In their native language, the name Lakota means “allies, friends or those who are united”. In this episode of the Regenerative Rising Podcast – Elevating Stories Activating Change, guest host Jessie Deelo invites Wizipan Little Elk, Citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, & CEO of Rosebud Economic Development Corporation to explore what it means to recenter allyship, cultural wealth, and humanity in our food system. Together they talk about the impacts of emerging market-based solutions, like regenerative agriculture, on Native producers. Wizipan shares his perspective on the dynamics of tribal governance, agriculture, food production, and food sovereignty and how the next generation of business is one that will produce outcomes that go far beyond the bottom line and into the healing and regeneration of social capital.
Wizipan Little Elk is a nationally recognized Young Native Leader. He was with Four Directions when he helped deliver record-breaking levels of Native voter turnout in 2004. Wizipan later joined Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for president as Native American Outreach Coordinator and was promoted to the campaign’s National First Americans Vote Director. After a successful campaign, Wizipan was named First Americans Public Liaison for the Obama Transition Team and later became Deputy Chief of Staff to the United States Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. In 2011, Wizipan returned home where he became the CEO of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation. He earned his B.A. from Yale and his J.D. in Indian Law from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law.
Tune in to learn about how our world would look if we elevated indigenous solutions for climate change, and what we can do as ally’s in transforming socio-economic inequities across our nation.