Restore, Revive, Revitalize Anishnaabe Culture

White Earth Land Recovery Project's mission is to facilitate the recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation while preserving and restoring traditional practices of sound land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and strengthening our spiritual and cultural heritage.

We work to Restore, Revive, & Revitalize Anishnaabe traditional practices, language, arts, & cultural heritage. Our work centers around "wellness;" wellness of the body, mind, and the environment. With flourishing disparities amongst Indigenous people such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, we are working to alleviate and reduce these issues through food projects that include Decolonize our Diets meal kit project, WE Grow establishing family gardens across our reservation and distributing grow boxes to our elders, and an Indigenous Mind Body Medicine curriculum that teaches self regulation and mindfulness. That is just to name a few. 

Through a grant from the Minnesota Humanities Center we are able to offer cultural art and craft classes as we revitalize & revive tradition on the reservation. Successful classes include young men's hand drum making, ribbon skirt & ribbon shirt making, and birch bark biting & painting. 

A few numbers that stand out are: 1,920 individual meals distributed in 2023 through Decolonize Our Diets, with the same amount anticipated as we finish 2024. 80 acres of land returned to the Tribe with another 121 acres by the end of Januray 2025. 24 women participated in Indigenous Mind Body Medicine classes, and over 120 individuals participated in traditonal arts classes. Some targeted youth, others both youth and adults for participation. We are working to ensure our cultural heritage survives and thrives. 

Our radio station Niijii Radio plays a vital role in the community. Looking through the lens of an elder, the radio station may be the only companion one has in a day. KKWE brings pow wow music, Indigenous education, bad jokes, and Native news programs to our community. The station is led by a community advisory board.

We have, as our mission states, are "recovering the origal land base of the reservation" by returning 80 acres in 2024 and working to return another 121 acres by January 31, 2025 to the White Earth Indian Reservation Business Committee. This effort began in 1989 and has brough great success over the past year and a half. 

We are asking you to help, help us to continue serving the Anishinaabe of White Earth in a good way. Donate today.