213: Medicine Wheel Ride - Shelly Denny

On this week’s episode of The 1 Girl Revolution Podcast, we welcome the phenomenal Shelly Denny, co-founder of Medicine Wheel Ride - a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to raising awareness and support for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) and their families.

Shelly lives in Arizona and is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, which is an Anishinaabe Tribe in Northern Minnesota, also known as Ojibway or Chippewa. She is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and works full time in Indian Country as an acupuncturist. Shelly grew up in a biker family and has been on a motorcycle since she was in the womb. In 1996, at 19 years old,  she bought her first motorcycle and hasn’t let go of the throttle since. Shelly has logged over a quarter million miles on a motorcycle with numerous cross-country trips, many of which were solo rides.

Shelly’s activism started in her teen years and she became an organizer and volunteer in groups like Earth First, Food Not Bombs, Catholic Worker Community, and Indigenous rights groups in various peace and justice issues. After seeing the egotism and anger that can get in the way of good activist work, Shelly took a break from direct action to work on internal healing of trauma and addiction and develop healthy and productive modes of coping with obstacles and difficulties. This groundwork of healing and recovery has added a deeper level of resilience and commitment to service. Shelly believes there is great power in knowing exactly who you are and spiritual commitment that extends beyond mere faith.

In this episode, you’ll hear: 

• Shelly’s inspiring life story;

• Her experience being raised in a biker family, in the Indigenous community, and being in-and-out of the foster care system;

• How Shelly goe into volunteerism and activism - and how that was her “rebellion”;

• About the crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Relatives;

• How the Medicine Wheel Ride came to be and all about their incredible work to raise awareness and support for MMIW/MMIR;

• And so much more. 

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***Note: Shelly founded an indigenous women's riding group in 2018 and from that, several women came together to found the Medicine Wheel Ride nonprofit organization.

For more information on Shelly and the Medicine Wheel Ride, please visit: www.1GirlRevolution.com/ShellyDenny

For more information on 1 Girl Revolution, to listen to all of our podcast episodes, watch our Emmy-nominated documentaries, and more, please visit: www.1GirlRevolution.com