.png)
Q&A with Patricia Tarrant on Indigenous Community Care in NYC
- Alexandria Cruz
- 10 hours ago
- 8 min read
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GSC’s Intertribal Pantry Program Joins American Indian Community Houses New 9,500-Sq.-Ft. Community Space
[New York, NY — May 5th, 2026] — GSC is proud to announce that its Intertribal Pantry program has a new home at the American Indian Community House (AICH) as they prepare their new, expanded community hub. The new space will be nearly 9,500 square feet, a major leap from its previous location that offers an exciting opportunity to expand their programming and launch new partnerships like ours. A 2023 Urban Omnibus profile of AICH describes how for over five decades, it has been forced to move repeatedly due to unreliable public support and the pressures of New York’s commercial real estate market. The official opening of their new space on May 9th marks a rare chance to rebuild and renew what constant relocation has interrupted.
Pantry work isn’t new at AICH and as their Executive Director, Patricia Tarrant explains, this is actually a return to its roots. To celebrate this new chapter, we sat down for an interview with Patricia to look back and honor the work of her late mother, Victoria Yellow-Wolf Tarrant, whose work helped shape AICH’s food banking efforts, and to look ahead to where AICH is headed now.
Honoring a Legacy of Indigenous Mutual Aid in NYC
“She saw the humanity in everybody and [understood that] you shouldn’t be ashamed of coming to the food bank or needing that resource. It was something we had and I think she took it more personally than a lot of people… She would stay extra hours or would go after work to someone's house to drop off food and, she would even do hospital visits”
While AICH was established in 1969, Victoria’s community work began during her tenure in the Health & Wellness Department, where she aimed to address the disproportionate rates of addiction, homelessness, hunger, diabetes, and other health inequalities impacting the urban Native population here in New York City. NYC is home to the largest urban Native population in the United States, roughly 180,000 people, and AICH has long served as an urban sanctuary for Indigenous communities across the five boroughs and beyond. In our interview, Patricia began by recalling how her mother, serving as a Community Health Representative (CHR), helped run AICH’s food and clothing bank that operated twice weekly and, for Victoria, how that work often moved beyond the walls of AICH:
“She did a lot of home visits… she would go to people’s houses… she would go to the park if there were homeless people she knew… she would bring food to them… they'd be like ‘You can't do that Victoria you know you're going to get in trouble!’ and she's like ‘well you know they need help too’”
And it was through this dedicated labor that AICH expanded their support, including organizing a monthly elders’ gathering that honored elder survival at a time when Native life expectancy was far too low: “Once a month they held an elders luncheon. It was called the 49ers luncheon because the life expectancy at that time was only 49.” Even today, the life expectancy of Native Americans in the US is “lowest among all racial and ethnic groups” according to a 2023 study by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, at an age of 73.5 for females and 66.7 for males. Patricia recalls how her mother understood these issues were systemic, linking them to her own childhood hardships, and her emphasis on treating others with respect both in her work and how she instilled this understanding into how she raised Patricia and her siblings.
“I think she wanted to pass on generosity, and you know she came from nothing, they didn't have electricity, they didn't have running water in the house and so passing that on to the next generation; you know you have to be humble, and you have to respect where you come from. That was a big thing growing up, remembering where we came from.”
And just as importantly, both Patricia and Victoria’s approach to community work insists on dignity, “At the end of the day you’re just a human being and you know anybody can fall through the cracks or anything can happen,” she explains, as she recalls how the food bank, alongside a clothing bank, interview prep and basic needs support programs were offered for free to the public, and how it was shaped by partnership funding on the belief that mutual aid was a gift. “It wasn’t just natives. It was open to anybody,” Patricia continues, explaining how organizations like United Way and Trader Joe’s were primary supporters in the early 2000’s and allowed AICH to widen their scope.
A legacy built on dignity and community focus
Patricia is continuing her mothers legacy in her role as Executive Director at AICH, and believes this is a return to something she has been carrying since childhood, “My daughter has a lot to do with it… I think just having a space for her and the next generation to get along. I want her to have a place cuz you know, I joined the youth council when I was 11,” she recalls, describing how she would go to youth council meetings weekly with her siblings, and working there weekends and after school starting at 14. She remembered how being in that space meant being seen as Indigenous in a way that didn’t require explanation, defense, or performance. These memories inform the work she is doing now, especially the support of the new youth council as a staple at AICH and her desire to step into the role of Auntie for the kids by providing a space where you can exhale, where you are recognized, where you were not being made fun of, or treated as a curiosity, or asked to shrink the parts of yourself that are sacred, adding that her daughter now goes to the youth council meetings as well, moving through that same doorway into community.
Patricia’s path back to AICH as an adult was met with initial hesitation, not due to fear but from lived knowledge of the stakes at hand and the dedication it required. This isn’t even her first rodeo, having worked at AICH after high school full-time from 2006-2017. She describes how it felt to be asked to return after her parents' passing in 2020: “In 2021, they asked me if I wanted to be a consultant at AICH,” and as responsibilities grew and leadership shifted, the organization began to move toward its next era. It was during this period of change where she was encouraged by her mentor Ben Geboe (Benji) to step into greater leadership, “he asked me if I wanted the position,” and she answered honestly, “I don’t think I’m ready for it,” but AICH had been a huge part of her life from childhood, recalling her familial legacy and she realized she could make a real difference by saying yes. Through Benji’s support as co-director, she knew she was ready to take the helm.
Under Patricia’s leadership, the current work at AICH is grounded in the memories of how it started and orienting toward what the next generation deserves, she speaks openly about retrieving what was lost or forgotten, “We used to have a gift shop and a gallery, and we used to have the food bank and I want to try to bring some of those aspects back,” while also recognizing that today’s success in the world of culturally rooted programming is rooted in intentional collaboration, and most importantly, creating spaces for our youth with programs dedicated to their development, that same mission that shaped the lives of her and her family. “I am from this community, I was born and raised here, and I know what it is like to be an urban native out here,” and that lived experience has guided AICH to where it is today, expanding into a new, large space where these dreams remembered can once again be a reality. For decades, AICH has also been a haven and launch pad for Native artists and performers, helping make space for Indigenous cultural work in the city even when the organization itself was being displaced. From their new center located at 234 West 39th Street, to the new land they recently acquired in upstate near Ithaca, New York, the future is bright at AICH.
This is also why GSC’s Intertribal Pantry program finding a home inside AICH’s new space feels kismet; as another grassroots organization, we were touched by both Patricia and Victoria’s journeys. We see this as a continuation of what Victoria Yellow-Wolf Tarrant built with her hands and her heart, and what Patricia is now rebuilding with the intention and humility, and with a vision that is wide enough to include everyone who needs to be held by community. As GSC founder Brooke Rodriguez puts it, “We’re bringing it back full circle. I know it's through a partnership this time, but it's kind of bringing back, it's like going full circle and mending things,” to which Patricia responded:
“I think that's the exciting part of our new space is that, you know, it's not something we have to do like check a box [instead] we're doing a survey for what people want for this bigger community space. And even with the land upstate, we're going to be sending out a land survey of what people think we could do with the land or what they want to see. And we'll be reaching out to like people in Ithaca and other organizations up there to see what we can do, like what would be helpful for them?”
As this next chapter begins, Patricia aims to make AICH a place people can return to any time, especially after several years of operating seasonally on Governors Island, where AICH continued cultural programming but faced limits for day-to-day services, “One of the things I want to start back up is being a drop in center,” she explains, “I think that’s the biggest thing is being a drop in center again, being more open to everybody.” She also reminds us all what sustains this kind of community care over time, “It’s the small donors that make the biggest impact because they continuously give,” and that belief is what has kept the doors open all these years across various homes.
GSC is honored to support this return as a partner committed to the kind of care AICH has always fought to make possible, especially the continuation of practical food support that is offered with the dignity Victoria Yellow-Wolf instilled in its inception, and how Patricia’s vision for renewal has been shaped by what the community asks for, and what it deserves. We congratulate Patricia Tarrant for carrying this legacy from her youth council days to leadership, and we look forward to building alongside AICH as we celebrate the official opening of the new space with an open house on May 9. Details to RSVP are below, we hope to see you there!
ABOUT AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY HOUSE
The American Indian Community House (AICH) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization serving the needs of all Native Americans and Indigenous people residing in New York City. AICH was founded in 1969, by Native American volunteers as a community-based organization, mandated to improve the wellbeing of urban Natives, and to foster inter-cultural understanding.
ABOUT GSC
Grinding Stone Collective Inc. is a grassroots 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to revitalizing traditional foodways and ecological knowledge through community-driven education, mutual aid, and land stewardship programs. We strengthen Indigenous Food Sovereignty by reconnecting urban and rural Native people to ancestral food systems, land-based practices, and one another. We strive to create new opportunities for Indigenous people to share their stories, values, and history with the larger inter-tribal community and allies.
MEDIA CONTACT
Alexandria Cruz
Program Communications Manager
Grinding Stone Collective
Info[@]gscollective.org
—###—
Comments