Ekvn-Yefolecv Ecovillage: A Platform for Contemporary Indigenous Justice

Ekvn-Yefolecv is an intentional ecovillage community of Indigenous Maskoke persons who, after 180 years of having been forcibly removed from traditional homelands — in what is commonly/colonially known as Alabama — have returned for the purpose of practicing linguistic, cultural and ecological sustainability.

The term Ekvn-Yefolecv implicitly embodies a double entendre:
1) Returning to the earth
2) Returning to our homelands

With only a handful of speakers remaining, they are revitalizing the Maskoke language with children through an immersion program in which Maskoke language is the sole medium of instruction, and curriculum centers on traditional agricultural and ecological knowledge.

Designed as a holistic decolonization paradigm shift, residents of the ecovillage are manifesting an off grid, income sharing community on 1,206 acres of land with natural building construction, renewable energy and low-tech integrated regenerative systems. They are also reintroducing threatened animal species, culturally significant to Maskoke people, namely buffalo and sturgeon, while growing heirloom crops in a deliberate effort to decolonize their diets.

Vlahoke (uh-lah-hoe-ghee) will be an off grid eco-learning space for hosting retreats, board meetings, spiritual gatherings, academic field immersive education and other events that provide guests an opportunity to interface with integrated regenerative systems. Vlahoke will feature a farm-to-table restaurant and a museum that serves as an educational platform centering on historical and contemporary Indigenous justice. The vision of Ekvn-Yefolecv Maskoke ecovillage seeks to serve as an archetype for other Indigenous communities to model for a just transition to more equitable and linguistically, culturally and ecologically sustainable lifeways.