MEET OUR TEAM

Jerry Lee Chilton

INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • Jerry Lee is an Ojibwe descendant who was born and raised in the White Earth area, inspiring a love for nature he has carried with him his entire life.

    The Chilton family is a hardworking family, and through his youth, Jerry Lee learned a lot about farming, carpentry, and car mechanics from the older members of his family. Through hard work & dedication, Jerry Lee has grown his skills & added more to his toolkit after joining the team here at Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute.

    After the retirement of some of the lead staff of AAI, Jerry Lee stepped up as the Interim Executive Director and has taken the organization's reins & moved operations forward.

    “I don’t like making excuses, I like seeing things through.

Winona LaDuke

RESEARCH DIRECTOR

  • Harvard-educated economist, environmental activist, author, hemp Farmer, grandmother, and a two-time former Green Party Vice President candidate with Ralph Nader. LaDuke specializes in rural development, economic, food, and energy sovereignty and environmental justice. Living and working on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, she co-founded Honor the Earth with The Indigo Girls 28 years ago, and has since founded Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, Akiing, and Winona’s Hemp. These organizations develop and model cultural-based sustainable development strategies utilizing renewable energy and sustainable food systems.

Darren Klarer

HEMP PROJECT COORDINATOR

Kara Knowles

FARM AND HORSE PROGRAM COORDINATOR

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

James Reents

  • Jim’s interest in horses was an early basis for a lasting friendship with Winona LaDuke. She refers to him as “Cowboy”, a name he is honored to wear. He helped and supported the hose rides along the Lind 3 Route and taught some of the early horse clinics for native youth. Jim  believes AAI’s continued emphasis on horses and youth development is an important aspect of the organization.

    Jim is a retired architect and construction manager who has always had an interest in traditional construction materials and their uses today. During his professional career he worked in both the public and private sectors including a HUD Grant on Dinetah (the Navaho Nation) to use available natural materials to create self-help housing on Tribal Trust lands. The use of cannabis hemp in building materials and solar solutions are of great interest to Jim.

Joe Morales

  • Joe Morales is half Yaqui Indian and half German, born in Virginia and raised in Southern California. Joe did not grow up with traditional teachings; his introduction to the Lakota way of life – the Good, Red Road – began at age 15. That’s when he met John Funmaker, a Lakota spiritual person, who helped Joe begin a journey that has taken him from protesting the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo in 1981, to fighting against Line 3 while standing up for #LandBack, food sovereignty, treaty rights, and MMIWR in northern Minnesota today. 

    Joe has been a boots on the ground organizer for 40 years adding his skills to work for healing and social justice & climate justice. He worked to fight extractive industries starting in the early 1990’s against Peabody Coal mines up to today against such companies as Huber mill and Enbridge. Joe is also active in upholding treaty rights and landback efforts.

    Over the last 42 years Joe has learned and been gifted the ceremonies and teachings he carries today. He firmly believes that sharing traditional ecological knowledge, traditional teachings, and ceremony with the Oyate (the people), regardless of their background, is vital to the healing of Maka Ina (Mother Earth). 

    Joe lives in Northern Mni’sota with his partner and son. They practice traditional ecological knowledge on the land that they care for and teach permaculture and wild tending/foraging. The land also serves as a place of ceremony and as a safe space for water protectors and those working against the black snake as well as Environmental Justice activists.

Terri LaDuke

  • Teresa LaDuke is an Anishinaabe granny and artist in several genres - beadwork, painting and writing. She lives in the Village of Pine Point where all the beautiful people live on the White Earth Reservation.

    Terri also works with the White Earth DOVE (Down ON Violence Everyday) Organization. Program that serves victims of Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Stalking, Dating Violence, Elder Abuse, Trafficking and General Crime and provides services to Native and non-Native women, men and youth who live on or near the White Earth Reservation.

Peter Ellis

  • Coming Soon