Denet Deal realized she had the skills to fill a critical need. “I have run really large corporations in my lifetime. I know how to raise funds. I know how to make masks,” she says. She transitioned her upcycled clothing company, Orenda Tribe, to manufacturing, and called in connections at companies like Patagonia and Outdoor Voices for fabric. To finance her efforts, Denet Deal solicited donations and held fundraisers.
In 2020, Denet Deal and the group of female volunteers who make up her Dził Asdzáán Command Center raised more than $835,000 and distributed more than 1 million PPE units and more than 1 million servings of food. In the near-term, Denet Deal is focused on meeting her tribe’s needs through the pandemic, but she has bigger long-term goals. “I want to work on sustainable solutions for the future to deal with the problems we face -- food insecurity, lack of jobs, land issues, environmental genocide,” she says. “I’m incredibly committed, because this is the future of my tribe.