Whitney Snow Receives Vital Impacts Fellowship for Sweetgrass Revival Project

Vital Impacts has awarded Whitney Snow the Madonna Thunder Hawk Environmental Photography Fellowship for her project 'The Women's Grass,' which documents Blackfeet women restoring sacred sweetgrass on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The $20,000 fellowship is part of $50,000 in total grants given to seven photographers, along with eleven year-long mentorships. Snow's work follows a year of revival efforts, including propagation plots and community teachings, as drought and overgrazing threaten the plant. The project highlights ecological resilience, matriarchal leadership, and Indigenous knowledge. The 2026 judging panel included Alessia Glaviano, Azu Nwagbogu, Evgenia Arbugaeva, Kathy Moran, and Pat Kane. Vital Impacts, founded by Ami Vitale and Eileen Mignoni in 2021, has raised $3.5 million for conservation and reached 30,000 students through programs.