The American Indian Center of Indiana Inc.

The American Indian Center of Indiana (AICI) Inc., located in Indianapolis, is a non-profit organization that provides services to the American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians in Indiana. This includes members of nations that are historically indigenous to the state and members of nations countrywide who make their homes in Indiana. The organization works to empower, support, and unite Indiana’s indigenous community through social services, health outreach, and cultural education. It also works to promote understanding and respect between Indian and non-Indian people in Indiana. 

AICI was founded on July 1, 1992, as the Indiana American Indian Manpower Council Inc. (IAIMC). The organization was created under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Labor to administer culturally appropriate workforce development services through the Job Training Partnership Act. It served Indiana’s American Indian communities in all but six counties (Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Marshall, St. Joseph, and Starke were within the service area of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians based in Michigan). A volunteer board of directors, of which 80 percent were American Indian, governed the IAIMC. 

Over the next decade, IAIMC expanded its services to include education and training in health/wellness, substance abuse, childcare, and cultural arts. In 1998, to account for its broadened offerings, IAIMC officially changed its name to the American Indiana Center of Indiana Inc. That same year AICI joined the Indians Minority Health Coalition and received funding from the Indiana State Department of Health to support its health programs.  

In 2000, the Administration for Native Americans, an organization that provides financial aid to American Indian communities, granted funding to help AICI develop a short- and long-term strategic plan focused on adjusting AICI’s organizational structure while continuing to expand its programs and services. This included activities such as engaging in new partnerships, finding new paths to reach the community, and providing greater access to the services AICI already offered. In 2002, AICI worked with SmokeFree Indiana and the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency to develop a culturally competent, statewide forum on tobacco cessation. This same year, AICI also began publishing its newsletter, Native Pathfinder (later named Native Circles). A year later, AICI opened a computer lab to provide classes and internet access for GED preparation and job-related activities.  

In 2007, AICI began working with Indiana Department of Workforce Development/Work One (DWD) in Northwest Indiana to offer its employment services to the entire American Indian Community within AICI’s designated service areas. By 2008, the organization was working with all of DWD’s state partner agencies and had developed a 2-year comprehensive service plan for its job training services. These services would later become part of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) (signed into law in 2014) of the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Native American Program Division Section 166. 

As of the 2020s, AICI’s workforce development, health outreach, and cultural education programs provide service to all Indiana counties. These services include a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Program, Circle of Wellness Program, and Cultural Competency Programs.