White Earth Land Recovery Project

Activist Winona LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) in 1989 in response to environmental destruction and a land-tenure crisis in the White Earth Reservation of Ojibwe. Since then, WELRP has taken steps to recover stolen land, to aid and educate Ojibwe communities, to maintain traditional culture, and to restore sustainable ways of life.

In 1986, the federal White Earth Reservation Land Settlement Act (WELSA) cleared the clouded titles to 100,000 acres of privately owned land on the White Earth Reservation. Although it ended legal disputes by providing compensation, land, and funds for economic development, the act also prevented White Earth citizens from investigating land theft by non-Native people since the nineteenth century. Deforestation, meanwhile, endangered the ecosystems of the woodlands themselves.

These environmental and land-ownership crises inspired White Earth enrollee Winona LaDuke to found the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) in 1989. To accomplish its primary task—returning land to the tribal government—the new non-profit organization began the work of raising funds to buy back parcels of White Earth land from willing sellers. It expanded its mission in 1993 by launching a Sustainable Communities initiative, designed to incorporate traditional Anishinaabeg lifeways into modern/Euro-American culture. The initiative promoted sustainable farming, clean energy, and cultural revitalization.

WELRP’s work intensified as the 1990s progressed. When mercury contaminated lakes at White Earth, preventing tribal members from fishing, WELRP cooperated with the Indigenous Environmental Network and Clean Water Action Project to raise awareness of the connection between power plants and mercury poisoning. The Wadiswaan Project, begun in 1995, focused on Ojibwe-language education in tribal schools and organized immersion retreats for youth. And by 1999, WELRP had bought back over 1,300 acres of reservation land. Most of it was sugarbush forest that supported the traditional Ojibwe practice of maple-sugar harvesting.

Also during the 1990s, WELRP reseeded reservation land with traditionally and organically grown crops, including manoomin (wild rice), beans, squash, tobacco, and heritage corn varieties. It worked to ensure a fair price for farmers and gatherers selling these goods at market. In 1994, WELRP launched the company Native Harvest to help Indigenous entrepreneurs sell their products, including wild rice, buffalo sausage, and maple syrup.

With the help of PlainState Energy Associates and a grant from the Minnesota Department of Environmental Quality, WELRP analyzed the potential for wind energy at White Earth in the early 2000s. It installed a Jacobs twenty-kilowatt wind turbine on a tribal member’s farm near Waubun in 2002. By 2014, there were three wind turbines on White Earth: one in Naytahwaush; a second that had replaced the 2002 installation; and a third near the Reservation Tribal Council Building in the town of White Earth.

In 2002, WELRP learned that researchers at the University of Minnesota had mapped a portion of the wild rice genome. The researchers had no plans for genetic engineering, but environmentalists, including Ojibwe people, worried that genetic mutations threatened the state’s wild rice beds. In another effort to conserve a sacred crop, the White Earth Nation banned the cultivation of genetically modified wild rice within its borders. WELRP, meanwhile, extended its reach across Minnesota by promoting a legislative bill (S.F. 1566/H.F 1382) to prohibit the growth of genetically engineered wild rice throughout the state. A revised version of the bill became law in 2007.

In October of 2007, WELRP applied for a community broadcast license with plans to open one of the first Native American radio stations in the US. Local community members welcomed the chance to hear Native voices on the radio, and Niijii Radio KKWE 89.9FM aired its first show on November 11, 2011. Broadcasting to the people of White Earth from Calloway, Minnesota, the station evolved to provide independent news, music, Ojibwe-language programming, and a streaming service for online listeners.

LaDuke stepped down from her role as executive director of WELRP in 2014. She was succeeded by Bob Shimek and then by Margaret Rousu, who officially took over as executive director in 2020. LaDuke continued to serve as the executive director of Honor the Earth, a national outgrowth of WELRP dedicated to Native environmental issues.