The White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to recover land for the Anishinaabeg people on the White Earth Indian Reservation

White Earth Indian Reservation

The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Nation, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in that state...

 in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. The organization was founded in 1989 by tribal member and former vice presidential

Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

 candidate Winona La Duke.

WELRP maintains that less than 10 percent of the White Earth Indian Reservation is held by Anishinaabeg Indians. WELRP aims to regain lands that were taken from the Anishinaabeg people through property theft and treaty abrogations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The organization also seeks to prevent the deforestation of the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg.

WELRP was recognized by the International Slow Food Congress for its efforts to restore local food systems and preserve wild rice

Wild rice

Wild rice is four species of grasses forming the genus Zizania, and the grain which can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both North America and China...

.

WELRP produces and sells traditional foods through its label, Native Harvest. The label currently offers hominy, wild rice, buffalo sausage, fry bread mix, chokecherry jelly, and raspberry preserves.