Gary and Mary Ann C. are an amazing couple living in North Carolina who during their lifetime together have turned their concern for Native Americans into a shared passion. Both have Cherokee heritage and Gary was fortunate to know his Cherokee great grandmother.

After visiting several reservations during a trip through the Southwest they were upset to the point of anger at the “third world conditions” they saw. Gary witnessed these same conditions in many countries during his 24 years of military service.

They turned this anger into providing support to many of NRC’s Native American services that help to fight these conditions. And being especially concerned after they have gone about future support for Native youth and the future of education, they have chosen to become Heritage Circle members by leaving a bequest to our scholarship service in their Wills.

Virginia E. is a remarkable woman. A friend of NRC for over eleven years she has supported many of our education, food, and gardens services. But she has a place in her heart to help support dialysis centers on the reservations we serve.

In the late 1960’s her husband Frank was in kidney failure and needed dialysis treatment. Virginia was the one who actually dialyzed him in their home in San Francisco using an automatic home hemodialysis machine. Even with training this was a nerve wracking process that she did for almost two years until Frank was well enough to receive a kidney transplant.

Frank passed away in 2000. Remarkably that was when Virginia first learned how NRC supports several dialysis centers on Indian reservations.

Virginia chose to honor her husband’s memory through becoming a Heritage Circle member by designating in her Will a memorial bequest that will be used to provide assistance to dialysis centers caring for Native Americans with diabetes and kidney disease.

Woody T. was one of our very first Heritage Circle members.

Over 13 years ago he told us that he wanted to honor the memory of his beloved mother who had at times in her life had faced many of the same prejudices and hardships still faced by Native Americans today. She was proud of her mixed heritage of Cherokee, Chickasaw and Melungeon but it made her a target for abuse and discrimination during her lifetime that sometimes meant her family would go hungry.

Woody has supported many of our services during his relationship with NRC so that Native American people will not have to be cold, or hungry, or be denied an education.

To honor his mother’s memory he has taken out a Life Insurance policy leaving NRC’s Program services as a co-beneficiary.

Wayne T., ever since his childhood, has always been moved by the dignity and gentle kindness of the Native American people he has met despite the conditions of poverty many live in.

Over the years he expressed his admiration of these people through his extraordinary artwork. During his avid study of Native American history he discovered the book Black Elk Speaks. It had a profound effect on his life and “gave me peace of mind and was the inspiration for much of my artwork.”

After he retired in Virginia, Wayne wanted to do more to help Native people and contacted NRC. He not only very generously supports many of our services he has also become a Heritage Circle member by including NRC in his Will.

Joshua Tompkins is not only a Heritage Circle member he is NRC’s Chairman of the Board.

He is enormously proud of his Native American heritage and of his loving Lakota mother and grandmother who have taught him so much about love, family and his Creator.

He believes NRC is unique in Indian Country because of its model of partnership, empowerment and capacity building.

As a Native American, he understands that people just want the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. He feels blessed to have been able to follow his dreams. Since becoming a Heritage Circle member by including NRC in his Will, he has ensured that his spirit and passion will live on.

“We are thankful for what we are given,” he says, “but we are remembered for what we give back.”

Bruce and Elizabeth R. shared many interests during their more than 30 years of married life but none so keenly felt as their admiration and respect for the Native American people.

Bruce related to NRC that he has always felt that the dignity and character shown by Native Americans despite their early treatment during the colonization of the new world, wrought with broken promises and untold cruelty, make both him and Betty contribute to their cause.

They both agree that helping Native American youth with education is instrumental in giving them the tools as adults to alleviate some of the injustices of the past and hardships of today.

Several years ago they became Heritage Circle members by including NRC’s Scholarship service in their Will. They feel “it makes it so easy to support something if you really believe in it.”

When Kathryn S., a talented New York designer, wanted to look into her family history she made a discovery that greatly disturbed her. She learned that a distant relation, General Winfield Scott, was one of the many in the U.S. Army who forced American Indians from their homes and land following President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Having grown up with a profound respect for Native Americans she felt dismayed by her own ignorance of her ancestor’s role in the “Trail of Tears.” She began to read everything about Native American history “and to understand the current Native American situation.” Once again she was shocked to learn about chronic poverty, hunger, health problems, and lack of educational opportunities that are largely unknown to Americans, but which face Native Americans on a daily basis.

Today Kathryn supports many Native American causes through her donations to NRC’s programs. And because she has a particular passion for education she became a Heritage Circle member by designated in her Will a bequest to NRC’s education services.