Indigenous Partnerships for Land, Wolves, & Restoration
Conservation Rooted in Relationship
Indigenous-stewarded lands experience less deforestation and support greater biodiversity than even many national parks: the result of thousands of years of land relationship rooted in care, reciprocity, & balance.
At Women for Wolves, our Indigenous Partnerships & Grants Program reframes conservation by moving away from domination and extraction and toward symbiosis, kinship, and shared stewardship.
Through co-created programs, micro-grants, youth education, policy advocacy, storytelling, and hands-on land restoration - we work alongside Tribal Nations & Indigenous organizations to restore ecosystems and strengthen belonging.
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We follow the ecological & cultural knowledge of Tribal nations, Earth Daughters, Elders, youth, and knowledge keepers: centering sovereignty, TEK, cultural teachings, and community-defined priorities.
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Description tOur work is informed by board member Dr. Jessica Hernandez (Maya Ch’orti’ & Zapotec environmental scientist) and founder Anjali Ranadive, who integrate TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge), wolf ecology, and coexistence research.
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Many Indigenous nations such as our partners at Oglala Lakota describe wolves as teachers, protectors, strategists, and kin. This worldview shapes our conservation model: honoring wolves as partners in balance, not resources to manage.
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Our partnerships support wolf recovery, habitat restoration, youth empowerment, Indigenous food systems, and climate resilience, rooted in reciprocity rather than extraction.
OUR GUIDING FRAMEWORK
indigenous grant fund
With Earth Daughters, we launched the Earth Daughters Fund — a transnational microgrant program supporting Indigenous women, youth, and community-led climate & biodiversity work.
2024–2025 Grantees:
Uru Uru Team (Bolivia): Lake Uru Uru restoration through ancestral knowledge & nature-based solutions
Awän (Guatemala): Maya agroecology, seed sovereignty, ceremonial ecology, youth education
Duwamish Tribe (Washington): Indigenous-led archaeology field school, cultural resource protection
Biodiversidad y Territorio (Colombia): High-mountain biodiversity protection & water rights
Kee Cha-E-Nar (Yurok Tribe, California): Sovereignty-aligned justice and community healing work
Kumano I Ke Ala (Hawai‘i): Indigenous food systems, land stewardship, cultural resilience
These partnerships strengthen global Indigenous leadership in the very systems wolves depend on:
clean water, resilient forests, intact food webs, and community stewardship.
Core Indigenous Partnerships
Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians (California)
Official Educational & Land Restoration Partner
Together we are:
Co-creating water& wildlife education programs for Tribal youth
Developing story-based conservation curriculum
Restoring habitat & cultural plant species on the sanctuary land
Holding cultural exchange days with our wolf-dogs
Integrating Miwok knowledge into coexistence and land restoration
Our shared project is transforming the sanctuary into a Miwok-informed restoration site, honoring ancestral stewardship of the Sierra foothills where wolves once roamed.
Oglala Lakota BEAR Project (Pine Ridge Reservation)
Collaborative Narrative & Cultural Storytelling Partner
Wolves (Šuŋgmánitu Tȟáŋka) hold profound teachings in Lakota culture — loyalty, strategy, courage, and kinship.
Together, we are co-creating:
Narrative/storytelling content on Indigenous relationships with wolves
Cross-volunteering at each other’s nonprofits
Wolf & wildlife education at Pine Ridge
This partnership uplifts youth and restores the cultural stories that Western conservation erased.
Kumano I Ke Ala (Hawai‘i)
Indigenous Food Systems & Cultural Ecology Partner
We collaborate with Kumano I Ke Ala to uplift:
Microgrants for women’s canoeing and young women
Indigenous food sovereignty
Land-based healing
Cultural exchange & future uplifting of indigenous led land stewardship initiatives
These teachings inform our work restoring native plant systems and ecological function on the sanctuary land wolves depend on.
Earth Daughters
Indigenous Science • Advocacy • Indigenous Women Rising
Our work alongside Earth Daughters
Microgrant distribution
Indigenous science, advocacy TEK, compassionate conservation narratives on social media collaboratively
Collective research & Indigenous science integration into wolf conservation
Advocacy for Indigenous rights, land defense, and wildlife protection
Together, we mobilize communities across movements — climate justice, wolf conservation, women’s empowerment, and Indigenous sovereignty.
HOW INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP HELPS WOLVES
RESTORING HABITATS
Indigenous land stewardship supports:
Healthy forests
Clean watersheds
Prey species recovery
Natural fire cycles
Salmon & ungulate systems wolves rely on
ADVANCING COEXISTENCE
Indigenous TEK shapes our coexistence work:
Predator-prey relationships
Non-lethal practices
Pack-based ethics
Ecological balance concepts
STRENGTHENING POLICY AND ADVOCACY
We support policies that:
Protect wolves
Uphold Tribal sovereignty
Integrate TEK into state wildlife planning
Challenge lethal control and colonial wildlife models
Restoring Cultural Relationships
We uplift Indigenous stories of the Wolf Nation — helping communities understand wolves as relatives, not threats.
Youth Education
Indigenous youth are future conservation leaders; we create programs to reconnect them with wolves, land, and ancestral teachings.
Our Sanctuary’s Indigenous Restoration Project
At our California sanctuary, we are working with Miwok, Nisenan, and Maidu partners to:
Restore native plants and oak woodlands
Rebuild drought-resilient habitat
Integrate cultural burning and TEK practices
Create Indigenous-led educational trails
Develop a wolf-centered ecological learning site
This is not just conservation — it is cultural return, land healing, and ecological rebalancing.
Moving Forward: 2026 & Beyond
Indigenous-led wolf coexistence research
Narrative sovereignty & storytelling
Climate justice collaborations
Policy advocacy to protect wolves across the West
Youth cultural + ecological leadership programs
Additional microgrant rounds
Cross-Tribal conservation summits
Shared land restoration and ecological monitoring
This movement is Indigenous-led, women-powered, youth-driven, and wolf-guided.
JOIN US
If your Indigenous nation, youth program, or community organization is seeking partnership, storytelling collaboration, cultural exchange, or conservation support:
We rise together. We restore together. We protect the Wolf Nation together.