Manitou Summit
An Indigenous-led Fellowship, a Network, a Platform for Youth-Led Action.
Launching in Boulder, Colorado in October 2026, Manitou is an Indigenous-governed youth fellowship and relational network that connects emerging leaders across Nations, generations, and homelands.
Jane’s Message to Us
Dr. Goodall has “met extraordinary young Indigenous leaders. They're actually in the front lines as defenders of our planet. They protect forests, waters and ways of life that sustain all of us. These young people carry ancestral knowledge. Knowledge about balance, resilience, and reverence for nature. Things that the world urgently needs today. But too often their voices are ignored. Their work is underfunded. And this is just when we need it most. Our planet is in danger.”
-Dr. Jane Goodall
A Vision Ready to Launch
Manitou began with a shared vision between Dr. Jane Goodall and Jeremy Gregory of Tindakan: to support Indigenous youth leadership through story, stewardship, and action.
Inspired by Jane’s work with Indigenous youth through Roots & Shoots, Manitou is designed to help the next generation protect land, water, culture, and biodiversity.
Now the vision is ready to launch.
Why Manitou Exists
Indigenous youth are inheriting a world shaped by profound disconnection. They also inherit living knowledge, cultural memory, and responsibilities capable of guiding another future.
Social Challenges
Environmental Challenges
Cultural Challenges
These are inextricably linked and require nuanced solutions.
Manitou exists to connect Indigenous youth to the knowledge, relationships, and imagination they carry, so they can create futures rooted in belonging, responsibility, and possibility.
The Manitou Platform
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Leadship Lab
Supports youth leadership through mentorship, stewardship, and braided-science learning.
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Cultural Festival
Music, Ceremony, and Celebration that builds trust, cultural grounding, visibility, and partner alignment.
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Project Incubator
Incubating Youth-Led Solutions
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Online Community
Maintains continuity, coordination, data sovereignty, and protected storytelling.
The fellowship begins with Keystone Species restoration as a living classroom—bringing young people into relationship with the ecological, cultural, political, and spiritual dimensions of buffalo return.
Fellows then work together to create stories, ideas, and projects that advance the futures they want for their communities and homelands.
Why Now?