Facilitator Spotlight: MaDonna Feather Cruz

MaDonna Feather Cruz is a proud Native American woman committed to making a difference in her community and beyond. She is a passionate advocate for native wellness, raising awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), and cultural preservation. 

MaDonna was named after her aunt MaDonna Thunder Hawk. Her parents were Denise (Knight) Feather and Walter Feather. MaDonna is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. As a young child, MaDonna grew up in Ukiah and Napa, California. She also considered it a blessing to grow up traveling around the country with her grandmother Norma (Fulwilder) Knight to Native American conferences, meetings, and trainings. When she was taking a break from traveling, MaDonna participated in grassroots meetings held around the dinner table in Napa, CA. Guests at these meetings were extremely varied, from the Black Panthers to Cesar Chavez, or Madonna's uncle Russell Means, who was of the American Indian movement and Hollywood fame. Since birth, culture has been an integral part of MaDonna's life, and now she carries it on as a traditional singer, dancer, and artist.

MaDonna is married to her high school sweetheart, and together they have two outstanding children all living in Sonoma County, California. With a strong sense of identity and a deep connection to her Native American heritage, MaDonna brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to her advocacy work. Her unwavering dedication to improving the well-being of Native American communities is rooted in a profound belief in the power of community and the strength derived from shared cultural values.

MaDonna found Native American Fatherhood and Families Association through the classes that Trina Fitzgeral sponsored and then became a facilitator herself in 2023. With a passion for impacting the lives of Native Youth she wanted to bring the message of NAFFA through the Native Youth Education in her community and became the Indian Education President of Northern California specifically to 9^th-12^th grade youth.  She teaches Fatherhood is Sacred®/Motherhood is Sacred® year-round which requires a lot of managing this work outside her full-time job.

MaDonna knows this program really works and sees youth impacted by how they process their emotions and the life that they had prior to high school. They choose on their own the ideal for a happy and safe family and envision themselves, creating this family life when they are old enough to start their own families. They want to give their children a chance at life with both parents in their household and many marry within the Native community.

We appreciate all that Madonna does to teach NAFFA’s principles to the youth in her community as she is a great example of a NAFFA facilitator.