Alejandra (Alex) Sanchez
She/her/hers
Mondovi, Wisconsin
Alejandra (Alex) Sanchez is the textile artist and shepherd behind A Woolen Forest Farm. The farm’s focus is the conservation of endangered heritage sheep breeds and the preservation of ancient textile practices. The farm is home to a herd of Angora rabbits, three llamas, and a mixed flock of heritage breed sheep which include: Soay, Jacob, and Leicester Longwool. Alex was born in Mexico and sought textile arts as a way to connect with her ancestry and to feel rooted to her homeland. Her work in textiles encourages folks to connect with the land and its animals and to view their wool-craft as a form of stewardship and a piece of living history. Alex teaches classes on wool spinning, wool processing, natural dyeing, heritage breed studies, and historically-based textile practices.
Chrystal A. Odin
They/them/their (all pronouns accepted)
Osceola, Wisconsin
Chrystal A Johnson (Odin) is a Queer and ADOS mother, consultant, facilitator, educator, seed-keeper and florist/farmer with over 5 years of professional experience in flower & vegetable farming rooted in “regenerative” global indigenous agricultural practices. Born in western Pennsylvania, Chrystal grew up in rural central MN and currently resides in Osceola WI. As an artist, Chrystal uses a multi-disciplinary approach blending visual & performance arts with agricultural & practical handwork to learn and educate for the liberation of all beings. Utilizing "storytelling through doing", we embark on a journey through our own relationship with nature and intersections with culture.
Hannah Breckbill
She/her/hers
Decorah, Iowa
Hannah Breckbill is a farmer with Humble Hands Harvest, a worker-owned cooperative that is a celebration of place-based community and real work that gives life. She also loves to envision and work toward the better world that is made possible by our experimentation, commitment, and good faith. Hannah loves to write, to speak, to gather people around a kitchen table or a fire, and to improvise.
Lera Hephner
She/her/hers
Ogema, Minnesota
Lera Hephner is the artist behind Ojiberish Designs, which pays homage to her Ojibwe tribal roots. Her art uses natural materials like birch bark, quills from porcupines, and shells, as well as modern materials such as beads, paint, textiles, and digital art. She is an Ojibwe Language and Culture teacher who uses her knowledge and art to revitalize pre-contact art forms while simultaneously combining them with modern and contemporary art forms. Her hopes are to educate others through her art to change people's preconceived notions of who Ojibwe people are- not a people of the past and primitive, but rather who are alive and thriving and have much to offer the world, especially through their unique and rich art.
Lynne Colombe
She/her/hers
Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation
Lynne (she/her) grew up in the agricultural and Lakota worlds. While she never learned to drive a tractor, she now films them along with the many bucking horses on the family ranch. An educator by trade, Lynne continues to build connections and create opportunities in the arts by getting out there and making it happen with whatever equipment is at hand. She is a proud grandma to one grandson, Lucky, aged 2 years old; and mom to three awesome adult children. Lynne looks forward to completing at least one major film project and creating authentic snapshots about Native American lands and agriculture as a Rural Regenerator Fellow.
Marcella Prokop
She/her/hers
Beaver Creek, Minnesota
Marcella Prokop is a writer and educator who is passionate about helping people tell their stories. She has done this work as an English tutor, a creative writing instructor, and a DEI program director. But guided by the belief that education and expression through storytelling are fundamental human rights, since 2009 she has led writing workshops in community spaces to facilitate connection. As a beekeeper, farm owner and someone who has lived in the rural Midwest for more than 30 years, Marcella brings her writing workshops into nature and asks participants to reflect on their relationship to and with place.
Megan L. Bull Bear
She/her/hers
Mankato, Minnesota
Megan L. Bull Bear, a member of the Sicangu Oyate (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), founded Lakota Made LLC in 2017. Raised on her grandparents' farm, Megan's early fascination with plants was nurtured by her uncle and great-grandmother, leading to a deep connection with nature and traditional Lakota knowledge. After overcoming personal struggles, she dedicated herself to Indigenous medicine. Through Lakota Made, Megan creates small-batch, natural products that honor her heritage, uplift other Indigenous entrepreneurs, and share her knowledge widely.
Monica Cady
She/her/we/us
Hessel, Michigan 1836 ceded territory Ojibwe Nation
Monica Cady, also known as Waubishkee-Gog-Kway, (White Porcupine Woman) is a member of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians and resides in the Boreal forest of Hessel, Michigan. She designs pollinator gardens, leads plant walks to teach how to forage wild edibles sustainably, does plant rescues and land restoration. Last year with the help of two fellow water protectors, she began the rematriation of eleven acres as a botanical sanctuary that will be part of the United Plant Savers network. She has a B.A. in Environmental Studies/Sustainable Community Development with an Indigenous Perspective from Prescott College.
Regina M. Laroche
She/her/hers
Mooningwanakaaning/Madeline Island on Lake Superior, Northern Wisconsin
Regina M. Laroche’s Art-Spirit-Land life is seeded from her mother's rural South Carolina upbringing, her father's Haitian Afro-Caribbean culture, varied faith and culture anchors, and the environment of family, land, Lake and community. Her small scale farming, community arts and spirit life is dedicated to nourishing and healing bodies, earth, spirits, and communities - especially from impacts of historical racial inequities and wounds. Regina’s dance/story/food grows on Diaspora Gardens - a Lake Superior micro-farm, and in her Planting Connections, Planting Hope partnerships with St. Mark AME Giving Garden and Manitou Makoons Gitigaan food sovereignty and healing justice farm.
Shelley Buffalo
She/her/hers
Meskwaki Settlement, Tama, Iowa
Shelley Buffalo is an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Tribe and lives on her tribal land near Tama, Iowa. As an artist, activist, organizer and mother centered in Indigenous futurism, land justice and land back, her work converges at the human need to rebuild the cultural village for future generations. It is her belief that a livable future comes from our collective creativity to imagine humans being beyond colonial paradigms of extraction and exploitation. Shelley's right forearm tattoo is based on a 1730 drawing/watercolor of a Meskwaki warrior, "Guerrier Renard" (Tattooed Fox Warrior).
Stephen Robert Webster
He/him/his
Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin
Stephen Webster is an Oneida Tribal Member living on the Oneida Reservation who is a farmer. Him and his wife built a 10 acre farmstead called Ukwakhwa (Oneida for Our Foods). The farm specializes in traditional Indigenous farming practices, heirloom seed keeping, education, food demonstrations, traditional tools and crafts. His goals include creating a safe space for our community to reconnect to our foods & culture.
Susan Mayo
She/her/hers
Peabody, Kansas
Dr. Susan Mayo is active as a cellist, composer, and community arts organizer. She is co-executive director of Flint Hills Counterpoint an ecology arts non-profit, board chair of the Historic Sunflower Theatre, Music Director for Symphony in the Flint Hills’ fall event Woodfest. She performs regularly with a variety of ensembles including the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Switchgrass String Quartet, and Multifarious. She lives on 14 acres in rural Kansas with her husband, a dog, a cat, and 4 goats.