1. Native American Traditional Garden: Retracing our heritage
Sienna Nesser
Marci Sanchez
Jenna Sorensen

2. Prayer from a Medicine Man
“Creator, I pray to you for pity and blessing to help mankind return to the ways of the natural medicineplaced here by our creator for healing. Today, many people have lost their connection to mother earth and her spiritual gifts.  We refer to these gifts as “medicine”.  Yet I see that our neighbors and relatives from many nations are starting to return to herbs, roots, and other natural medicines.  My relatives, this is the only medicine that will help us survive, as has been foretold by the elders.  We will be renewed by the sacred power of the sweet grass and pipe.” –Portion of a Prayer by Andrew Naytowhow of the Sturgeon Lake First Nation Cree

4. Tools made of the thin bones of female bison green bone
knife blade area was thin
no handle and easy to create

5. Bone Hoe

6. Bone and Stick Rake

7. Cache Pit
Below Frost Line
Two women teams
Created by women

9. Drying Rack

10. Wild Rice Collectors

11. Soil Quality No Manure Let animals roam wild Weeds thus extra work
2 yrs. Fallow
No big animal interference

13. Land Ownership
Women’s duty Through Death For those who were fit and wanted it Allowed to lie fallow Male roles Older males would help with weeding and seed planting They had their own tobacco gardens (bad for lounges)

14. Land Division Small land blocks between plots Both weed No corn
U.S. gov. t divided up tilled land on the reservation

16. Colonization Land Restrictions Hunting Restrictions
Incorporating new foods like the potato
Paid Native American women to plant
Left it to spoil
Gov.t stockpiled it

17. Commodity Foods
 In the 1930’s the commodity food aid system was developed and came under tribal control.  
The elders worked with the U.S. Department of health for wheat, sugar, and domesticated meat.
Issues incorporating them into their diets.  
Slow Starvation
A study by the Government Accountability Office in 1989 found that obesity, heart issues, hypertension, and diabetes would continue unless the commodity food packages were altered and made more healthy.  
one hundred and seven Navajo women who were shown to derive 43% of energy from the commodity

18. Food as Medicine
“The Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash) are medicine.  When we eat them regularly, we stay in good health.  Our bodies are in balance.  Our spirit is renewed since we are fulfilling our Creator’s instructions.  As we drift to Western or foreign diets, we are no longer in balance and disease develops.”
-Brenda LaFrance, Mohawk

19. Food
Mahnomin Porridge
Dried Cranberries
Hazelnuts
Cooked Wild Rice
Heavy Cream
Maple Syrup
Francis Bettelyoun in the Twin Cities Medicine Garden
Film

20. The Medicine Wheel
Physical
Emotional
Intellectual
Spiritual

21. Plants to Include and Why
Sunflowers
Squash
Corn
Tomatoes
Wild Turnips
Beets
Onions
Carrots
Prairie Garlic
Sage

22. Beans
Peppers
Cat Nip
Mint
Sage
Tobacco
Sweet Grass
Butterfly Weed

23. Plants to Include in the Future
Ground Cherries
Choke Cherries
Cranberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Strawberries
Cedar
Labrador Tea
Native American Drying Stage

24. Seed Sources
Corn from Winona LaDuke

25. Seed Storage Short term Long term
drawer with separated compartments in Student Activities
Long term
Our own on site seed storage location

26. Our Garden Plan

27. Community Outreach Native American garden day camp
TREC (elementary age)
Offered to members of RFC
Area high school students
Morris students as a summer credit opportunity
Field Trip to Twin Cities Campus Medicine Garden over weekend
Work with Saddle Club for the manure
Saves them $500 each semester
Gives us rich soil

28. Cooking classes during summer and fall
Community Meal
Cooking classes during summer and fall
Using produce from community garden
Free to public
Lecture Series
Guest speakers in the garden (alternate space in cow palace)
Work with CNIA to develop volunteer relationships
Create Stand and sell during next years Powwow
Student Farmers Market

29. Problems Use of Manure from cattle and horses Funding
Cultural
USDA Certification- horses are fed non-organic hay
Funding
Volunteers/ Employees
Summer Workers
Utilizing local resources
Pest’s
Bunnies, woodchucks, cows, blackbirds, crows, and humans

30. Last Thought
“The concept is that food is medicine. If we are going to win, we have got to change over our whole lifestyle. But you can’t eat what you don’t have. So it is a long-term change. We are talking and working on the answer to that question” -Luis Salas, Bad River Reservation