Dream of Wild Health

We grow seeds and leaders.

It's Give To The Max 2025! Help us replace our van!  

This summer, our youth program van was stolen. 

Friends and neighbors shared photos, sent messages, and reported sightings. Thanks to the work of our community, a good samaritan noticed our van and contacted our office. Due to everyone’s efforts and with the help of local police, the van was found. Despite all of this, the damages to the van were too great to repair, and it could not be used.

We were able to finish out the season by renting vans so that  our youth could attend, but this was a temporary fix.  Having our own van allows us to bring Youth Leaders to events and activities outside of the cities, like the buffalo harvest in Cheyenne River last Winter and the Native American Nutrition Conference in Shakopee Our van has become a place where youth bond, , tell stories, share laughter, practice language, and talk about what’s on their mind with their best friends. 

We are currently without a van and without all of the funds needed to replace it. Our insurance claim covers about half the cost of what is needed to fund the purchase of a new 15-passenger van. 

We are asking our relatives, friends, and partners to help us raise $35,000 for a new 15-passenger youth van for Give to the Max, which runs from November 1-20, 2025. Your gift will ensure that our youth can once again be picked up safely from the cities and travel to the farm or beyond, and continue learning about Indigenous foods, medicines, and culture.

Every dollar helps us get closer to putting our youth back on the road.

Dream of Wild Health (DWH) was established in 1998 as a garden program of Peta Wakan Tipi, founded in 1986 by our beloved late founder, Sally Auger. What began as a vision to restore and preserve the sacred connection between Native people and the land has blossomed into a thriving 30-acre farm, native fruit orchard, and pollinator meadow in Hugo, MN. With an office on the American Indian Cultural Corridor, DWH proudly serves the Native community throughout the Twin Cities metro area and beyond.

Our mission is to restore health and well-being in the Native community by recovering knowledge of and access to healthy Indigenous foods, medicines, and lifeways. We do this by: creating culturally-based opportunities for youth employment, entrepreneurship and leadership; increasing access to Indigenous foods through farm production, sales and distribution; and community organizing and outreach around reclaiming cultural traditions, healthy indigenous food, cooking skills, and policy and systems change. Our programs impact over 15,000 people annually from our youngest community members to our oldest. DWH is one of the leaders of a groundswell movement to reclaim Indigenous sovereignty through food. 

The vision of DWH is a place for our relatives to gather and rebuild a relationship with the land. It is a place of learning, celebration, belonging and community. The farm is a model of cultural recovery put into practice. The farm is a safe place for all of our relatives where we cherish and protect the seeds of our ancestors and where we keep our values alive. 

Your donation fuels our impactful programming and ensures we can sustain these vital efforts for generations to come. As our beloved late Cultural Director, Ernie Whiteman, often reminded us, “We grow seeds and leaders.” This vision continues to guide our work, nurturing the future of our land, our community, and our shared journey toward health and cultural renewal. 

Ashòògè (Apache), Ho’hou (Arapaho), WetAXkoosšteéRAt (Arikara), Pidamaya (Dakota), Ahéhee' (Diné), Pinagigi (Ho-Chunk), Miigwech (Ojibwe), Kherkhem (Tiwa), Chiokoe (Yoeme), Thank you!

The Dream of Wild Health Team, Youth and Community