I was the first woman Emilee Saldaya lured out to her land - this is what really happened

Financial exploitation, and yet more ways Emilee Saldaya proves that she doesn’t actually care about women and babies at all.

My name is Paula Williams and I was the first woman to live on Emilee Saldaya's land in Hayesville, North Carolina in 2021.

This started at her house a year prior at a sleepover gathering of women from the Free Birth Society membership that she invited me to, where she proposed the idea to me:

"You could totally put a yurt on my land."

We discussed it further and she shared how.

"I want yurts on my land as rental properties, I just don't have the capital to build them all at once."

(She also made this same pitch to another woman in the Free Birth Society membership and Radical Birth Keeper school)

We agreed that I would be financially responsible for all expenses and that should I choose to leave, she'd buy me out because she wanted yurt rental properties on her land. Other women at her house overheard our conversations.

When I moved out to North Carolina in early 2021, Emilee had cleared 2 spots in the woods behind her main house for my yurt and hers.

Early that summer I offered to help Emilee buy the acreage next door so she could realize her dream of having a festival and a place for retreats, and lent her $50,000, with interest, which she did pay me back that July.

In the fall I realized living with Emilee was not healthy. She does not live in peace. She is vindictive. Emilee loves to talk shit about everyone, her friends, supposed best friends, Free Birth society members, mothers, Radical Birth Keeper students, coaching clients, business partner, hired singer, sister, brother, dad, EVERYONE. She does not work through relationship challenges with integrity. She does not take accountability. Emilee loves being in the comments on Instagram. Emilee loves gossip and lives for drama. She is not easy nor enjoyable to be around, there was no joy. Emilee has no hobbies, no love of life. She has no vibrancy, no vitality. It's very heavy to be around her.

Since August Emilee knew that I had been supporting a woman 2 hours away in Chattanooga during her pregnancy and this was to be my first birth as newly minted radical birth keeper (I was in her 2020 class). She was due sometime in December or January so I'd planned to take a small vacation from October 27 - November 14.

On October 22nd I requested a meeting with her and Jonny to discuss my desire to leave Hayesville. To which she said:

"Of course we'll buy you out. I don't have that much cash to pay you so we'll have to figure some sort of payment plan or something. Maybe a balloon payment?"

I let her know that I was on call for my first birth through January and was in no rush. I wanted to bring up this discussion now so we had ample time to come to an agreement. I told them that in my mind, I'd wrap up my first birth in December or January and then move out in March.

A few days later on the 24th, Jonny texted me to meet with them again. And he also said to:

"Please come with a number that you think is a far payout price"

On Tuesday the 26th we met on her porch and Emilee asked how much I'd like for the yurt. I said $95,000 (cost was $100,000). She then invented a story that I was the most self absorbed person she's ever met and listed off reasons to convince me she was right. We ended the meeting with them agreeing to discuss a counter offer so we could negotiate and come to an agreement.

I left for vacation the next day and the following night, Thursday the 28th, Emilee texted me to call her. When she started talking she expressed that she felt bad about the way things had ended in our last meeting and wanted to assure me that she was committed to working this out. She asked if I'd be interested in renting out the yurt and taking part of the rental income as payment. I said no, I didn't want to structure repayment based off rental income. She said ok, that her and Jonny were going to come back to the table with an offer.

Two days later, on October 30, 2021, I received an email from Jonny and Emilee with this bullet point:

-You referenced a conversation, or perhaps it was a marco [polo], with Emilee prior to moving here, where she may have said something along the lines of, “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll buy your yurt”. While Emilee has no distinct memory of saying that, of course it’s possible that she did say such a thing. However, casually throwing out an idea in one phone conversation, in no way makes it a formal agreement. If us buying your yurt was critical to your decision to move here, it would have been your responsibility to make this a clear agreement, in writing. Because for us, it certainly wasn’t critical, and still isn’t."

Jonny & Emilee ended the email with:

"We don’t want your physical property. That was never our offer nor our expectation. You chose to invest in these things and they remain yours to deal with.

Because your yurt and its accoutrements are yours, you are welcome to sell all of it. We don’t want any of it. You are also welcome to leave what you wish, and we will deal with it after your departure.

Please keep us up to date on your plans and ensure that whatever you’re taking with you is off the property by November 30th, 2021, which is effectively the expiration date of our offer to share land with you."

The yurt she doesn’t want but rents out to people

I requested a meeting in person upon my return because they somehow believed agreeing to buying me out, asking me what my starting price was, agreeing to come back to negotiate and then saying, oops, it ain't in writing so it don't count was something a person of sound mind - or radical responsibility - would do. So I held a tiny amount of hope that they were responsible enough to take accountability for their mistake and come to the table with an actual offer.

At the meeting she told me she had never made that agreement and I was making it up in my head.

On Thanksgiving weekend Emilee sent me the following email:

"We wanted to give you a heads up that per our previous email sent October 30th, giving you until Nov 30th to remove yourself and your property, we will be filing an eviction on December 1st, 2021 with the local courthouse. As of Dec 1st, should you still be here, you’ll be criminally trespassing, and a sheriff will come here to serve you. On Tuesday, your invitation to stay on our land has expired as has your period to vacate."

Emilee had me served with an eviction on December 2, 2021.

And now I'm on call for my first birth, and Emilee knew that.

I found a local attorney and he advised me to file a lawsuit to stay the eviction.

Shortly after filing Emilee cut off the internet to my yurt. This was the only phone and internet access I had, so I had no way to be reached for the first birth I was to attend as one of her radical birth keepers 2 hours away. What a mentor. What a sister. This is what matriarchy looks like. This is how you walk with integrity. This is definitely above the line. This is how one moves through the world as a sovereign being. What an example!

She then lied to women in the Free Birth Society membership about me all the while she began construction on her yurt rental property that would be rented to another woman in the the Free Birth Society membership, and who ended up leaving with her and her family under duress not too long after she moved in.

direct message

group signal message

My attorney strongly advised me to not move out of the yurt or it could be construed as abandonment. I had to stay.

I lived through a nightmare every fucking day.

She lied to my face about buying my yurt, makes up stories in her head and spreads them around and gaslights me - what the fuck else is she capable of?

I'm on call for my first birth, she's trying to sabotage it, what else could she do because I'm supporting her?

Women in her inner circle stopped communicating with me, are they in on it?

I have to drive by her house everyday, is she going to attack me? Try to destroy my home?

Will she try to ruin my car so I can't get to Chattanooga? Will she poison my dog?

Is she going to use her clout to destroy friends I have in Asheville?

Will she cut off my electricity? My water?

Will she hire someone to hurt me? Will she have Jonny do it?

If I see her on the road, will she try to run me over?

Will she make up a story and tell the cops so they come arrest me?

... keep going

and going,

and you might,

maybe,

get an idea of what I felt

for a moment.

It lasted for 5 months....

If I would've pushed for a trial it would've taken at least another year on top, so in March when we reached a settlement agreement, I was out.

Emilee claims on her website to:

"unleash the power of women through freebirth, sovereign midwifery, and woman-to-woman wisdom"

She does not and cannot because she does not live it, she does not carry it. Emilee uses words but they are empty because she is not a person of integrity.

She has since constructed another yurt. I have heard that all the women who've moved there have ended up leaving because of who Emilee is.

You can fine my lawsuit in Clay County, court file 21 CVS 224.

** To the women who stood by me during this time - a million thank you's for a million years. You held me so I could catch a breath.

** To the land I fell madly in love with, thank you for holding me.

** To Rico Suave, my guy, we were destined to be together in this lifetime, has to be...

** To myself. I did it. I came out the other side, integral. Intact. Whole.