As senior executive of the National Museum of the American Indian—and a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma—I am proud to work for an institution that honors Native American heritage to the highest degree. The museum is a celebration of culture, language, and music, as well as a home to 825,000 artifacts that represent over 12,000 years of history of more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.

Across the country there are thousands of dedicated professionals working to uphold the peoples and cultures that have suffered the consequences of colonization. One group of those people being the Lakota, of which more than 8,000 live on the nearby Cheyenne River Reservation where they face severe challenges and barriers to living a fair and full life. For generations now, Lakota have battled displacement, poverty, job shortages, inadequate health care and lacking infrastructure. Forced assimilation has left deep wounds on a way of life and system of beliefs that was already complete, beautiful, and true in its own.

But despite all, Lakota culture and tradition remain a guiding light—the beacon from which the community has drawn from and used their cultural and artistic practices to both honor their ancestors and rally their communities towards solutions. There is no question that traditional cultural and artistic forms root individuals in a shared history, connect them in expression, and help them look towards the future.

This unifying effect is even solidified in numbers. According to a recent study released by Americans for the Arts on the country’s perceptions and attitudes towards the arts, 67 percent of Americans believe that the arts unify our communities regardless of age, race and ethnicity, and 62 percent agree that the arts help to improve our understanding of other cultures. Creating and sustaining environments that continue to teach and uphold cultural and artistic practices is imperative. That is why a festival like the recent Cheyenne River Youth Project RedCan graffiti jam, in Eagle Butte, is so important.

On South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Lakota reservation, young people are growing up in generational poverty, surrounded by the social ills that go along with it—overcrowding, violence, addiction, abuse and suicide. As it has always done, CRYP listened to its young people to learn what resonated most strongly with them and it let them lead the way.

The youth project worked closely with leading artists and art instructors from around the country to develop a curriculum that would use the arts and culture as an intervention. Through innovative programming, internships, public art events and the Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park, young people would have a positive, healthy, creative outlet to explore their identities, find their own unique voices, share their life experiences and, ultimately, heal.

For the second year, RedCan, the four-day celebration of art, music, culture and fellowship, Lakota youth painted alongside some of the most acclaimed graffiti artists in the world. The merging of traditional Lakota culture with graffiti culture helps solidify a modern identity and gives the youth a powerful voice that emerges from the colorful intersection of history and future.

There are some incredibly important projects around the country that, like RedCan, work to heal and empower native communities. As a member of the Cherokee Nation, I am proud of my tribe’s commitment to youth development through the arts. Their commitment to music, language and film-making programs had made a significant difference in the lives of young people and their families. The Cherokee Heritage Center near Tahlequah, Okla., is bringing positive attention to their cultural heritage through community-engaged and community-informed educational programs.

Communities must uphold events and programs that directly support, sustain, and invest in the culture and spirit of this land’s first peoples, reconnecting them to where they comes from and simultaneously, through art, showing them their own great possibility.

While challenges will continue to batter our nation’s Native American communities, festivals like RedCan Jam are making unprecedented strides to infuse color, creativity, community cohesion, and pride, restoring heritage and hope into our region’s Lakota youth.

John Haworth is a member of the Americans for the Arts Board of Directors. He is the senior executive of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. Haworth is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. This post originally appeared in the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.