Anthony Tamez-Pochel

Anthony Tamez challenges misconceptions about urban Native youth. As co-president of the Chi-Nations Youth Council and a 2018 Champion for change for the Center for Native American Youth at The Aspen Institute, Anthony leads Native youth in medicine walks to harvest ancestral plants, participates in demonstrations like the Standing Rock movement, helps young people with regalia making and more. Anthony is also passionate about advocating for eliminating race-based mascots that promote stereotypes and works against the ongoing erasure of indigenous people in what is now known as “Chicago” and will be attending college to study social work and policy in the fall. 

Adrien Pochel

Adrien “AJ” Pochel is an Oji-Cree and Lakota Pro Activist and cultural preservationist. AJ sings on Shik Baamadzzi Youth Drum and has been a member of Chi-Nations since 2014. AJ was featured in a BuzzFeed expose early this year, “What Happened After Standing Rock.” Before Standing Rock, AJ advocated against race-based mascots attending a Change the Name Rally in Washington DC in 2014 and Protesting against the Stanley Cup at the American Indian Center (AIC) in 2015. AJ was a lead advocate in the fight for the AIC to end all relationships with the Chicago Blackhawks. In 2016 AJ became the first male ambassador for the Chicago Public Schools American Indian Education Program. Most recently, AJ has been a keystone in securing a plot of land within the 35th ward for a Native-ran community garden in partnership with Chi-Nations and the AIC.

Eli Saldana

Eli Saldana is a member of the Chi-Nations youth council and a singer on the Shik Baamadzzi Youth Drum. Eli wrote an op-ed article for Teen Vogue about his experience with gun violence and how it has affected his life. Eli Saldana was recently shot in the leg, as a random act of violence, in his neighborhood of Irving Park. Since then, he has only become stronger in his advocacy work, mentoring youth to steer them in the right direction. Eli plans on finishing High School within the next couple of months and plans to attend college to study criminal justice.

Winfield WoundedEye

Winfield Wounded Eye, Chi-Nations Youth Ambassador, is an avid volunteer for Multiple Native Organizations across the Chicagoland area. He has a strong passion for culture, taking up drumming and singing from a young age. Winfield believes that Singing and Dancing are the first steps to staying connected to the culture, so he practices traditional harvesting and planting techniques to teach to the younger generation. Winfield currently attends Chemawa Indian School, where he gets the chance to help educate his classmates about Urban Native issues..

Naomi Harvey-Turner

Naomi is a Lakota poet, activist, dancer, and student. She is an advocate for Indigenous sovereignty and water rights. Naomi has participated in demonstrations for Standing Rock and Wet’suwet’en and stood at the 2017 People’s Climate March frontlines. She has led many panels on her efforts of activism at universities around Chicago. She advocates safe spaces for the Native community by developing a community workshop for the spring and through her efforts as a Positive Paths mentor, AIC Archives intern, and volunteer at the Field Museum. Naomi also promotes community building through beading workshops and Indigenous womxn talking circles. As a student at DePaul University, she focuses her studies on the Afro-Native perspective in hopes of supporting her community in understanding and healing cultural traumas. Recently, She met one of her 2019 goals to form her own Indigenous peoples’ organization at DePaul. Her goal is to create a safe, supportive space that other indigenous students can rely on in a predominately White and Catholic institution.

Asya Herlihy

Asya St. Germanine is Anishnabe from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Ojiwea and Thai. Asya is the daughter of Douglas Herlihy and Clarrissa St. Germanine, the Granddaughter of Barbra St. Germaine and Paul St. Germaine. Asya is a Steinmetz College Prep High School student and the Chicago Public School American Indian Education Program Youth Ambassador. Asya shares her culture across Chicago as a Jingle Dress Dancer. She is also a member of Redline Drum and the Social Media Coordinator for the Chi-Nations Youth Council. As a cultural practitioner, she shares her story through beadwork. You can often find Asya with her Grandmother Barbra selling earrings at local events and Powwows.

Janie Pochel

Janie Pochel is Wuskwi Sipihk First Nations and the lead advisor of the Chi-Nations Youth Council. Janie helped Co-Found Chi-Nations as a former member of the Urban Natives of Chicago Youth Council. Janie is the Daughter of Tammy Tyson (ba) and Charles “Charlie Brass” Pochel and the Granddaughter of Pat Tyson (ba). Janie was born and raised in Chicago, where she cultivated her ancestral connections to Chicago’s Indigenous Landscape. Today Janie works towards reclaiming indigenous knowledge systems through her mission to change people’s concepts of INDIGENOUS landscapes by helping them see through an Indigenous lens. The keystone of her work is the development of youth as cultural practitioners and community leaders.