Four Winds American Indian Council

Four Winds American Indian Council serves the Denver, CO community as a comprehensive resource center dedicated to Indigenous empowerment and self-determination. Operating from a transformed church and parsonage in the original territories of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute Nations, Four Winds provides essential community support, political education, grassroots organizing, and advocacy services for Native Americans navigating urban life. The organization addresses the documented reality that nearly 70% of Native people have been displaced from their traditional territories and now reside in urban areas like Denver, often facing significant socio-economic challenges.

Four Winds offers multiple specialized programs designed to meet both cultural and physical needs of the Indigenous community. The Indigenous Permaculture Garden Project advances sustainable food security and cultural practices, while the Homeless Survival Program provides critical assistance to vulnerable community members. Additionally, Four Winds maintains the only free-of-charge community space in Denver available to Indigenous members for memorials, funerals, and wakes—a unique service reflecting the organization's commitment to honoring Native traditions and ceremonies.

Since its founding in the 1980s, Four Winds has functioned as what the organization calls a "liberated zone"—a facility where Indigenous peoples can freely engage in language preservation, ceremonial practices, strategic organizing, and community rebuilding without compromise. The organization's work is grounded in the Seventh Generation Principle, ensuring that all decisions consider impacts on future generations. Four Winds collaborates extensively with Native organizations, progressive non-Native organizations, and educational institutions throughout Denver and Colorado to advance the physical, spiritual, political, community, economic, and social liberation of all Indigenous Peoples.