Trillium Cooperative is a women-owned, Indigenous-led consulting cooperative serving rural and Indigenous communities. We have partnered with organizations, institutions, and communities across Montana, Wyoming, and Indian Country to strengthen local solutions, advance food sovereignty, support economic and cooperative development, and create more meaningful ways for communities to shape their own futures.

Our work has included community engagement with the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, cooperative education and technical assistance across Wyoming through our partnership wit the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Cooperative Development Center. We are also working in food sovereignty and local food systems solutions on the Wind River Reservation with the Wind River Food Sovereignty Project and on the Crow Reservation with Apsaalookee Immiio, Plenty Doors Community Development and Spotted Tail Holistic Health . Our work ranges from community engagement and project development to cooperative education and development, market assessment, business planning, and implementation support.

We have also partnered with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium on cooperative technical assistance, workforce development, and economic opportunities within Tribal colleges and communities. We are working with Diné College on strategic planning and project development for meat and wool processing initiatives. Across these projects, we help partners clarify resources, strengthen collaboration, explore new models, and move ideas toward action.

Education and facilitation are central to our work. We have delivered interactive presentations and workshops for organizations including the Native American Development Corporation, Indian Agricultural Council, Montana Economic Developers Association, International Symposium on Co-operative Identity and Branding, and CooperationWorks! Our sessions are engaging and fun, We create space for shared learning, conversation, problem-solving, and applying new ideas to participants’ own communities and organizations.

Across our work, we listen first, work alongside the people closest to the issue, and help build the relationships, structures, and tools needed to move ideas forward. As a worker-owned cooperative, we practice the same principles we promote in our work. For us, co-operations isn’t new, it is a continuation of an old system expressed in a new modern model. Shared ownership, democratic decision-making, accountability, and reciprocity shape how we work with one another and with our partners. We believe the way we organize our work should reflect the kind of economic and community development we want to see; collaborative, equitable, and centered on the people who are creating it.