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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Keepers of the Seeds
  • Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 22:36:44 -0600


Keepers of the Seeds
Winona LaDuke: How Native farmers and gardeners are working to preserve their
agricultural heritage.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/winona-laduke-keepers-of-the-seeds

For 14 years, Caroline Chartrand, a Metis woman who recently traveled from
Winnipeg, Canada, to the 8th annual Great Lakes Indigenous Farming
Conference, has been looking for the heritage seeds of her people. It is
believed that in the 1800s, the Metis grew some 120 distinct seed varieties
in the Red River area of Canada. Of those, Caroline says, “We ended up
finding about 20 so far.”

In Canada, three-quarters of all the crop varieties that existed before the
20th century are extinct. And, of the remaining quarter, only 10 percent are
available commercially from Canadian seed companies (the remainder are held
by gardeners and families). Over 64 percent of the commercially held seeds
are offered by only one company; if those varieties are dropped, the seeds
may be lost.

That’s the reason Caroline and about 100 other indigenous farmers and
gardeners—along with students and community members—gathered in March on the
White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota to share knowledge, stories,
and, of course, seeds.

A recent article by a prominent Canadian writer suggested that agriculture in
Canada began with the arrival of Europeans. Caroline had to ask her, “What
about all that agriculture before then?” Caroline is a committed grower in
the effort to recover northern Ojibwe corn varieties that once grew l00 miles
north of Winnipeg—the northernmost known corn crop in the world. “That’s some
adaptable corn,” said one of the conference participants said. “And,” added
Betsy McDougall of Turtle Mountain, “We Ojibwes, Metis, and Crees must have
been really good farmers.”

Indigenous farmers from the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska shared their
struggles with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) encroaching on their
fields, threatening to alter and potentially sterilize open-pollinated corn.
While native corn varieties are richer in protein and much more resilient to
climate change, they are not immune to GMO contamination. The advice shared
amongst farmers was to eat from the edges and save seed from the middle,
where corn is least likely to be affected by cross-pollination.
--------------

Stories that Light Up the DarkStories that Light Up the Dark
The experiences of our ancestors offer us wisdom for surviving today's crises.
---------------

Despite the challenges, native farmers are having success in preserving the
resilient crops that sustained their ancestors.

“Those seeds are the old ways. They gave our ancestors life for all those
years,” said Frank Alegria, Sr. The son of migrant farm workers, Frank has
been gardening since he could walk and farming on the Menominee reservation
in Wisconsin since he was sixteen. Now an elder, he continues to grow native
varieties, including an 850-year-old squash variety found in an
archaeological dig near the Wisconsin border.

Deb Echohawk told the story of the sacred corn seeds of the Pawnee. By
combining efforts with the descendants of settlers who live in the
traditional Pawnee homelands in Nebraska, the Pawnee are recovering varieties
thought to be lost forever. Deb and others have been formally recognized as
keepers of the seeds.

John Torgrimson, executive director of Seed Savers Exchange, the nation’s
largest non-governmental seed bank, talked about the organization’s humble
beginning as a campout by a small group of committed individuals in Decorah,
Iowa. More than 35 years later, they now preserve and grow out over 25,000
varieties of unique vegetables, fruits, grasses, and even a heritage cow
breed at their 890 acre Heritage Farm.

Likewise, the White Earth Land Recovery Project, together with North Dakota
State University, is working with a number of tribal members and local
farmers to grow out five or six corn varieties adapted for the region,
including white, pink, and black varieties. One farmer chuckled as he
mentioned seeing animals strut past the more abundant GMO corn to feast on
the native variety.

One of the outcomes of the conference was a working group that will plan a
regional seed library. At the table were tribal members from White Earth, Red
Lake, Leech Lake, Bad River, Menominee, Standing Rock Lakota, the Winnebago
of Nebraska, and other reservations, as well as the Pawnee tribe’s keeper of
seeds and the executive directors of Seed Savers Exchange and Seeds of
Diversity (Canada). Many others joined the discussion, including a Midwest
coordinator for USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Program, local allied growers, representatives from University of Minnesota,
and various tribal colleges.
----------
Winona LaDukeWinona LaDuke wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national,
nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical
actions. A contributing editor to YES! Magazine, Winona is an author and
activist who writes extensively on native and environmental issues. Her most
recent book is Recovering the Sacred. She is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe)
enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on
the White Earth Reservations.












  • [Livingontheland] Keepers of the Seeds, Tradingpost, 05/14/2011

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