By Kristine Hansen | Photography by Hillary Schave
With a goal to provide mentorship for Indigenous chefs and food professionals, Elena Terry founded the nonprofit Wild Bearies in 2019, and in 2022, it became a 501(c)(3) organization. Terry serves as its executive chef. One facet of her Wisconsin Dells-based nonprofit is training people how to become chefs. However, Wild Bearies’ mission folds in much more than that.
“There are a lot of life skills learned in the kitchen space,” says Terry, an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. “Wild Bearies is for individuals trying to overcome alcohol and other addictions, and emotional trauma, through the healing power of food. Food as medicine means so much more to us.”
The nonprofit was born during the pandemic, when an international culinary mentorship program started by Terry under the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance switched to an online format. Terry notes the switchover “was not a successful switchover, and a lot of people were not supported.”
Catering services — staffed by the chefs in training — help fund mentorships through Wild Bearies.
Another Wild Bearies project is a community garden on Ho-Chunk Nation land that provides food for the community while also training gardeners, farmers and growers on launching a lucrative profession.
Before launching Wild Bearies, Terry worked at restaurants in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton. She also served as an educational advocate for over a decade for the Ho-Chunk Nation, and was even a tribal legislator for a short period. “I had worked really hard to be an elected official [but] had an epiphany that this is not the job for me,” she says.
This journey led her to follow a lifelong passion for food. Since then, Terry has become in demand, appearing in 2024’s “Top Chef: Wisconsin,” and as a contestant on the Food Network’s “BBQ Brawl” and “Chopped,” this past summer and in 2023, respectively. While it’s thrilling to share her Native food traditions with a wider audience beyond Wisconsin, Terry feels most connected to her ancestral lands.
“I’ve always been involved with food … in my community and in my tribe. I’ve had a lot of healing for myself personally to be able to cook at ceremonies or in traditional ways or to support my community when they needed to be cared for,” says Terry. “There’s a reason I do my work in Wisconsin Dells. This is my home. This is where the earth feels good.”
What is your favorite traditional dish that you like to make at home?
Everything about the squash represents beauty and bounty of the harvest. That’s why it’s my favorite ingredient. I enjoy it very simply, with butter, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice.”
