Native American Garden Recovering Health and Knowledge

"One gardener's weed is another gardener's flower, salad, wine, medicine, fiber, dye, or poison" - Shirley Shirley

By: Keni Zenner, Lyndsey Weber, and Alex Beyer

Healing Earth Ceremony PrayerO Great Creator

I come before you in a humble mannerAnd offer you this sacred pipe.

With tears in my eyes and an ancient song from my heart I pray.

 To the four powers of Creation,

To the Grandfather Sun,To the Grandmother Moon,

To the Mother Earth, And to my ancestors.

 I pray for my relations in Nature,

All those who walk, crawl, fly, and swim, Seen and unseen,

To the good spirits that exist in every part of Creation.  

- Medicine Grizzly Bear

I ask that you bless our elders and children, families and friends,

And the brothers and sisters who are in prison. I pray for the ones who are sick on drugs and alsohol

And for those who are now homeless and frolorn.I also pray for peace among the four races of

humankind. 

May there be good health and healing for this Earth, May there be Beauty above me, May there be Beauty below me,

May there be Beauty in me,May there be Beauty all around me.

                  I ask that this world be filled with Peace, Love and Beauty.

Native American Agricultural History

• End of Ice Ageo Big game dies off

• Lifestyle shifto Nomadico Agriculture

• Attitudes toward Living Creatureso Animals asked for forgivenesso Plants thanked

Native Science

• 1,000 AD, East Coast Native corno Frost Resistanto Adapted to short growing season

•  This 'technology' allowed tribes like        the Hidatsa and Mandan to thrive. 

o Buffalo Bird Woman Grew three sisters 

• Brought sophisticated systems of agricultureo Produced beans, corn, potatoes, pumpkins, squash,

tomatoes, and more than 20 other foods we use daily. 

 

Arrival of Settlers

• Trade o New crops

Potatoes Carrots

o White settlers and Dakota  • Dawes Act

o "The Indian Problem"o Lose over 17,000,000 acres

• Goal o "To break up the tribe as a social unit"

• Land displacement and elimination of traditional food practices had huge health consequenceso 1 in 8 had diabetes - 2x the non-Indian populationo cancer, depression, suicide, stress, violence, and

substance abuse also widely prevalent "loss of power" is the biggest health issue Restoring health must happen on community level in

addition to individual level Health is multifaceted - physical, social/emotional,

intellectual, and spiritual

Native American Health

Garden Design

Three Sisters

• Corn, beans, and squasho "They want to be together with each other, like we want to

be together with each other." -Chief Louis Farmer, Onondaga

• One variety of Three Sisterso Mandan Bride Corno Hidatsa Shield Maiden Beano Summer Crookneck Squash

• Buffalo Bird Woman's Design

Medicine Wheel

• Ojibwe Interpretation • Sacred Circle• Number 4

o Directionso Seasonso Periods of life o Four Sacred Plants

• Used for meditation and healing• Used for prayer

East Quadrant

• Plants o Marigoldo Dillo Goldenrodo Night Willow Herbo Dwarf Buttercup

   • Physical Health• Infancy • Spring

South Quadrant

 • Emotional Health • Adolescence• Summer • Plants 

o Indian Grasso Prairie Roseo Echinaceao Beetso Bee Balm

West Quadrant

• Mental Health • Adulthood • Autumn • Plants

o Purple Prairie Clovero Big Bluestemo Sageo Lavendero Prairie Phlox

North Quadrant

• Spiritual Health• Elder• Winter • Plants

o Sweetgrass o Yucca o Night-Scented Tobaccoo Mint o Boneset

Center

•  Two extra directionso Zenith (above)o Nadir (below)

•  Peace Pole• “May peace prevail on 

      earth” printed on all       sides of the pole, and      many Native American       words for Peace • Strawberries 

o  Around the base            of the pole

Stepping Stones

Drying Rack/Arbor

• Historyo Watch towero Drying rack

 • Our Garden

o Community Buildero Information Centero Shadeo Drying Rack - with

teaching

Drying Rack - Buffalo Bird Woman

Long-Term Garden Plans

• Start conservatively, and add as the garden teaches us • Expand varieties

o Perennials o Winona LaDuke's Corn

• Dream of Wild Health Model • Orchard • Children's Garden

o Educationo Children learn about culture and health

• Seed Banko Save heirloom varieties

Challenges/Solutions

•  Right/competence to teach Native traditions and beliefs o  Solution: Build relationships (CNIA, AISES, WCROC,

Morris Healthy Eating, etc.)o "Build a road by walking."

 •  Garden Workers - labor

o Solution: Garden plan relatively simple - little labor needed.

o Future paid internship positions to maintain and teach

Challenges/Solutions

• Keeping the Space Sacredo Solution: act as "stewards of the land"

Guidebook/log - pass on the historical and cultural knowledge

Maintain relationships with Native American elders •  Pest Control

o  Solution: Repellent herbs mint and marigolds

Collaboration with WCROC                    for gopher removal

Challenges/Solutions

• Cross-Pollinationo Solution: inter-garden communication

Hand-pollination Science-based research for seed saving and storage Science students do research on heirloom seeds

 • Sustainability of the Land

o Solution: compost and worm humus established Future: multiple plots to let land fallow

Community Outreach Plan

• Powwow o Sacred tobacco offerings - springo Drumming ceremonies

 • Student involvement

o Medicine Wheel stepping stones o TRECo Gateway Programo Long-term goals: children's diabetes prevention garden

and research garden classroom

  

Community Outreach Plan• Sharing of Food

o Pride of the Prairie local foods mealo Community Meals - Native American 

            foods theme • Garden Involvement

o Office of Community Engagement and Multi-ethnic Student Program - student volunteers for harvest

o Exhibit harvest in Student Center • Engage Native artists

o Peace Pole, scarecrow, educational plaques • Seed Saving --> Seed Sharing

Conclusion

• All actions must be intentional• We must be patient• Humility and relationships are key• We can never know all the answers

Closing Prayer from the Navajo Blessing Way Ceremony

 In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk With beauty behind me I walk With beauty above me I walk With beauty around me I walk

It has become beauty againIt has become beauty againIt has become beauty againIt has become beauty again

 (http://www.sacredbear.com/pages/Closing-Prayer-from-the-Navajo-Blessing-Way-Ceremony.html)