of Indigenous representation around community organizing in Washington, D.C. for Standing Rock, home to the Lakota and Dakota nations, and the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This year, Rising Hearts marched in the Parade of Nations during the TCS New York City Marathon Opening Ceremony Presented by United Airlines the Friday before the marathon. Jordan was also a member of the first-ever NYRR Team for Climate, a group of runners showcasing their commitment to protecting the environment, and spoke about climate justice, Indigenous lands, and conservation on a Team for Climate panel at the TCS New York City Marathon Expo Presented by New Balance. 

“I want Rising Hearts to embody the way of being and outlook I was raised with ‘Mitakuye Oyasin’—we are all related. Meaning, we are equal, we are no better than, and we care for all living things,” said Jordan.

The organization also helped co-lead the 2017 People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. where they brought over 200,000 people to march. They also built a campaign called Go Redhawks to put pressure on the Washington football team to change the name.

“This was an opportunity to create the space for Indigenous voices while fostering intersectional collaborations,” she said.

In 2020, after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, Rising Hearts went from only centering on Indigenous voices and causes to creating more intersectional pathways within their work and community building.

“We do our best to uplift as many voices as we can and create opportunities to bring us together as athletes and a community. To learn from each other and grow forward together. To live in kinship with the lands and with each other,” she said.

Rising Hearts is partnering with New York Road Runners to work on future initiatives to continue building community throughout the running space. Jordan said they’re excited to collaborate and engage with NYRR to learn more about the “heart work we each do.”

Running on Native Lands

“So much of who we are as Indigenous Peoples, is connected with the lands. And this led to the Running on Native Lands initiative,” Jordan said.

Running on Native Lands is a Rising Hearts program that aims to make land acknowledgements at trail and road race events a common and inclusive practice and encourages those who become a partner to go the extra mile by giving back to the communities which the land is borrowed from.

As a runner, Jordan has wanted the lands and communities to be acknowledged, recognized, and celebrated at the races she’s run.

“[This] helps to re-educate non-Indigenous Peoples [to] who we are and to leave stereotypes and racism out of the minds…and see us as thriving Indigenous Peoples.”

Running on Native Lands is partnering with approximately a dozen brands, companies, and organizations to implement land acknowledgments, a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as traditional/original stewards of the land, and land blessings, an opportunity to reconnect with the land and to show respect for the land. And to also bring in more Indigenous voices as part of their races and events.

Jordan ran the TCS New York City Marathon along with Rising Hearts’ runners Kali Reis (Seaconke Wampanoag, Cape Verdean), Yatika Starr Fields (Osage, Cherokee, Muscogee), and Goldstein Little Eagle (Northern Cheyenne). The group ran to raise awareness for MMIWP (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & People) while also raising funds for the Rising Hearts’ You Are Loved Community Grant Program in kinship with the Urban Indigenous Collective in NYC.

Leading up to race day, Jordan said, “I'm excited to run with purpose and with intention to continue bringing visibility for missing and murdered loved ones, their families, and communities. As a mother to a 2.5-year-old and 9-month-old twin girls, [this] brings more purpose and meaning to why I run.”