Stephanie is Kanien’kehá:ka, Wakeniáhten (Mohawk nation, Turtle clan), with her roots running deep in the lands of her ancestors at Six Nations of the Grand River, through her mother’s mother, Frances Catherine Schuler (née Hope), and her grandfather, Earl “Cub” Schuler. Her father’s family brings in a mix of Western and Eastern European ancestry. These days, she calls Holland, NY, home, but her heart beats across Haudenosaunee territories, from the Eastern Door kept by her people to the Dish With One Spoon territory in Southern Ontario, a shared landscape of Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and settler stewardship.
Stephanie wears many hats—or perhaps carry many seeds. She is a writer, community herbalist, land justice activist, and biocultural researcher, but at the heart of it all, she is a storyteller connecting people, plants, and the land. Stephanie’s work bridges Indigenous and Western paradigms, helping communities reclaim relationships with the natural world and each other.
As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC), she’s been honored to help build pathways to land sovereignty for BIPOC farmers and Indigenous communities. Through NEFOC’s Indigenous Reciprocity and Partnerships program, she’s collaborated with nations including the Nipmuc, Passamaquody, Penobscot, Onondaga, Wabanaki, Mohawk, and Abenaki (Odanak) to foster relationships that heal the land and honor its original stewards.
Stephanie is also the Co-Founder of Kanata Karonhià:ke (Skyworld Village), a dream-in-action project rooted in intergenerational community, regenerative land stewardship, and cultural revitalization. At Skyworld Village, they weave sustainable infrastructure, agroforestry, and food sovereignty initiatives to empower people to reconnect with the land, support one another, and cultivate a resilient, inclusive future. It’s more than a place—it’s a vision of what’s possible when we honor our collective responsibility to the Earth and to each other.
Morningstar’s journey started with a degree in Anthropology from McMaster University, where she focused on Indigenous Knowledge, paired with learning Traditional Medicine from Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’ Faithkeeper Elva Jamieson at Six Nations. These teachings have been carried into diverse roles, including one as an Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization Specialist with Global Water Futures, where she helped weave Indigenous and Western sciences into hydrogeological research. Now, as a doctoral student at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Stephanie is advancing “Biocultural Re-story-ation,” crafting bridges between knowledge systems to spark biodiversity, climate resilience, and cultural restoration.
Through her work with Seed, Soil, and Spirit School, she’s co-developed programs like “Don’t Just Take, Take CARE: Wild Foraging in Right Relationship,” fostering ethical and reciprocal connections to land and plants. She is also a family conflict mediator and co-creator of “Core Competencies for IDR Practitioners,” a training program tackling the intersections of land dispossession, colonization, and Indigenous overrepresentation in child welfare systems.
At the heart of everything Morningstar does is this theory of change: By fostering intergenerational community, regenerative land stewardship, and cultural revitalization through sustainable infrastructure, agroforestry, and food sovereignty initiatives, we empower individuals to reconnect with the land, support each other, and create a resilient, inclusive future.
Ultimately, her work is about weaving the stories, relationships, and practices needed to nurture the world our children deserve—one rooted in solidarity, care, and a love that stretches from the soil beneath our feet to the stars above.
