Dear Friends,
I want to thank you for all that you do in this world, and for your past support of our work. I also want to take this opportunity to share with you our most recent work.
Our elders have always told us that we must put our minds together to make a better future for our children. And, they have instructed us on the path ahead, one of restoring balance and our covenant with Mother Earth. That’s the work of Akiing. We are deepening our work and moving ahead on the green path for our future, restoring food and ecosystems, renewable energy, and the creation of new hope for our communities.
It’s the time of Manoominike, or wild rice making, here on the White Earth reservation. And this year, we, among the other parchers of White Earth reservation, carefully wood parched a few thousand pounds of wild rice to make sure that people could eat, and our friends could have this food as well.
Harvesting Wild Rice, White Earth reservation, @1960.
Akiing is proud to present manoomin for your fall feasts and gifts. This is the gift of the waters of the north country, and all we have to do is care for the waters and we are able to harvest, just as our ancestors did for a thousand years on the same lakes. Manoomin is our life.
Akiing has been working since 2019, in collaboration with our advocacy work and community organizations, to buy and protect land, to create the Giiwedinong Museum, and to nurture solar and renewable energy work
Our work is founded in our village — Pine Point (Ne-jingwakokawadijiw) and Mooningwaanikaaning (Madeline Island), the homeland and spiritual center of our Anishinaabe people. That’s where we heal. In just five years, we’ve transformed vision into action.
Akiing purchased land, creating the base from which we will grow the food of the future, fields of hemp, and protect and restore forests and ecosystems. With your support, we’ve secured nearly 1,000 acres of our traditional land, including 200 acres of Madeline Island, our cultural center. That land is where we farm, grow hemp, and create the Green Path. This land is the heart of our “LandBack” movement.
Piarre Wilson and Chester Retz with Bees on Akiing land.
In 2023, we founded the Giiwedinong Museum of Anishinaabe Culture and Treaty Rights in the historic Carnegie Library in Park Rapids, Minnesota, the heart of the 1855 Treaty Territory. In May of 2025, we were able to transfer title of the Giiwedinong Museum to the community board of the museum, and again see our work grow and flourish.
By the end of 2025, we will have supported the installation of a 500 kw solar project in the village of Pine Point. That solar project, led by the 10 Power, a renewable energy developer, combined with Akiing and the Pine Point Elementary School, will allow the tribal school to be entirely self-sufficient, and also provide battery back up for a Pine Point Resilience hub. This is what the future looks like — efficiency and local energy. Power to the People
https://thecirclenews.org/environment/pine-points-resilience-solar-and-energy-hub-on-we-breaks-ground/
This is more than a moment in history — it is the time of prophecy. A time to act boldly, heal our land, and honor our ancestors’ vision.
As Anishinaabe, we know that our way of life on the land is more durable than an economy based on extraction, militarization and artificial intelligence. In the upcoming year, we hope to not only deepen our work in transitioning this economy to an earth- based way of life, but also to increase our advocacy work, against polluters and for Mother Earth. And, we are a place of learning and action for many other communities.
In the time of the Seventh Fire, our prophecies speak of a choice between two paths: one green and one scorched. This is that time. The crises of these times provide the mandate and the place for these actions. Our work is about creating the model of a transition for other communities to restore land based economies, to scale this work for villages, and ultimately for the Akiing, the north country.
Come visit us — see the solar project, our farms, and our murals — Pine Point Village, White Earth reservation!
Winona LaDuke, Strategic Development Coordinator
Here’s how to receive wild rice with your donation:
Donation of $100 - receive one pound of wild rice.
Donation of $50 - receive half pound of wild rice
Donation of ? - Miigwech for all that you do up north !!
If you’d like to mail a check for your donation & to receive your wild rice, include your name, address where your wild rice should be mailed, plus a phone number. Mail your request to: Akiing, PO Box 155, Ponsford, MN 56575 You may also visit https://www.akiing.org/donate to make your donation there.
To see our 2025 Update report, visit https://www.akiing.org/s/Akiing-Update-Report-Summer-2025.pdf
