RISING HEARTS - NYC MARATHON 2024

Stay tuned to this page for updates, tentative schedule of events and fundraising opportunities!

Rising Hearts is committed to helping the running and outdoor spaces a more safe, supportive, diverse, inclusive, accessible and equitable space, not just for Indigenous runners, but for everyone who enjoys movement and who wants to see themselves in these spaces!

That’s why, we are happy to announce our partnership with New York Road Runners (NYRR) - a journey and path we are excited to be on and 2 entries we are excited to have and train for! We are also grateful for our partnership with On Running, as a founding grantee partner of the Right To Run program, we are able to also include 2 entries to the New York City Marathon!

Stay tuned for more announcements, fundraisers and content via our newsletters, blogs and socials!

Kali KO Mequinonoag Reis (Seaconke Wampanoag, Cabo Verde)
Citizen of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, Kali is the first Indigenous Woman fighter to become a World Boxing Champion. First Recipient of the Rhode Island Community Hero Award. the North American Indigenous Athletic Hall of Fame in January 2022. She received the “Key to the City '' in her hometown city of East Providence Rhode Island in front of her friends and family. Reis is also the proud recipient of the “Misty Upham Award” which was presented at the 2022 Red Nation International Film Festivals tribute award ceremony. Kali has also attained 6 World Titles in 2 weight classes picking up the WBA IBO & WBO Super Lightweight World titles in 2021/2022; IBA UBF & WBC Middleweight titles 2015/2016. Kali’s win of the WBC Middleweight World Title made history as the first world title fought in New Zealand. Kali also made history when she participated in HBOs’ first ever Women’s televised bout in 2018.

In 2021 - Catch the Fair One; it was Kali’s acting debut, lead roll and writing credit. This film highlights one of Kali’s causes. The film highlights the MMIW epidemic & earned a Special Jury Mention award at the Tribeca film festival. In March that same year an Indie Film Spirit Award nominee for Best Female Lead Actress was announced for Reis’ performance. Kali also won the Best Actress award at the Newport Beach Film Festival 2021 for the film. The film released February 2022 & Reis was nominated for Breakthrough Performer at the 2022 Gotham awards. Kali is building a career as an actor including a part in ‘Asphalt City’ that premiered March 29 2024 as well as the film ‘Mercy’ with Chris Pratt & Rebecca Ferguson which is currently in post production.

Living up to her given name Mequinonoag [Many Feathers/Many Talents], Kali is a certified Motorcycle/Small Engines Technician and has worked as a Residential Counselor since 2009. She has found healing in sharing her story & mentoring troubled youth with a relatable approach, as well as traveling to speak with and support various communities in hopes of being a positive example to “Never throw in the towel no matter what punches life throws at you”. 

“Many Feathers” Kali Reis aspires to continue finding ways to give a “voice to the voiceless”; whether it be fighting inside or outside of the ring or even in front of a camera telling OUR STORIES. She won’t “stop until that bell rings”!  

Kali was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work in True Detective with the ceremony premiering live September 15, 2024. Kali is representing her community powerfully!

Goldstein Little Eagle (North Cheyenne)
Hotohke Naheševehe! (Translation: Star is my name)

My name is Goldstein Little Eagle. Running friends call me G. I am Northern Cheyenne from Billings, MT. I run defending Native culture. I run Marathons and Ultra-Marathons. Maheo told me to run. Member of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

Goldstein Little Eagle is a Recovery Coach (Certified Behavioral Health Peer Support Specialist) from Billings, MT. He is the president of Food For The Soul – a grassroots organization that opens up a free lunch for the people of Billings once a week with the goal of checking on people, encouraging connection, and making outreach an important weekly event. He facilitates several support groups, such as wellbriety talking circles, grief support talking circles and codependency talking circles. He facilitates a weekly bootcamp class to help promote healthy living. He offers parenting classes, suicide safe care training and Naloxone education training. He is the Montana Naloxone Program Coordinator for one of the 6 regions in Montana and serves in the harm-reduction movement. Goldstein believes in People Medicine that can help others find their healing journey. Under his own acronym for his support groups: MAGPIES (Mindful Aspiring Grounded People Intentionally Embracing Serenity), he believes that people truly are the purist form of medicine. He has found his own People Medicine though the running communities as he began to run Full Marathons and Ultra-Marathons. He believes it has helped him through his own healing journeys and has shared some of that in his own TEDx talk. Goldstein founded Run DNC which stands for Run Defending Native Culture, a group open to all runners that run and pray in honor of defending our Native Culture by running with awareness against diabetes, heart disease, substance abuse, family abuse, missing & murdered Indigenous people. Goldstein runs with purpose.

Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone (Sičangu Lakota)
Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, is a fourth generation runner, athlete advocate, community organizer, project manager, filmmaker, founder of Rising Hearts and a mom to a 2.5 year old and 8 month old twin girls.

Since the 2019 Boston Marathon, she uses her platform - #RunningForJustice, to help raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives by dedicating the miles she runs to a missing or murdered Indigenous person - their families, survivors and advocates WHILE CONTINUOUSLY AND PASSIONATELY FUNDRAISING TO GIVE BACK TO THE HEART WORK THE FAMILIES, ADVOCATES AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE CONSTANTLY DOING.

Jordan is committed to helping make the running and community spaces a more equitable, safe, visible, supportive, diverse, inclusive, affordable and accessible place for people today and the next generations through storytelling, Rising Hearts Race organizing, Running with Purpose Athlete Advocate program and Running On Native Lands programs.

Yatika Starr Fields
Yatika Starr Fields is an artist and athlete with emphasis on studio painting and running. He is from Tulsa, Oklahoma and a member of the Osage, Cherokee and Mvskoke Nations. He attended the Art Institute of Boston and then NYC for a decade on the East Coast.

Currently living and working in Tulsa as a full-time time artist and athlete. His artistic and athletic endeavors have taken him around the world, working with institutions and Museums in a continuous dialogue to help broaden the views of Contemporary Native art today as well at running mountain races from the European Alps to the Colorado Rockies. After graduating High School in Stillwater, OK he studied landscape painting in Italy under mentorship guidance, this plein air painting practice has continued since that time and regularly informs his studio practice, keeping him aligned with the natural qualities outside the studio. He attended the Art Institute of Boston and then NYC for a decade on the East Coast.

Want to Help Us Get There?
If you’d like to help support our efforts financially, consider making a taxable donation to Rising Hearts that we can allocate towards this opportunity.

RUNNING FOR JUSTICE FUNDRAISER

The You Are Loved Community Grant Program:
The You Are Loved Community Grant program was created to help provide the financial resources to the families and communities within the MMIR space that need support in fighting for justice, accountability, healing, and a safer future.

This community grant program is a direct services pathway for families, advocates and organizations to submit your request for on a rolling basis. We hope to raise the $100,000 + to get this program started, with a long term goal of sustaining this resource for community and outside agencies to continue to donate to or fundraise for.

Jordan, will also be running the California International Marathon, December 8th, and will continue to fundraise for the You Are Loved Community Grant Program! Rising Hearts will be partnering in kinship with the Urban Indigenous Collective and. support their MMIP Taskforce. UIC is located on Lenapehoking lands and it’s important for Rising Hearts to collaborate in meaningful ways with groups local and with a close connection to MMIP Advocates and Families in the surrounding areas. If the $100k is raised or more, Rising Hearts will plan to allocate $20k of funds directly to support the needs the MMIP Taskforce and those they work with and support.

Applications will go live December 15, 2024 on a rolling basis, need basis and urgency basis:
+ Examples of Need Basis: mental health and wellness costs / access, printing costs, banners, shirts for awareness / memorials, direct assistance for family / families, impact campaign / storytelling that will directly uplift and support loved one / families
+ Examples of Urgency Basis: Funeral costs, vigils, search and rescue, DNA testing to expedite progress in loved ones case, MMIR based conference / Federal listening session

How To Learn More + Donate:
To donate, you can start now! Visit www.risinghearts.org/nomorestolenrelatives and you’ll find more information about the You Are Loved Community Grant Program and starting October 15, 2024, you’ll have access to Jordan’s and Kali’s RUNNING FOR JUSTICE page for the 2024 TCS NYC Marathon to learn more about who they are running for, their why, resources to learn from and more.

Stay Up To Date:
Subscribe to the Rising Hearts newsletter - www.risinghearts.org or visit our blog www.risinghearts.org/blog for updates about fundraising, follow us at @rising_hearts on IG | @nativein_la | @kali_ko_reis

Urban Indigenous Collective (UIC):
UIC supports access to culturally-tailored health and wellness services for self-identified Indigenous peoples in Lenapehoking and the greater NYC area (NY, NJ, CT, PA) through community-based participatory research, advocacy, community programming, and direct services.

MMIP Taskforce:
Urban Indigenous Collective (UIC) has gathered a MMIWGT2S Task Force,  "Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force" a collaborative and community-driven initiative made up of survivors, relatives of MMIP (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People), matriarchs, clan mothers, and elders, the Task Force draws its members from Tribal Nations spanning the tri-state area and its surrounding regions.  Advising UIC's MMIWGT2S NYC+ program, this Task Force was assembled with the purpose of advocating for victims and survivors, providing peer support to movement leaders who are survivors, and creating a platform for survivor voices, so that the world can learn directly from survivors and relatives of MMIP’s.

Glossary:
MMIR = Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives
MMIP = Missing and Murdered Indigenous People