Country music singer-songwriter Tyler Childers gave $500,000 from the proceeds of his 2024 Whitefish benefit concert to Blackfeet nonprofits, with the latest round of grant money distributed this summer. 

Childers donated $250,000 to 11 Blackfeet nonprofits last winter and $250,000 to 16 nonprofits during this round of grants, according to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which manages Childers’ Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund.  

FAST Blackfeet, Blackfeet Eco Knowledge, Ohkomi Forensics (which works on cases related to missing and murdered Indigenous people), Cuts Wood School (specializing in Blackfeet language preservation), Sukapi Lodge mental health center, Two Powers Land Collective, Browning Public School District No. 9, Blackfeet Museum Art Classes, Rodeo Club and youth sports organizations were among the 16 nonprofits to receive funds this summer.   

Most of those same nonprofits received grants in 2024, too. The difference is the addition of several new youth sports organizations in 2025. Funds were given to the Blackfeet Community College for scholarships last year as well.   

FAST Blackfeet received $120,000 from Childers this summer to further its goal of increasing food security and promoting food sovereignty for Blackfeet people.   

FAST Blackfeet, which stands for Food Access and Sustainability Team, is a Browning-based nonprofit that operates a busy food pantry, hosts cooking and nutrition classes and a household gardening initiative.   

Assistant Director Iris Sharp said it’s the second donation the organization has received from Childers. The first came after the singer’s benefit concert and relay race for the Blackfeet Nation last August, which was hosted at Big Mountain Ranch by Outriders Present. Sharp said they heard from Childers’ team a week before the show, who let them know they would be one of many Blackfeet nonprofits to receive a donation.   

Sharp said both last year’s donation and the most recent funds will go toward FAST Blackfeet’s general operations and planning for their future.   

The nonprofit used a portion of its 2024 donation to pay staff salaries and buy a new truck for its operations, which includes food deliveries for residents on the reservation.   

“Thanks to the generosity of partners like Tyler Childers, we can do more to serve our community,” Danielle Antelope, FAST Blackfeet’s executive director said in a statement.   

The new truck allowed FAST Blackfeet to reach the small outlying communities of Heart Butte, Babb and Seville in the winter months, when windy and snowy conditions make it difficult to deliver food with the organization’s cargo van.  

The truck is also used by the nutrition education team to carry cooking equipment, bulk ingredients and learning materials to partner sites like Blackfeet Community College and Browning High School. For its gardening program, the group used the truck to transport raised garden beds, starter plants and other supplies to program participants.  

“A truck might sound like a small thing, but it’s no exaggeration to say that it has made a difference for all our programs.” Antelope said.   

Sharp said there were no restrictions on the donation, aside from the purchase of a truck, which came at the request of FAST Blackfeet staff last year.   

There were also no restrictions on the most recent donation.  

“They trusted us to just use the money and funding where it's needed the most to make the biggest impact for our community,” Sharp said.   

It was at a recent barbecue held for Childers in Browning that FAST Blackfeet staff got to see the other nonprofits who received donations. The gathering was put together to show Childers where his money was going.   

“He has a sense of curiosity — you can tell he’s coming from a respectful place when he's asking us questions. He’s trying to learn not just about our programs, but our culture in general. So it's been really nice working with him,” Sharp said.   

Childers created his connection with the Blackfeet Nation during a hide tanning class, where he was partnered up with Shawn Old Chief. Sharp said Old Chief reached out to FAST Blackfeet this summer ahead of Under the Big Sky to let them know they would receive another donation from the country music star.   

“He gave to a handful of nonprofits last year, but this year there were way more programs benefitting,” she said.   

FAST Blackfeet’s research has found that more than two-thirds of people on the Blackfeet Nation experienced food insecurity at some point in the year. The nonprofit was founded in 2016 to support the return to traditional foods, providing educational resources for nutrition and creating sovereign and sustainable food systems.  

FAST Blackfeet has three comprehensive programs that aim to increase food security and sovereignty for tribal members. Its food pantry offers weekly food boxes through two distributions, using a client-choice or shopping model, which lets individuals select their own food items.   

The nonprofit focuses on providing culturally relevant foods for the Blackfeet people, which were systematically disconnected from their traditional food sources during colonization. Bison, native plants and traditional medicine are among the items FAST Blackfeet keeps stocked in their pantry, Sharp said.   

The nonprofit’s Nutrition Education Program offers monthly classes that cover essential topics like basic nutrition, shopping for healthy foods and traditional Indigenous foods. Sharp said many Blackfeet people want to reconnect with their traditional foods but aren’t sure how to best prepare them, so these classes provide important cultural knowledge.   

In addition to this, the Food Pharmacy Program is a produce prescription program that addresses chronic disease and food insecurity. The program makes healthy food more accessible and gives participants access to a registered dietician.  

Growing Health was launched in 2021 as the Growing Health Tea Project, a response to the challenges the Blackfeet community faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially focused on herbal tea production, the program has since expanded to create broader economic and well-being opportunities within the Blackfeet Nation    

The program provides participants with materials and training to grow, harvest and process herbal teas and vegetables.  

Last year, the organization distributed more than 390,000 pounds of food, hosted nearly 40 classes and supported 50 garden producers.  

To learn more about FAST Blackfeet, visit fastblackfeet.org/.  

Reporter Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].