The Sacred Youth Foundation

The foundation grew out of the earlier Dahayoigii Event, created in 2014 by Bo’s father, the acclaimed sculptor Oreland Joe Sr., and fellow artist Keno Zahney, offering a summer program dedicated to planting a seed of inspiration, confidence, and cultural identity through traditional artforms. What began as a grassroots effort to share knowledge with the next generation soon transformed into a popular and powerful annual gathering.

Professional Native artists—painters, basket weavers, rug makers, jewelers—came together at Shiprock High School, donating their time, their skills, and their cultural knowledge. The first session drew more than 150 youths. The organizers were not teachers or program directors—they were artists who understood, instinctively, the power of art and artisanship to instill confidence, competence, and purpose.

Over the course of three days, the children are introduced to the fundamentals of craft, to the language of symbols, to the stories embedded in the lines and forms that surround them. Day one: exposure. Day two: work. Day three: completion and a celebration, with parents and community members filling the school to see what their children created—some for the first time witnessing their sons or daughters express themselves through traditional artforms.

But beneath the lessons in technique lies the Foundation’s true purpose: self-identity. Bo knows firsthand the power of seeing a motif, a weaving pattern, or a carved line, and understanding that it connects you to something older, larger, and enduring. Through the Foundation, the youth are given tools not only to create, but to recognize themselves within their culture’s visual language.

Today, the Sacred Youth Foundation is more than a workshop, it’s a continuum. Children who once attended as students now return as volunteers. Some return as artists. The program is over a decade strong, carried by a sense of devotion to community and cultural heritage. “We weren’t intending to create something this big,” Bo reflects, “but it took on a life of its own.”

Today, the Foundation continues to carry forward the spirit in which it was created, guided by the vision of its founders and strengthened by Bo’s leadership, who has served as president since 2014. In sustaining the work, he not only honors his father’s example but helps expand its reach, ensuring that future generations have access to the cultural grounding that shaped him.

What the Sacred Youth Foundation offers is simple and essential: a space to remember who you are, and a vision of who you might become. In that offering, it nurtures what art alone cannot—community, continuity, and the assurance that your story has a place to grow.