NAIITS announces Richard Twiss Education Fund for Indigenous students in U.S.

Richard Twiss didn’t set out to revolutionize higher education.

Richard, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate from the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, simply believed one could be authentically Indigenous and authentically follow the Jesus Way.

That’s the idea that has guided NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community since its founding in 1999. Richard, who walked on in 2013, was one of its co-founders.

On June 7, 2024, NAIITS sought to honour Richard’s contributions by announcing the Richard Twiss Education Fund alongside Richard’s wife, Katherine Twiss, during the 21st NAIITS symposium at Kairos University on the homeland of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate.

“This really is an honour — an outsized honour. It really is. It's like so many of the things that we got to do and touch and be a part of. You enter into it and hope this works out and then there are wonderful, outsized results,” Katherine said.

“So I'll be really looking forward to hearing who the first recipients are and their journey.”

The Richard Twiss Education Fund will help remove financial barriers for Indigenous students wishing to study with NAIITS in the United States with grants awarded by a committee of NAIITS Elders, board members and staff.

“This education fund will significantly help Indigenous peoples pursue the kind of pathway that Richard so graciously, effectively and humourously led us into,” said Terry LeBlanc, one of the co-founders of NAIITS and its director emeritus.

As he pursued his own theological degree, Richard experienced education as a space to expand his imagination and sharpen his thinking about what it could look like to be both Indigenous and a follower of the Jesus Way — even when church was a space that felt restrictive.

“We must genuinely appreciate all cultures as being capable of reflecting biblical faith. We must move away from ‘American Christian mythology,’ which undergirds colonialism and its resulting paternalism in Indigenous communities. We must embrace new theological perspectives emerging from Native leaders as being ‘equal,’” Richard wrote.

NAIITS Director Shari Russell added, “If Richard were here today, I would say, ‘NAIITS is not only equal, but in many ways leading the way.’ Oh, if he could see what has happened!”

Today, NAIITS is the only Indigenous designed, developed, delivered and governed graduate and postgraduate theological school in Canada, the United States and Australia that is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools.

“It keeps growing, and it's exciting to see that this will be able to provide support for Indigenous students and that impact will be profound,” Shari said. “We hope that this education fund not only honours Richard, but also his family.”

To apply or donate to the Richard Twiss Education Fund, click here.