White Earth Land Recovery Project CI Report – Interim

What has been most instrumental to your progress?

Communication has been the most instrumental aspect for the Upper Midwest Indigenous Seed Keepers Network. We have been using our Intertribal Ag Technical assistant Dan Cornelius’s conference call capability to have monthly calls. We have held our third annual seed keepers meeting at the Wozupi Farmhouse in Shakopee with representatives from over 14 tribes in the Upper Midwest region (MN, WI, IA, ND, MI) to strategize for the year. We have an Indigenous Seed Keepers Facebook page and a website. Rowen White, our primary seed keeping educator has been posting a monthly newsletter. At least a few seed keepers from our network attend various Food Sovereignty Conferences throughout the year and bring our branded seed packets to share. We send out email blasts whenever there is an upcoming event. Rowen also created an online seed keepers toolkit. I feel that our outreach and communication is strong and we have increased access to seed saving knowledge. I have witnessed more people becoming aware of the movement.

We host four 2-day seed workshops in each of the native communities per year. This is an essential part of the ‘train the trainers’ seed keeping program. We have hired nationally acclaimed native seed keeping educator Rowen White as well as plant breeder Frank Kutka, local presenters, storytellers, native chefs, and requested guests. The agenda is made with people from each community with project advisor, Mohawk seed keeper Rowen White and provide essential seed saving basics, stories, and information the communities are seeking to help form their individual seed sovereignty projects and seed banks. After the training, we provide the community with necessary training materials to host continued workshops and gatherings. We also have room in the agenda for discussion on the successes and challenges. The workshops are invaluable for the program coordinator to meet individuals first hand and observe the needs of each community. This year we held the 2-day trainings in Fort Berthold, Meskwaki Nation, Red Lake Nation and White Earth Nation.

This year, we have completed our 13 Moon Anishinaabe Nutrition Curriculum. This 13-month seasonal curriculum is focused on youth from 4-12 that are in three reservation schools in White Earth. The youth in the schools learn about eating healthy, and culturally seasonal food. The curriculum was written collectively by White Earth traditional knowledge keepers and is being implemented by the White Earth Health Department staff. Also, there are three school gardens and garden managers from three reservation schools (Pine Point, Naytahwaush, and Circle of Life Academy) on the White Earth Reservation. They have provided positive weekly gardening programs at each elementary school locations. Each garden manager is hired to manage both the gardens at the school and to get 10 kids out to the gardens each week for a few hours. The garden managers are also using the Anishinaabe nutrition curriculum created by our staff.

Key lessons learned

If you learn from your mistakes and don’t repeat them, I don’t see anything as a failure. So, in that vein, I was able to see where to make changes. Last year we had a seed workshop at the United Tribes Technical College with only 6 people show up. I realized that we left the responsibility to get community members to attend the event in the wrong hands. In the future, I made sure that we had at least a few people taking on this responsibility rather than one person, and constantly remind and support the people in the community to help get people to attend our seed keeper event. It is hard because we are at a distance, but through fliers, information, email and social media we can help at a distance.

I have learned patience listening to all of the many people involved in our project. It is not a sole responsibility to direct this project, but always takes a coordination and circle discussion. I bring decisions to be made to our monthly phone calls or group emails. I listen to everyone and when writing up a decision, I’ll send this back to the group so they can sign off on it, as I do not want to misrepresent anyone. There hasn’t been a case where I have misrepresented the group or individuals in a negative way, but I am sensitive and careful not to do this. As program manager, I have a lot of responsibility to be a voice for the group, and I have an Advisor, Rowen White whom I go to with advise on how to handle specific situations. I have managed the Indigenous Farming Conference for the last four years with over 300 members. I find that the conference is formed from listening to core individuals who are invested and using those ideas to collectively work together.

Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving

Collaborative has been obviously the most important element in our work although being resourceful is also very important. We work with over 13 tribal nations and communities and supporting each other is an essential aspect of the success of this work. Our UPISKN network has success due to our ability to speak about our work with confidence and ask for help when needed. We also realize that working together to grow out indigenous seeds in low quantity is necessary for the success of the work. There has been much ancestral agricultural knowledge lost during the colonization period, and many native individuals are in a healing process. Working with plants and seeds is healing work and we find it relatively easy to remain rooted and positive with each other and our work. It makes me happy to see the collaborative efforts of our work grow and witness the eagerness to learn from each other. It is a strong point in our Indigenous Seed Network that will last for generations to come.

Other key elements of Community Innovation

Yes. I feel that once people start to save seeds, garden and want to connect and gain more knowledge in this way, there is a deepening of understanding that only comes from working together with seeds and plants. Strengthening our relationship to our plant relatives only comes through working with those seeds and plants. Sharing these stories of all kinds helps all of us on our journey to our greater understanding of this work.

Understanding the problem

Through our many gatherings, the people that are present at most of these gatherings including myself, Rowen White, and Diane Wilson are able to observe. Us three have the capacity to help find funding and write for additional grants from the needs and challenges talked about in many of our meetings. These meetings are at Food Sovereignty Conferences, Seed Keeper Workshops, our annual meeting, and informal gatherings. We are able to discuss more angles that effect our needs including cooking, protocols, branding, equipment, supplies, and access to indigenous seeds with rich stories from anyone in our network. These stories enliven community members to grow these seeds and get excited about seed keeping.

If you could do it all over again…

There would be a lot of things I would tell myself. I was a little shy in the beginning of the project. I would tell myself that there was nothing to be afraid of earlier on and could have possibly gotten some more things accomplished in the first few months. I was trying to gain everyone’s trust in the beginning because I am not native, and think that is important too. We are now getting in touch with more Anishinaabe tribes from Michigan and Nationally. I think this extension could have been made earlier on as well. These Michigan tribes will now be able to benefit from our newly made Anishinaabe nutrition curriculum as well as attend our traveling 2-day seed workshops.

One last thought

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