On Remote Farms and in City Gardens, a Native American Movement Grows
Through classes, seed banks and plantings, tribes across the United States are reclaiming their agricultural roots, growing healthy foods and aiming for self-sufficiency.
By Kevin Noble Maillard
New York Times
Aug. 26, 2022
Excerpt:
But most Native Americans live in cities, away from tribal lands, as a result of termination policies, federal relocation programs or voluntary migration. So community groups in places like Salt Lake City, Minneapolis and Chicago have created spaces for gathering and planting traditional foods.
Native Health, a Phoenix nonprofit that offers holistic health care, maintains a traditional garden in the city center in collaboration with Keep Phoenix Beautiful. Using traditional, drought-resistant planting techniques suitable for arid climates — like Zuni waffle beds and Pima flood irrigation — the gardeners have efficiently managed a water supply for corn, wolfberries, gourds and sunflowers, along with Diné blue corn, Apache giant squash and Tohono O’odham melons.
As those names suggest, the gardens are a place where people of various tribes can connect with the land.
“Phoenix is a melting pot of different tribes, and we all have that commonality of food,” said Amanda Whitesinger, the Indigenous wellness manager at Native Health, who is Diné, or Navajo. “Having the garden helps us reclaim ourselves as Indigenous people and say, ‘This is tribal land, and we’re growing foods that kept our ancestors healthy.’ ”
