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Keri Akemi-Hernandez
(She/Her/They/Ellos)
She:kon relatives, let me introduce myself and my dedication to our Leadership Team. I am an active community leader who is involved with many grassroots efforts where I help to advocate for those who are often marginalized and undeserved. As the Executive Director and Founder of the Bear Root Resource Center, I intentionally plan to continue to nurture current relationships, collaborate with community leaders and other organizations, as well as to build new relationships and connections. I look forward to building a connection with you soon and being in solidarity with important matters that impact our communities across Turtle Island.
I am a woman of mixed ancestry, with rich cultural heritage, and often find myself in a unique place of living in both worlds. I am Indigenous, French, and Black on my Mother’s side, as well as Irish and Belgian on my Father’s side. I am a descendant from my Grandmother Grace’s side, and honor my Great Grandfather Greywolf of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) of the Kahnawà:ke First Nation Territory of the St. Lawrence River Region in Canada and connects to relatives within the St. Regis Territory of New York, as well as honor my Great Grandma Hannah who was a Native and Black slave, and her Mom who was Onöndowa'ga:' (Seneca) from the Allegany Reservation in Cattaraugus County, New York and her Dad was Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache) from Texas/Mexico who were forced to relocate to Oklahoma. I am proud of my rich cultural heritage offers a unique perspective of living in “both worlds” as I often feel. I grew up in a multi-generational home, where I learned traditions passed down from my Grams, along with Community Elders and members in communities where I have lived in California. My Grams gave me the name of Thunderfoot, when I was a baby and later on, many would call me Ker Bear. Both names are interesting because I was born in the Spring, and the Thunder wakes up Bears from hibernation. Bears also symbolize protection, courage and medicine, and my Grams always believed that I would do great things in my life. I now publicly embrace my traditional name of Ker Bear Thunderfoot; and I introduce myself in spaces where I am actively involved in our intertribal Indigenous gatherings, and empower our relatives to relearn our traditions, while we collaborate and innovate together for our future infinite 7 generations.
Bear Roots Resource Center is an Indigenous and Black collaboration, honored as a woman-led charitable organization that is dedicated to serving and empowering our community with prayerful intentions, Our Executive Leadership Team includes Keri R. Akemi-Hernandez, Executive Director/Founder, and Bency Joseph, Co-Founder/Program Development Director, are focused on bringing solutions to protect and transform our most vulnerable communities who are disproportionately impacted by climate change, legacy pollution, and historical disinvestments. Our founders are dedicated to honoring their Ancestral roots and reweaving those traditions into the way we live our lives in this present moment. We are teaching people how to be in relationship with land and connect to their roots. Our innovative programs will shape and shift us into our collective bright future.
Keri's diverse background comes with wisdom from both my lived and professional experience, that can help others relate and how to overcome and persist, despite challenges we often face. She is a trusted and well-respected community leader and professional.
In college, Keri majored in Business administration, marketing, and communications. They emphasized their studies to meet the requirements to obtain their Real Estate Broker license. During the recession, Keri went back to school to study Viticulture and Enology as well. Keri has been working as a Non-Profit Stewardship & Education Manager, Real Estate Executive, Business Consultant, as well as a freelancing Designer. They are driven and passionate, with several years of experience providing strategic and practical advice to achieve exceptional results. The are adept in understanding complex business operations in a variety of industries to analyze, research, identify risks, opportunities, provide insight to optimize and improve performance. They have a proven track record of successfully carrying out business and marketing plans to increase visibility and be positioned for growth. They bring forth years of valuable experience and expertise in identifying and implementing the most effective methods and tools to achieve success. They are equipped with a diverse and promising skill-set, which is conducive to adhering to principles and best practices related to.
Keri is proud to serve the greater San Francisco Bay Area since year 2000, and it is partly with this Real Estate knowledge and expertise, business consulting and combined advocacy efforts, that they will use to develop the Bear Root Resource Center and implement the organization’s 2030 strategic plan.
Keri recalls many of her teachers and people who have helped them throughout their life, “Some individuals show up for a brief moment, and there are others who have been there every step of the way, but each of them have made a meaningful impact in my life.”
I am actively involved and deeply connected in my Native community, and gather with relatives here locally in California, and journey to other areas to be in solidarity with other relatives across Turtle Island. Growing up, I was enrolled in the Indian Ed program in Martinez, California, where I began to learn additional Inter-Tribal teachings from Lakota, Ohlone, Pomo, Wappo and other California Sovereign Nations. I am not an enrolled member of my tribal affiliations, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (a.k.a. Mohawk) Haudenosaunee Nation (a.k.a Iroquois), where my Ancestors are from a village in the area of Kaniatarowanenneh St. Lawrence River (a.k.a. Canada and Great Lakes of United States); as well as Onöndowa'ga:' (a.k.a. Seneca) Haudenosaunee Nation from New York (a.k.a. United States), and Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (a.k.a. Lipan Apache) from Texas, (a.k.a. México) where they were force to relocate to Oklahoma.
I give thanks to our Creator for all that has touched my life and the meaningful spiritual connection. I am proud of the resilience, courage, wisdom, creativity, and sense of humor from my Ancestors. I admire the strength I witnessed by my Grandma, who was a large influence in my life, and I cherish the love that lives on in her memory. I value the examples I learned from my Mom, and the lessons of responsibility I learned from being the oldest daughter and sister. I am motivated by the support and love from my community, friends, loved ones, family, my children, my grandchildren, and my pet dog Skye.
Keri describes where the idea for Bear Root Resource Center came from a dream, "The resource center dream was inspired to bring the Children's book to life, "The Great Shift," the story is based on a poem I wrote 4 years ago and I am excited to share that it will be published soon! This realization came to me after a vivid dream that I had the night after I met Matika Wilbur. When I woke up from the dream, I knew the next steps I needed to take. This project is an accumulation of my life work and my passion to fulfill I hope to fulfill in my lifetime. When I shared this vision with a few trusted people within my inner Circle, and it became clear who to collaborate with. I am really thankful to found this project with my dear friend and visionary Partner, Bency Joseph, who is combining their life long dream to restore Ayiti (Haiti) and empower his people to thrive. Our dream is the seed that is being planted in the hearts of our local community and we hope to expand it into other communities in the future. We look forward to connecting with you soon!"
Our Leadership Team is here to listen, immerse and engage within our community, building partnerships with stakeholders, donors, and advocate for our community needs and connect resources to empower individuals to thrive with our innovative programs that will be funded through our comprehensive fundraising strategy. We are working with Industry leaders to formally establish our Non-profit and to take our organization to the next level. We are creating our Legal Team for regulatory compliance, our Financial Team to oversee our finances so that we have strong financial health, and sufficient operating reserves for our programs, as well as to ensure fiscal compliance. We are actively interviewing to establish our board and cultural advisory team to guide us to fulfill our organization mission, values and purpose in perpetuity, with a legacy, to live beyond our lives and for the survival of our future 7 generations. We have plans to grow our team and begin next steps to secure our 1st physical location. Our Leadership team has developed a short and long-term strategy to implement our programs, and advance our Bear Root Resource Center mission and vision, while we adapt to evolving local and global changing circumstances.
This was the first time learning about the sacrifice that her Chief made and the destruction that her village experienced during Colonization. I recommend buying the Project 562 Book and listen to her "All My Relations" podcast to learn more.
It was honor to meet both Matika and her Mom. It meant a lot to have a few minutes to connect and let both of them how much I appreciate what they do!
I remember learning about Matika Wilbur during a time when I was taking classes at Napa Valley College. I remember my Professor had a writing prompt to inform others about something unique and challenging about our culture. At that time there was a lot going on with trying to remove Native mascots from local High Schools and so I decided to do a research paper on this topic. I found a T.E.D. Talk with Matika describing the negative impact that stereotypes and how this contributes to a lot of the challenges we face today. At that time, there still was not a lot of positive or accurate visibility about Indigenous people and I really appreciated what she shared. Over the years, I continued to follow what she was doing in our community and how she had an interest in interviewing, as well as photographing many Indigenous people all over Turtle Island to help change the narrative about our people and inspire positive visibility. This work meant a lot to me, and thought about many of the conversations that I have had with my Grams, my children and others in community about our experiences. After 10 years, Matika completed her project 562 and she published a book that she was beginning to tour throughout the Pacific West. I found a way to travel to Santa Monica and attend a speaking event and later meet her to sign the book I purchased. It was an incredible evening that warmed my heart and I was thankful for the experience. When I returned to my hotel room later that night and opened the page to see the signature, I did not realize what she had wrote when I was talking with her. I had written my name on a post-it and thought that would be it and include her signature.
However, what she wrote was something much more meaningful, "Always remember that you are medicine."
Wow, this really woke up something inside me that I had not thought about in many years. This reminded me of my childhood dream of wanting to be a Doctor. I also thought about how amazing it could have been if my Grams was still alive and how she would feel to see what Matika was able to accomplish. I went to sleep with a dizzy sense of wonder and excitement. The next day when I woke up, I decided to take my time driving home and visit the beach along the way. I did not arrive until a little before 12 midnight and went to sleep feeling really tired. I had the most vivid dream that night about my entire life and it showed me each person I met along the way was a piece to the puzzle of what my true life purpose is. I woke up as if I had slept the whole night, but I had only slept about 3 hours. I started to write down everything that I saw in my dream. The slogan for Bear Root Resource Center is inspired by this event and a special thanks goes to Matika and her Mom for what they shared that night.
You may be interested to know
that Keri is Author....
... and Keri is also a multidisciplinary artist.
After I grew up and graduated High School, I moved to Southern California. I initially studied medicine and was interested in Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine. However, I paused pursuing college when I found out I was expecting my first child. When I became a Mom, my priorities shifted and wanted to care for them. I dec
After I grew up and graduated High School, I moved to Southern California. I initially studied medicine and was interested in Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine. However, I paused pursuing college when I found out I was expecting my first child. When I became a Mom, my priorities shifted and wanted to care for them. I decided to pursue a career in Real Estate to support my family, considering that everyone needs a home, this felt like a good financial decision and to balance time with my family too. Being a Mother became my primary focus and her kids meant the world to her. This is a picture of me at my first house in Vallejo, California.
This is a picture of my Sister and I, the year we moved to California. I was born in Colorado, but grew up in the small East Bay town of Crockett, within the San Francisco Bay Area, of Northern California. I am the eldest daughter, and grew up having adventures together with my sister. Later in life I reconnected with brother and gained two step brothers too.
Keri had a special relationship with her Grams. They spent a lot of time tending soil in their garden and helping to care for the plants. When her Grams would make chicken, she would call Keri into the kitchen and ask what parts she would like and she would always ask for the heart. In their own way, they thought that by eating the hea
Keri had a special relationship with her Grams. They spent a lot of time tending soil in their garden and helping to care for the plants. When her Grams would make chicken, she would call Keri into the kitchen and ask what parts she would like and she would always ask for the heart. In their own way, they thought that by eating the heart, that it would make her heart stronger and would be good medicine to help others.
At the age of 4 years old, her Grams asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, and Keri shared that she wanted to be a Doctor and have her own hospital one day. She thought about this and dreamed about what it would be like.
This is a picture of my Grams holding my Mom. I grew up in a multi-generational home. My Grams was the Matriarch of our family and helped create a loving foundation. Despite all of her efforts, my parents had their separate challenges that would ultimately lead to their divorce. When I was 7 years old, my Mom left our family home and
This is a picture of my Grams holding my Mom. I grew up in a multi-generational home. My Grams was the Matriarch of our family and helped create a loving foundation. Despite all of her efforts, my parents had their separate challenges that would ultimately lead to their divorce. When I was 7 years old, my Mom left our family home and told my sister and I that we were going on vacation to California. In reality, she was starting a new life as a single Mother. As the oldest daughter, I had to grow up quickly and find ways to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and help care for my 3 year old sister. I learned valuable lessons from my childhood that have helped shape me into who I am today.
This is Hannah,
who's Mom was Seneca.
her Dad was Apache and Black. I did grew up knowing that her family new my Great Grand Dad's family but not details of her tribal affiliation. I also knew that she was a slave, and that George helped her escape. Later on, as technology has become easier to trace family records, I was able to find m
This is Hannah,
who's Mom was Seneca.
her Dad was Apache and Black. I did grew up knowing that her family new my Great Grand Dad's family but not details of her tribal affiliation. I also knew that she was a slave, and that George helped her escape. Later on, as technology has become easier to trace family records, I was able to find more information. I was able to connect our family oral history and align it with what her cultural background is. I also learned later in life that we also have Black Ancestry. I am proud to know about Hannah and all of my cultural identity, which helped shaped our family.
This is Grey Wolf, and some knew him as George, he was Mohawk, French and Black. I grew up learning traditions about our Haudenosaunee culture and about all of the six Nations. He is from a village near the St. Lawrence River in Canada. I heard about how he and his brother escaped from the Catholic Church. They believed that they coul
This is Grey Wolf, and some knew him as George, he was Mohawk, French and Black. I grew up learning traditions about our Haudenosaunee culture and about all of the six Nations. He is from a village near the St. Lawrence River in Canada. I heard about how he and his brother escaped from the Catholic Church. They believed that they could become U.S. Citizens once they enlisted in the military. Oddly enough, Indigenous people weren't considered citizens on their Ancestral land until 1924.
This is Lucy Anne, who was George's Mom. I am not sure what happened to George's Dad, but at some point Lucy Anne was taken by the Catholic Church to be in guardianship with an man who was deathly ill. She and her daughters lived with him, and George and is brother escaped to the U.S. At some point, later in life, George is able to rec
This is Lucy Anne, who was George's Mom. I am not sure what happened to George's Dad, but at some point Lucy Anne was taken by the Catholic Church to be in guardianship with an man who was deathly ill. She and her daughters lived with him, and George and is brother escaped to the U.S. At some point, later in life, George is able to reconnect with his Mother and she makes it safely to the U.S. The village where he was born was also flooded by the Catholic Church as there were several ways that they tried to remove or harm our people.
BEAR ROOT RESOURCE CENTER [AND ITS AFFILIATES (“COMPANY” OR “WE” OR “US” or "OUR")]
KERI R. AKEMI-HERNANDEZ, FOUNDER & BENCY JOSEPH CO-FOUNDER
2023 © ℗®™ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
BEAR ROOT RESOURCE CENTER, a fiscally sponsored organization of Fiscal Sponsorship Allies EIN: 85-0839183
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