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Organization

Tonatierra Community Development Institute

Tonatierra, a Phoenix nonprofit, says its mission is a Cultural Embassy of Indigenous Peoples and works on self-determination and the Doctrine of Discovery.

Kind
501(c)(3) nonprofit
Native-led
unverified
Works with
Indigenous peoples of Abya Yala / Turtle Island (Phoenix, AZ based)
Region
Southwest; AZ
Focus
Indigenous self-determination and environmental justice; work to supersede the Doctrine of Discovery; community cultural programs
Registry
EIN 86-0723874 (ProPublica: Tonatierra Community Development Institute, Phoenix AZ)

What happened

Tonatierra Community Development Institute is a Phoenix, Arizona nonprofit. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer lists it as a 501(c)(3) with exemption issued in June 1997. Its website says its mission is to create and sustain a Cultural Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples that will support local-global community development in education, culture and economic development, in accord with principles of community ecology and self-determination. It calls the embassy Nahuacalli.

Its History page says the families of Tonatierra develop decolonization strategies that support a movement for environmental justice and self-determination as Indigenous Peoples at local, regional, continental and global levels. The page pictures projects such as the Xinachtli youth cultural education project and events involving the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The home page describes a continental effort it calls Superseding the Doctrine of Discovery, tied to a 2013 conference at Arizona State University West and a Continental Commission Abya Yala. The site says it organizes community life through a Calpolli, a kinship system of extended families.

Its pages describe no land purchase, return or acreage, and name no current leaders.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.

  1. To create and sustain a Cultural Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples that will support local-global and holistic indigenous community development initiativesTonatierra
  2. The families of TONATIERRA are proactive in developing and implementing decolonization strategiesHistory - Tonatierra
  3. Superseding the Doctrine of DiscoveryTonatierra
  4. Phoenix, AZ Tax exemption issued: June 1997 EIN: 86-0723874ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Tonatierra Community Development Institute

Research notes. Native leadership was not verified: no leadership page was read. No land program is described. The donate page is on its own domain; payee not checked.

We have not verified this organization well enough to link to it. See our donation integrity policy.

Connections

These links were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.

Works in 1

Sources

No source is linked to this record yet. That is a gap we are working to close.

The record’s fields
Vetting notes
2026-10-17: ProPublica hit; own site read. Site describes Indigenous self-determination work but no leadership page was read to verify Native leadership. Donate page is on its own domain; payee not checked. Source: https://www.tonatierra.org/donate ("Support the work of Tonatierra and the Legacy of Tupac Enrique by making a donation.")
Kind
Organization
Confidence
Low

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