CENTS Ambassador Aiyana Smith

Aiyana Smith, member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and proud mother of three, is a licensed clinical social worker and descendant of a long line of tribal governmental leadership and tradition bearers.  For the past 15 years, she has promoted the health and wellness of Native American People through culturally informed practices.  Growing up on the Shinnecock Reservation, she was surrounded by the teachings of tribal elders where, she learned about traditional family values, connectedness to the environment, genealogy, material culture, and the journeys of life.  Her parents were sure to expand her experience beyond the isolated boundaries of the Reservation by spending summers travelling throughout the mountains, prairies, and deserts of the United States and Canada, giving her a greater awareness and appreciation for diverse cultures.  This foundation combined with higher education and spiritual development are the greatest factors contributing to her success in social change movements.  Her story includes thriving after being raised in a community with high rates of poverty and substance abuse, and after experiencing abuse and mental health challenges during early college years.   A former Tribal Council Women, Aiyana has assisted with facilitating social change in the Shinnecock Indian Nation including leading a government reform process that resulted in the Nation’s first written and ratified Constitution, policies, and procedures.  The movement included capturing the oral and historical culture and thought processes of the Shinnecock People, documenting them, navigating through disputes, and ultimately bringing these documents to vote. As the Nation’s first Tribal Administrator, she set the stage for implementation of this new framework.  Aiyana’s passion is to create a “healing forest” or community of wholeness and well-being based in richness of tribal culture. Aiyana is the founder and director of Blossom Sustainable Development and Blossom Counseling Services that serve to promote the health and well being of both indigenous and non indigenous people who are experiencing trauma and anxiety through the practice of ecotherapy.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation is one of the oldest self-governing tribe in the State of New York and was formally recognized by the United States federal government as the 565th federally recognized tribe on October 1, 2010.  Historically, the language of the Shinnecock people is an eastern Algonquian dialect and they have owned and occupied their aboriginal homelands in and around the Town of Southampton on the eastern end of Long Island from time immemorial.  In their Algonquian language, the Shinnecock name roughly translates into English as "people of the stony shore.” Learn more about The Shinnecock Indian Nation

Activities and Events

Shinnecock Culture and Art

Jeremy Dennis (b. 1990) is a contemporary fine art photographer and a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY. In his work, he explores indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation. Learn More

The Niamuck Land Foundation, Inc. (NLF), comprised solely of enrolled members of the Shinnecock Nation, is committed to working to protect, preserve and purchase burial sites, and other culturally significant sites sacred to the Shinnecock Nation and their (our) neighboring indigenous communities. With a strong base on cultural education of and for the Shinnecock community, NLT was founded as an entity with the ability to raise funds and other resources to facilitate land acquisitions and continued stewardship of these sites as they are acquired for preservation, ceremonial, and educational purposes. Learn More