About the Center

Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice

We’ve spent most of our lives teaching people, Native and non-Native, to care for the earth the way our ancestors did. The Center is where that work lives now. It sits on ten acres in Yamhill, Oregon, on the traditional lands of the Kalapuya people, and the whole place is a classroom.

We use North American Traditional Indigenous Knowledge as our guide. That means we teach the whole person, mind, spirit and body. Most of the learning happens with your hands in the dirt or around the fire, not in a lecture hall.

Pasture and hills at Eloheh in Yamhill, Oregon

The view from Eloheh, Yamhill, Oregon

What we teach

  • Decolonizing and re-indigenizing your Western worldview and Western faith tradition
  • Regenerative farming as spiritual practice
  • Seed saving and seed sovereignty
  • Native plants, wild-tending and plant medicines
  • Indigenous spirituality and values
  • Food, health and climate
  • Racial equity and ecological justice

Who comes

Families, college classes, schools, churches and denominations, environmental groups and community organizations. Eloheh is interfaith. You don’t have to believe what we believe to learn here, though we’re guessing you’ll leave thinking a little differently about the land.

Ways to learn with us

Mentoring

We walk alongside a number of people we mentor, with priority given to Indigenous leaders.

A mentoring circle on the porch at ElohehThe sweat lodge frame at Eloheh

Schools

Thursday afternoon through Sunday noon, groups live and learn with us on the farm.

A school group with Randy and Edith at ElohehA teaching circle in the Eloheh learning centerRandy teaching in the learning centerDinner together during a school at Eloheh

Groups and retreats

Weekend schools and longer stays. You work the farm, then learn under the trees or by the fire with elders.

A group by the tipi at ElohehTeaching under the oaks at ElohehA farm talk with a visiting groupA quiet moment reading at Eloheh

Online cohorts

For leaders who want to decolonize and indigenize their worldview and their leadership.

Volunteering

We host and train volunteers through the growing season. Volunteer with us →

Our story

Eloheh began in January 1999 as Eagle’s Wings, an organization to empower Indigenous people to reclaim their spirituality, their values and their land. In time, non-Native folks started showing up wanting to learn too, so we opened the door wider.

Our first farm was in Kentucky. We lost it after years of trouble with local and federal officials and an armed and violent white supremacist group. We started over on 3.75 acres in Newberg, Oregon, and spent nine years restoring it. A Grand Ronde elder told us to plant huckleberries and other native plants, so we did. In 2019 we had to sell that place.

In March 2020 we found our permanent home near Yamhill. We’re restoring it as an oak savanna, the way this valley used to look, and we’ve built a learning center, housing for students and volunteers, and the farm and seed operation that keeps us going.

Eloheh is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under Eloheh/Eagle’s Wings.

Randy and Edith Woodley

Randy and Edith Woodley

Come learn with us

Tell us about your group and what you hope to learn, and we’ll talk it through.