Our core team has experience in government affairs, public policy, communications, and development.
Brian "BB" Melendez
President & Chief Executive Officer
Northern / Southern Paiute - Western Shoshone
Brian “BB” Melendez is an enrolled Tribal citizen of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. For the past two decades, he has worked to uplift his community as a grassroots organizer. Melendez is a formerly elected Tribal Legislator on the Tribal Council of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, a Sundance Chief and spiritual leader for his Tribe’s summer ceremonies and other ritual dances, and a former Federal Operations Officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He is also a published American Indian spirituality scholar and the host of the Coffee with an Indian podcast. Brian holds a master’s degree in justice management and a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and political science from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Board of Directors
Our organization is led by open-minded and open-hearted Native community leaders who believe in the vision of the work. Our Board of Directors is diverse, ranging from leading artists to rising lawyers to community organizers to Tribal public health professionals, all of whom share a stake in our progressive vision for the next seven generations.
Luiseño, Northern Paiute, & Western Shoshone
Northern / Southern Paiute
Pit River
Mohawk
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Tribal Minds, Inc. based?
Where do you operate?
We are a statewide Native-led nonprofit that aims to empower Tribal spaces in rural and urban Nevada. Our focus is on remote Indian reservations that often get overlooked and underfunded. We have strong alliances with Nevada's Tribes, organizers, and other in-state leaders that work to bring attention to the Tribal needs of the Great Basin. Beyond Nevada, we have built relationships with institutions across the country and beyond - particularly through cultural programming with Lenca relatives in Honduras.
Tribal Minds, Inc. originated on the Hungry Valley Indian Reservation, a Tribal Community of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. Currently, we are based in Reno, Nevada as we serve Tribal communities across the state. We understand Reno to be a center where Tribal people across the Great Basin work, live, find community, and find each other.
What organizations or institutions are you willing to work with?
Who do you provide services to?
Tribal Minds is willing and eager to work with all organizations that energetically align with our purpose of developing Native solutions for Native issues and the infrastructure to support that. We wish to build relationships that are prosperous and healthy and center the People and the Land.
At Tribal Minds, we prioritize and center the most oppressed in Tribal communities through intentional outreach beyond just the urban core. We regularly run programming in both rural and remote areas of Nevada. We also place a strong emphasis on working together in coalition with other BIPOC-led organizations workng towards liberation.
