Values of Brown Bear Woman

We Are Indigenous Led

Every decision, framework, and program is rooted in Indigenous perspectives and values. we don't adapt Western models for indigenous communities- we build from Indigenous knowledge first.


We Bridge Two Worlds

With years of manufacturing and nonprofit operations experience combined with deep cultural knowledge, we understand both technical excellence and cultural protocols.


We Focus on All Indigenous Communities

All indigenous people maintain strong cultural identities while navigating systems not designed for them. We specialize in supporting organizations that serve these communities


We Build Toward Community Healing

A portion of our consulting business goes back to community initiatives that support Indigenous communities and cultural healing spaces.


Our Commitment to Community

Brown Bear Woman is committed to:


Centering Indigenous voices, values, and knowledge in all our work


Maintaining data sovereignty as a fundamental right


Building sustainable, community-driven solutions


Operating with transparency and cultural accountability


Creating pathways for Indigenous leadership and self-determination


Honoring the ancestors who came before and the generations to come

Culture as methodology. Story as data. Balance as practice.

4 Direction, One Path to Healing Model

The Four Directions, One Path to Healing Model is a groundbreaking tool designed to enhance the cultural wellness modalities for Indigenous people. This framework offers assessment utilizing 4 Directional whole health of traditional wellness practices, highlighting the significance of balance and harmony within community practices. The model promotes a loving and kind approach to cultural wellness, encouraging deeper appreciation and integration of traditional practices in everyday interactions. 


The foundational concepts behind the Four Direction-One Path to Healing model, illustrates a story of self-determination.


In this model, the star at the center of the medicine wheel represents Indigenous People. Practicing and honoring the natural law of order constitutes the cultural ethics inherent within us. Furthermore, each direction within the medicine wheel holds a story, representing our traditional approach to storytelling and data.

Data Stewardship Rooted in Indigenous Rights

Honored in CARE: Our Data Principles

Collective Benefit

Collective Benefit: Data ecosystems should be designed to enable Indigenous peoples derive benefit

Responsibility

Those working with indigenous data have a responsibility to share how data is used to tell their story in their way.

Authority to Control

Indigenous peoples' right and interests in their data must be recognized

Cultural Ethics

Indigenous peoples' rights and wellbeing should be the primary concern

Strengthening Operations Without Losing Culture

COIP - Cultural Operations Improvement Process is the foundational framework that integrates operational improvement with Indigenous values and cultural practices. It's built on the following core operational strengths:

  • Process Operations
  • Safety
  • Cultural Grounding
  • Organization values and mission


Why it matters for Indigenous communities?

Indigenous people have long been people of observation. COIP utilizes cultural practices in observations to best understand areas that can be developed and strengthened by centering community input.

Grounded in culture, built for impact

Services Rooted in Relationship

Cultural Integration Consult

We partner with organizations to weave Indigenous values, traditions, and ways of knowing into the foundation of their programs, policies, and daily operations not as an add-on, but as a living framework that guides meaningful and accountable work.

Program Structure and setup

We help Indigenous-led and community serving organizations build programs from the ground up with culturally grounded frameworks, clear operational structures, and sustainable systems designed to grow with your community's needs.

Community Centered Analysis

We listen before we measure, centering community voices, lived experience, and relational accountability to ensure analysis reflects the full picture of what's working, what's needed, and what matters most to the people being served.

Data collection, implementation, and assessment navigation

We guide organizations through the full data lifecycle, from design of culturally ethical collection methods to implementing systems and navigating assessments in a way that protects community data and honors Indigenous data sovereignty principles.

Data structure, reporting, and visualizations

We transform raw data into clear, accessible reporting and visualizations that speak to both funders and communities by building data infrastructure that is organized, meaningful, and designed to support informed decision making at every level.

Culturally responsive operation assessment and improvement plans

We assess organizational operations through a cultural lens by identifying gaps between stated values and daily practice. We are committed to developing actionable improvement plans that align systems, processes, and people with the communities they serve.

Nawiishtunmi Nightgun

Nawiishtunmi Nightgun is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and a descendant of the Blackfeet Nation. They are the proprietor of Brown Bear Woman LLC, an organization dedicated to addressing the programmatic needs and data sovereignty of indigenous peoples.


Nawiishtunmi has devoted her career to enhancing systems for homelessness and mental health services, with a focus on whole health for indigenous people. She has led teams that honor cultural and traditional healing practices, integrating systems that respect the past, present, and future of indigenous people beyond westernized concepts and holding cultural ethics at the center.


As a mother of three, Nawiishtunmi actively engages in the gathering and harvesting of traditional foods and medicines with their family and participates in various ceremonies. Nawiishtunmi has presented on topics such as decolonizing colonialism, decolonizing data, podcast speaker to discuss, "Native Healing Through Homelessness" on Spotify, and addressing community needs during the pandemic in collaboration with the regional public health agency.

Veronica Owens

Veronica Owens is Dakota (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) and Cowichan (Coast Salish), bringing a decade of manufacturing operations experience to Indigenous data sovereignty work. Veronica specializes in translating systems thinking into practical, culturally-grounded data governance frameworks for Indigenous-serving organizations.


After spending 10 years in food manufacturing, progressing from process operations through technical support roles to management positions in production, maintenance, and safety, Veronica recognized that the same rigorous, systematic approaches to optimizing complex systems could address critical gaps in how Indigenous communities control and protect their data. This unique background allows her to bridge technical implementation with cultural protocols, creating sustainable data sovereignty solutions that actually work in real-world operations.


Veronica's work centers on a reality often overlooked in Indigenous data sovereignty discussions: most Indigenous people live in urban diaspora settings, disconnected from their homelands and tribal governments. These urban Indigenous nonprofits and multi-tribal organizations serve the majority of Indigenous people but lack the governmental authority of tribal nations to assert data sovereignty. Veronica is committed to ensuring that data practices strengthen rather than extract from Indigenous communities, bringing practical operational thinking to the critical work of Indigenous self-determination in the digital age.