Knowledge Share Description

Historically, the Five Tribes (Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Mvskogee-Creeks, and Seminoles) cultivated large community gardens under strict protocols. Roles were delineated by gender and age, and everyone participated in planting, maintenance and harvesting. When it was time to harvest, all tribal members received a share of the community garden produce. Individual families also cultivated separate backyard gardens, sometimes called “patches,” “roasting-ear patches,” or "roasting patches," of favorite foods and medicinal plants. Each family gathered plants from their parcel and donated a portion of their corn crop to the “king’s crib,” a cache of corn for use in hard times, for guests, and for war parties. During times of drought, or over-trading of produce from the community gardens, the family gardens provided those in need with sustenance. This presentation discusses the traditional importance of small gardens and their practical uses today.

There is much we can learn about the historic gardens. These gardens allowed tribes to survive in a rapidly-diminishing environment. Natural resources became depleted. Many game animals were over-hunted, cattle overgrazed, pollution was dumped into water ways, dams diverted rivers, and forests were clear-cut. The few trading posts were stocked with wheat flour, sugar, candy, canned sugared drinks, heavily salted meats and brined pickles. During the Great Depression, when many people suffered economic hardship and could not afford to purchase foods from stores (provided there was food in the stores), some Natives cultivated gardens and always had enough. How can we emulate these gardens today?

Cost

$35 - BIPOC or low income

$75 - standard or reparations (If you have financial abundance, this is our pay-it-forward option to fund our full tuition scholarships)

The zoom link will be sent 1-2 days prior to the knowledge share. Recording will be available for 30 days.

For scholarships please email info@herbancura.com with subject Indigenous Gardens

Accessibility Information

*ASR (automated) captioning provided

*Live captioning & ASL interpretation may be available with advance notice

*Spanish interpretation may be available with advance notice (Si requiere interpretacion por favor mande un email a info@herbancura.com)

Virtual Gathering

Zoom link will be sent out via email 1-2 days before knowledge share

5:00pm - 8:00pm Eastern Standard Time

Class will be recorded and available for 30 days.

Facilitator

Devon Mihesuah, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is the Cora Lee Beers Price Professor in the Humanities Program at the University of Kansas and the former editor of the American Indian Quarterly and former editor of the University Nebraska Press book series, “Contemporary Indigenous Issues.” A historian by training, she is the author of numerous award-winning books on Indigenous history and current issues, including Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health (ed. With Elizabeth Hoover) that won the Daniel F. Austin Award presented by the Society for Economic Botany and Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness, that was recently named the Best Indigenous Book in the US by Gourmand International, American Indigenous Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism, Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero, Choctaw Crime and Punishment: 1884-1907, She also has written five novels. She oversees the American Indian Health and Diet Project at https://aihd.ku.edu/ and the Facebook page, Indigenous Eating. See her blog at: https://devonmihesuah.blog.ku.edu/