MEDICINE WHEELS

MEDICINE WHEELS

  • Pine Ridge Reservation

    Our newest Medicine Wheels chapter is on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This fall, we will be creating indoor events for youths who face high rates of suicide and depression.

  • Fort Berthold Reservation

    In May 2022, Medicine Wheels rolled into the Fort Berthold Reservation at the moment school let out to create a sober community and distribute gear to Indigenous youth.

  • Friendship House

    In January 2021, we provided 31 skateboards to Indigenous youth, who are part of the youth program at Friendship House, for a community skateboarding event.

Seeding Sovereignty was on the ground responding to the global pandemic since March 2020 and saw firsthand its disproportionate and devastating impact on Indigenous communities. We launched the rapid response Indigenous Impact Community Care Initiative On April 10, 2020. By November 2020 as the pandemic raged, our young people were wading through foreseeable uncertainties while grappling with COVID frontline challenges as Indigenous students, care providers, and in many cases, sources of income for household survival. COVID-19 forced children, teens, and young adults to completely rearrange their lives to ensure the safety of themselves and others - midst little to no programming to address the extreme toll on their mental health and isolation. Our Medicine Wheels Global Giving campaign launched November 2020 and raised funds for gear and inspired a 5K donation that we used to gift gear to 31 Indigenous youths at the Native American Friendship House.

Beyond survival, we are committed to youth thrival! Our mutual aid youth programing has since grown from a gear giveaway for youth and their families heavily hit by COVID-19 into a mission driven, multi-chapter, reservation based leadership program that brings joy, teaches skills, and creates healthy community for isolated Indigenous youths to reconnect with the land through movement and community building by shredding and rolling on Indigenous lands!

Our mission is to bring the power of wheels and movement to hundreds of frontline youth to foster joy and cultivate the values of liberation, safety, and community power. In a world that has been largely shaped by crisis and stripped away the agency of so many, we seek to equip youth with the skills and practices to reclaim power, reminding them that they have a say in their future.

Our vision is a world that recognizes the inherent connections between health of the mind, body, and earth as one in the same. Indigenous youth feel included, empowered, and connected to one another -- and all celebrate, honor, and protect the lands they inhabit.