2Oth Anniversary Annual Report

This report is dedicated to the memory of Richard LaGarde. He is pictured here is an AP photo snapped at the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in l972, during the Trail of Broken Treaties. LaGarde was reading the sports page he told us. The takeover of the BIA building was a response to the frustration of Native Americans in the loss of land, treatment . LaGarde represented White Earth proudly, and in l991 came to work for the organization as one of our first community organizers. He initiated our litigation against desecration of burial mounds on Ottertail Lake. He was killed under mysterious circumstances in l997.

We remember his spirit in this report and We continue his work.

White Earth Land Recovery/Native Harvest 607 Main Avenue Callaway, Minnesota

Ro & Kathleen Grignon Roberta Guthrie Maria Faust & Ted Haaland David Halstead Jeff & Lynn Harrington Aliya Harrison Leona & Charles Heitsch Mary Helgeson Janet Heller Amy Hilden Margaret Hinton Mollie Hoben Judith & Ronald Horsnell Katherine Houston Barbara Hunt Donald Irish Gary & Meira Itzkowitz Deborah D. Jackson Donald & Mary Javurek Donald Javurek Kathryn Johnson Bob & Joy Johnson Sally Johnson Sinsinawa Dominicans Justice & Peace Promoter Sybil P. Carof & Toyoko Kametani Arlen & Yvonne Kangas Laurie Katon Jajame Ali Kiland Jajaime Kiland Wm. Douglas Kilbourn, Jr. Paul Kivel Carl Kohls Jan Kruse Sandra Kubal Rebecca Kugel Betty LaDuke Steve & Hallie Larsen Jerome P. Liefert Mary Sue Lobenstein Laura Lyons Elizabeth Mac Millan Kristin & Raymond Majkrzak Ruth Manley Brooke Manley

Diane Marks Patricia McAllister Elizabeth McCambridge Wallace McCurdy, Jr. Barbara McMahan Col. Karen A. Meier Cheryl Merritt Women in Construction Co. LLC Michelle LeBeau Marian Moore Ibrahim & B. Jane Muhawi Edward Munyak Laura Murra Michael Nimkoff Ruth Noble Nielsen Richard Paper John Pollack John & William Poole Terry Pridgen Joseph Quirk Lorayne & Richard Radde Scott Ramage Ronald Rattner Alan Rausch Jeff & Jeanne Ray-Stevens Eileen Richey Paul Rocheleau Dobbie Roisen Helen Rudie

James Ryan Burt & Flo Sandok James Schmitt Frances Schneider Liau Joe Schriner Joel Schwartz Curtis Selph Daniel & Joanne Shively Lisa & Karl Simer Bonita Sindelir Christine Sleeter M.K. Smith Julia Smolinski Patricia Springer Robyn Stockton Persis Suddeth Carolyn Summers Ronald Sundmark Allen & Cathy Tasman Family Foundation John & Kim Taylor Joann & Douglas Thomas & Nopar Charlie & Mima Tipper Charleen Touchette White Earth Reservation Tribal Council Tom Turner Richard Vanden Heuvel Doreen Viceconte Eileen Wampole James C. Washburn Mary Waters Lisa Watson Jael Weisman Janet Wenninger Kenneth & Jean Wentworth Gary West, M.S.W., P.C. Carlton R. Williams Ann Willms Christopher & Ann Willms RMF Foundation Winky Foundation Franklin & Jean Witte Charlene & William Woodcock Charlene Woodcock Howard & Roslyn Zinn

Native Harvest
In the l990s, we continued a struggle to secure a fair price for our wild rice. Margaret Smith and Winona LaDuke worked with other native people in what was Ikwe (woman) marketing to purchase wild rice for a fair price at Lakeside, competing with a number of off reservation rice buyers. We worked to drive the price of rice at Lakeside up, and continue this work. At the same time, Mike Swan ( Wabizi) and Frank Bibeau sued Anheuser Busch corporation for its misrepresentation of wild rice in packaging. The corporation sold a variety called Onamia wild rice, featuring two Ojibwe people in canoes, on the label but was acually selling California wild rice. Wabizi and Bibeaus case was settled out of court, and the state of Minnesota enacted a wild rice labeling law. Native Harvest was formed as a part of the White Earth Land Recovery Project. We are deeply interested in strengthening our food economy- both to eat the food here, and to sell to national markets. Our Native Harvest facility provides wild rice, maple syrup , organic coffee, honey, and a variety of mixes and art for many customers regionally and nationally. We hope you will continue to buy the best in Indigenous foods from our people.

We are twenty years old! Thats pretty remarkable for a grassroots organization. We are committed to determining our destiny, and exercise that right. In our history, we have purchased land, transformed state policies, begun to recover our food and energy systems, and raised our children. We now have two generations of some of our families working for this organization. We have battled genetic engineering , clear cutting, pesticide contamination and coal fired power plants. We have done it all with very little money- but with sheer determination, commitment and a great love for our people. We are proud of our work, and incredibly thankful for your support. We are also hopeful for the future. We know what we have done, and we see the ecological, environmental, and economic realities which surround us- they reaffirm our vision. We know that climate change is imminent, and are growing foods which will be the most resilient in the future, creating energy and housing models which reflect the change in times. We are committed to a way of life for our community based on reverence and respect for our akiing- our land, and our relatives. whether they have roots, wings, paws or hooves. We are committed to determining our destiny, and the quality of life, to which we are entitled as Anishinaabeg people. And we are determined to create a model of what can be in terms of relocalizing food and energy systems, restoring our land and relations, and creating a vital civil society. This report is a celebration of where we are now, and where we have come from. Thank you for joining us! Miigwech Aapijii,

Winona LaDuke and Margaret Smith recieving the International Slow-Food Award in 2003

Reebok Human Rights Award- Capitalized Project in l989, Slow Food Award 2003, Global Green Award, Great Strides Award, Jesse Smith Noyes Award, Blue Cross Blue Shield Award Indian Health Services Award 2008 Peace Development Fund Honor The Earth Minneapolis Foundation/Emma B. Howe Memorial Foundation AEPOCH Cottownwood Chicago Community Fund/Lefort-Martin Fund Shakopee/Business Council

Awards

Winona and her son Gwe testify at the Minnesota State Legislature on the Pine Point Farm to School Program

Grants Received 2008

56521 (888) 274-8318 (218) 375-4602 www.welrp.org www.nativeharvest.com

We began our work because we believe in justice. Most of our lands within the reservation have been taken from our people illegally, causing us great hardship. Plied from us by land speculators, our people who could not read or write English, found that their allotments as approved under the l887 Nelson Act had been illegally taken by lumber companies and land speculators until we were made paupers in our own land. Five generations of our people had been born into poverty- the most dire of economic and social statistics. Most of our people refugees raised off reservation, because these losses. In the late l970s,Clearwater County tried to secure land owned by ZayZah, though quit claim deed. This descendant, George Aubid, Supreme War Chief of the East Lake Band of Anishinaabe fought the county and won. Therefore the courts ruled our land had been taken illegally, yet we found we were still denied a recourse. In the early l980s, we formed a grassroots organization- Anishinaabe Akiing which struggled to recover our land, fighting Congress through the courts. Chief Wabunoquod Until the passage of the controversial and unjust White Earth Land Settlement Act of l986, we fought as plaintiffs , allottees and heirs in two legal cases known as Manypenny and Littlewolf. In both cases, our rights were denied. That is how the White Earth Land Recovery Project came to be- we decided that we should determine our destiny . We have this great opportunity and responsibility and we owe our determination to our ancestors. We began as a project focused on the restoration of our traditional land base. We began with the proceeds of the Reebok Human Rights Award, given in l989 to our founder, Winona LaDuke for her work in advocating for the return of land. We remain committed. In the 20 years, we have been here, weve purchased back around l400 acres of land, or had it donated to our project. We could do Winnifred Jourdain-Bwaanikwe more, and invite your support for land acquisition. Let us tell you what we do on this land. We protect our ancestors- we hold two traditional cemeteries, because we believe our ancestors graves should be protected. We oppose clearcutting, and preserve maple stands- insuring that we are harvesting maple syrup from our lands. We grow food; today, we grow two three sisters gardens, and we work with gardeners and farmers on the reservation to grow out more of our traditional corn varieties. And, we are able to do much new work with our headquarters- purchased in 2006, the former Callaway Elementary School. This facility is not only home to our organization ( including Native Harvest our food producer), but is also home to the Community Resource Alliance, which advocates for the rights of children, families and those impacted by HIV. We house the Anishinaabe Center- working on cultural restoration and diabetes prevention, a daycare facility where many of our children play while community members work, Honor the Earth, our national partner in environmental justice, the Boys and Girls Club of Callaway, and finally- in 2009, NIIJII Broadcasting, our radio station.

Shakopee/Tides Foundation Citizens Programs Corporation Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation Otto Bremer Foundation Slow Food USA West Central Initiative Saint Paul Foundation/Two Feathers Endowment Chace Granting Group/Philidelphia Yearly Meeting Sheltering Arms CERTS Laura Jane Musser Fund Ottertail Power Company General Mills Champions For Healthy Kids Synod Of Lakes & Prairies-SDOP National SDOP Mazon USDA CREES Threshold Foundation NCR-SARE Mii-Gii-Way Advisory Board of RTC & Casino WE RTC Global Greengrants Fund Solidago Association for Enterprise Opportunity Winky Foundation Hunger Solutions MN Diocese of Crookston Region 2 Arts Council WE RTC Shakopee Mdewankton Corporate Commission of the MLB Presbyterian USA Bush Foundation Lannan Foundation New Mexico Acequia Association WK Kellog Foundation/Rural People Rural Initiatives Blue Cross Blue

Land Acquisitions for White Earth Land Recovery * Waubun House * Louis White Property

Mino Miijim- Our Foods

We were challenged by our board to do something with our land early on. So began our maple syruping operations,our wild rice parching mill, and our farm and gardens. We wanted to not only recover our relationship to our maple trees- ininitag- but we wanted to illustrate that our forests were more than board feet of lumber. Our forests are alive, and we are a forest people. We continue our maple syrup harvest, with a heritage production- hand harvested, horse drawn equipment and a wood fired evaporator. We began restoration of a heritage variety of flint corn in 2000 and are now expanding to other ancient varieties of flint corn, beans, squash, and melons which are higher in nutritional value than hybrids. They also present the greatest potential for our food security in a time of climate change because they were cultivated prior to a petroleum economy and are not addicted to fertilizers as a result, and are also frost and drought 2008 White Earth Land Recovery Sugar Bushing- Maple Syrup Camp resistant, having been grown in a time prior to irrigation. We are very pleased to work on this project in our own community and in coordination with the North Dakota State University programs in 2008, have been awarded a grant by the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture, Research, and Education program. Over the past years, weve put up over a dozen greenhouses in our villages, installed grow boxes, and, with support from the White Earth Tribal Council, plowed hundreds of gardens. In 2007, we launched the first Ojibwe farm to school program in the Pine Point elementary school, and serve foods from our land and from local and organic sources l00 children, teachers, and elders. This project is one of the first Indigenous farm to school programs in the country, and is aimed at countering the devastating impact of an industrialized food system on a people who already suffer from epidemic levels of diabetes. In 2008, we completed the White Earth Anishinaabe Food Economy study, which documented that our households and tribal programs (excluding the tribal casino) expend over $ 8 million annually on food- some seven eighths of it which is imported from off the reservation stores and food service providers. While we have a strong subsistence economy, we also have a great loss in our food economy, and we wish to work towards creating a local food economy for our community- whether through our gardening and farming programs in the community, or through the capitalizing of local food producers and value- added production.

List of Donors for 2008

Louis Abel Janis Alcorn Nancy J.P. Anderson Ann Anderson Gary Anerson Alison Antoun Claudia Avila Katie Bade Richard & Deborah Bancroft Bettina Barrett Vivian Barry Carole Ann Barth Coral & Gregory Bastien Sandra Beasley Thomas Bedard Elaine & Steven Beitelspacher Stephen Benton Don & Helen Berheim Vivian Berry David Bilides Evelyn Black Joy Boardman Bill Boksenbaum Linda Bonk Ruth Brin David Brisbin Bonnie Raitt C/O Provident Financial Management Common Roots Caf Paul Campbell Roald Cann Ms. Mimi Carlson Jim Carlstedt Sybil Carof Philip & Nancy Cayford Erica Christ Erica Christianson Pat Ciernia Sitting Bull College Sylvia Colton Marcia Conway Peter Cook W. Scott Cramer Dave Crawford H.S. Crosby Mortimer Cushman Deborah Davis Jackson Luca Del Negro Judith Demerath Mary-Carolyn Dorfman Alan & Claire Downes Timothy & Janet Dray Monika & Roland Dube Jeff & Lynne Ekola Harrington Bruce & Liza Eng Christa Ernst Robert Fall Barbara Fath John Fitzpatrick RMF Foundation The Saint Paul Foundation Leslie Fowler Robert Franke John & Janet Fredell Wendell Funk Susan Futrell John & Linda Gambrell Frieda Gardner Judith Gavin Al Gedicks Renee Getreu Mark Giese Larry Ginsberg Ailene Glatter Jerome P. Gleich Sherna Gluck Mary Gmeiner Ken & Nancy GoodhueMcWilliams Kenneth Goodhue-McWilliams John T. OConnor Trust Gravestar, Inc. James Gray Margaret Green Ken & Jeannie Green Elizabeth Cox Gregory Steele Jan Griesinger

Pine Point Elementrary School kids picking Bear Island Flint Corn

(Beaulieu Township) * Heart Lake White Earth Village * Kimball - Round Lake Cemetary *

Mino- Waasamowin Natural Power

We began work on renewable energy in the last millen nium which is to say that we received a Department of Commerce grant to assess wind energy potential for the reservation in l997. In 2003, we erected our first wind turbine-a 25 Kw Jacobs- Gaa Noodin Oke- Mino- Waasamowin. We are clear that we need to move to renewable Gwe standing in the support tower for the Loland Wind Turbine energy and conservation. In this vein, we are now completing erection of our 75 kw Loland wind turbine- which will power our main offices, as well as NIIJII Broadcasting, making it the only wind powered radio station in Minnesota. With your support, we were also able to install solar heating panels on the homes of l0 tribal families in our area, and create a model, which has inspired broader participation in the renewable energy and the green economy by tribes in our region. Our sensibilities told us that the 700 households on fuel assistance on the White Earth Reservation were faced with extreme fuel poverty, and the solution was not just to secure funding to pay their fuel bills, but to reduce those bills significantly instead . We were able to install a solar heating panel as well on the Red Lake Reservation in Ponemah, and which gathered great interest in that community , and in addition we have been requested to do a training for that reservation as well in the summer of 2008 so they may undertake a similar program. We are proud of this work.

promoted new ones. We leveraged our opposition to the Big Stone II proposal of Ottertail Power Corporation ( we are Ottertail Power customers) We continue to oppose this 500 megawatt plant, because it is unneeded to meet any demand, and because the coal era should be over. RDO Offutt, the largest independent potato grower in our region, leases tens of thousands of acres of our tribal lands. There are a number of very dangerous pesticides associated with potato growing, and there has been a good deal of aerial spraying, as well as concerns about shallow well contamination in the Pine Point community. To begin addressing this, we installed a drift catcher, which collects data on aerial spraying of chemicals used by industrial farmers growing monocrops such as soybeans and corn, and studied pesticides in the Pine Point Community. We worked to develop community awareness and held community meetings and with help from some partners like Pesticide Action Network, the Indigenous Environmental Network and EAGLE, developed several different educational fact sheets on pesticides, to educate community people about their effects on the development of children and overall health of the people.

Niijii Broadcasting : The Airwaves of White Earth

In July of 2008, the Federal Communications Corporation awarded our organization a license to operate a community-based radio station. We have joined with Leech Lake, Fond du Lac, and Nett Lake bands of Ojibwe in this process- Ojibwe will soon be heard across Northern Minnesota. We will be able to have vital dialogue in our community and participate in a larger voice in the north and nationally. We hope to begin later this year with streaming radio on the internet, and develop technical capacity for our radio station in 2010.

Environmental Justice:
In the mid l990s, we opposed clearcutting on lands on our reservation, not only in administrative processes, but in blockading a road through our property. In other words, a logger was trespassing on WELRP property to secure access to a clearcut -we blocked his passage, To encourage the alternative, we hosted a set of inter-agency meetings on forestry, issuing a report in l999 on Integrated Forestry Management. We secured Forest Stewardship Council certification for our maple syruping operation and lands. In 2000, we began our opposition to the genetic engineering of wild rice. We hosted meetings and reached out to all of the Ojibwe reservations in the US and received letters and resolutions opposing genetic engineering of wild rice from l9 Ojibwe tribes in the US and Canadian reserves , the Assembly of First Nations and Treaty 6 territories. We met a number of times with the University of Minnesota, and sought to dissuade them from geneticaly engineering any test plots of wild rice . We have both opposed environmentally destructive energy projects and
Harvesting Wild Rice at the White Earth Reservation in 2008

Our RelativesNamewag
We now watch when the relatives come home. Our sturgeon are returning as our tribal biology department coordinates one of the most extensive sturgeon restoration projects on the continent- as tens of thousands of these fish return to our reservation annually. The WELRP was involved in bringing home our relatives. Today, the Sturgeon Clan of our community rejoices.

Anderson- Round Lake Farm * Naytauwash Property- Cemetary * Gene Hill- (Sugarbush) * Mulari- (Sugarbush) Mino Akiing - 715 Acres - Thorpe Property * Reardon - 79 Acres * Skov- (Sugarbush)