Winona's Hemp & Heritage Farm Legacy Apprenticeship 2025

Friends,

Anishinaabe prophecies foresee a time of return to our Mother Earth--a time when we grow our own foods and restore our balanced relationship with all. At Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm and the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, in proud partnership with the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund, we are coming closer to realizing this time of transformation. We have two terrific apprentices--Nuur and Maitri--and we write today to ask you to help continue their momentum with donations to secure $8000 to cover their wages, housing, food, and transportation.  

We are Anishinaabe families farming on the White Earth reservation, in the land of lakes, on our traditional territory. Guided by principles of stewardship and reciprocity, we cultivate our traditional crop varieties--corn, beans, squash, potatoes--and we restore the soil, because this is life. Our fields provide food for our village, ceremonies, and elders as a model for the future of food. In a world of climate change, shrinking biodiversity, and relentless extraction, traditional Indigenous knowledge restores life. 

For four years, we’ve worked with ASLF to train the next generation of farmers. This year, Nuur and Maitri bring more to our community--skills, intercultural knowledge, and fresh eyes to the work we do. These two gifted young people have been extraordinary in their understanding of and commitment to our hard and culturally based work. We started our season by revitalizing our industrial hemp plots, planting elder’s gardens, three sisters gardens, community gardens, and connecting with other Indigenous farmers. In the month ahead, we plan to research, observe, and document plant growth, expand social media outreach, shepherd goats, sell produce and hemp goods at local farmers markets, and continue stewarding this land. 

We want to have one more abundant month with these two wonderful people, and we hope you can help us make this possible with a modest contribution. For every $250 donated, we will gift a pound of our wild rice. For larger contributions, we will offer a gift basket. 

We can’t thank you all enough for making this partnership possible. 

Winona, Maitri, and Nuur