Save native-owned Gray Fox Farm & Laurae's home!

Hello, all!

This situation has been such a back and forth and has been evolving rapidly as things change. We thank you for your patience and support during this whole time.

Currently, all of the funds we’ve raised are being / have been put towards legal representation for Laurae. Given that we just received a 90 day notice, bringing this to court to put a hold on this demand is likely inevitable, so funding will likely all be used up for the legal proceedings. However, we are now pushing to either buy the property or find someone who will buy it in lieu of us to either allow us to pay off and / or give us a 99-year lease. Because of these evolutions, we’ve started a new GoFundMe that we will be transitioning over to in order to keep the new situation and goal clear. All funds from this GFM and any future that are donated here will still be received by Laurae and used for her legal fees. The new fundraiser can be found here:

https://gofund.me/fd8bcf13

And mark your calendars for our exciting fundraiser festival coming up soon!

https://www.facebook.com/events/438993959099915/?ti=ls

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Please help save the only Native-owned farm in our valley and the homes of the four individuals who live there by raising legal fees for Laurae Hughes to defend her life’s work and means!

Gray Fox Farm owner and operator Laurae Hughes, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians and veteran, is being threatened with the possibility of being ousted from her home, losing her farm, and having the beautiful property she lovingly tends to sold and her hard work lost.

Laurae Hughes has owned and worked on Gray Fox Farm for years, building it up from what was once an abandoned and neglected junkyard into a bountiful and beloved local farm, even building her own cabin by hand. Laurae teaches a wide variety of classes to the local community, from canning to hide tanning to drum making, passing along vital ancestral knowledge and helping individuals learn to both be self-sufficient and able to provide resources for their community. She is currently working to start a nonprofit in order to expand her class offerings and make them more accessible to underrepresented and marginalized people so that everyone in the community can gain valuable life skills that might otherwise feel impossible to access. Laurae is also in the midst of finishing a huge greenhouse to grow food for the local food pantries. Her contributions to this community have been immeasurable, and her goal is to stay on the farm she loves so much while using it to provide for the community until the day she dies. She is an incredible gift to the area for both her tangible contributions and the knowledge and life experience she shares.

Gray Fox Farm was originally co-owned and purchased with a partner. Due to the cost and hassle of court proceedings, they decided to set the terms of splitting up communal property themselves, without legal assistance. Laurae has been tending to the property herself for three years now, but as of recently, the previous co-owner has requested $200,000, plus interest, to be paid within two years, plus a chunk of the farm infrastructure, in order to cover his initial investment in the farm as well as equity. While Laurae is willing to cover the cost and equity this individual invested and understands the request, as he used retirement funds to invest in the property and she is understanding of the need to pay this back, she is simply not able to cover it on such a short timeline, and a pro-bono lawyer made it clear that legal representation to re-negotiate terms may cost up to six figures.

Laurae simply does not have the means to meet such demands, nor should she be faced with the possibility of losing her home and farm if she doesn’t meet a request that no small farmer could manage. We hope to help raise funds to cover a lawyer who will represent Laurae’s interests and settle a more practical agreement. Anyone with any concern for small local farms, the community, and the rights of those historically abused by the systems of power in this country should instantly recognize that action must be taken to protect Laurae and Gray Fox Farm.

Thank you very much for your time and for standing up for our community members in times of great duress.