Our History
Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing Inc. was incorporated on December 30, 1987. Originally Sacajawea worked in conjunction with the Native Women’s Centre of Hamilton. Our target was to supply safe, affordable housing for single Indigenous women with families. We have since expanded our services to any Indigenous, Inuit and Metis Persons and families in need of affordable and adequate housing. Sacajawea has grown to 47 units with a projection of adding 25 units by fall 2022 and another 17 units by 2025. Sacajawea is proud to house 102 individuals ranging from infants to elders including approximately 42 children; 26 children under 12 years old and 16 children 12 years – 16 years who now enjoy a safe and culturally enriching home.
Why Sacajawea
Indigenous women are among the most vulnerable people in our City, not because they are weak, but due to systemic racism. This is well documented in the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls report (MMIWG), intergenerational trauma caused by colonization and residential school. We also know that women-led families are often below the poverty line, face discrimination when trying to find housing, are at risk for domestic violence, and lack access to supports their families need and deserve.
We also know that Indigenous women are the hearts of our Nations. Despite all their challenges, they are the ones who keep language and culture alive, and pass this on to their children who are the centre of our communities. Therefore when our organization formed, we wanted a symbol of inspiration for our work and the work our women do everyday. It was an easy choice.
The Lemhi Shoshone call her Sacajawea.
She inspired generations; her spirit endured ‘expert’ debates and interpretations of her name and her Nation. Sacajawea displayed great inner strength and stamina despite the trials and hardships she faced throughout her lifetime. Around the age of eleven her band, the Shoshone was taken over by the Hidatsa (a rival tribe), where she was held captive and later sold to an abusive French-Canadian Trapper. With her child strapped to her back, Sacajawea helped lead the Lewis and Clark expedition through the American West. There are more statues honouring Sacajawea, than any other American woman in history.
She was an inspiration for suffragettes and she was admired in Hamilton Ontario where the founding directors of Sacajawea saw her as a strong Indigenous woman worthy of having an organization named after her! Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing Inc. is entirely led by women and continues to serve many families in Hamilton to find their place to ‘call home’.
