Maawanji’idiwag Ji Gizhaadamowaad Miinikaanan

‘They are gathering to protect the seeds’

White Earth Reservation, MN

For the past four years, a group of Indigenous food producers and their communities have collaborated to create the Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference, for the purpose of nurturing, restoring and creating Indigenous farming and food economies as well as food sovereignty in the Great Lakes region. In 2004, the conference was held at White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota, in 2005 at the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in Michigan and in 2006 at the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. In February 2008, the conference was again held at the Maplelag Resort on the White Earth Reservation to better include the Great Plains tribal communities. In each gathering, we have furthered collaborative discussions, strengthened our technical and intellectual knowledge of farming and food preparation techniques, and laid the groundwork, fertilized the soil, and began cultivation of Indigenous food systems and food sovereignty in our region. The convening is a very important element of building regional strategies and confidence in our communities, as we all grow together.

2008 Indigenous Farming Conference Summary

We had around l00 attendees over the course of the conference period, the majority of them were from the White Earth community. We had attendees from the Sisseton Dakota reservation, Oneida,Menominee, Bad River Ojibwe, White Dog/Kenora, Moose Factory, Ontario, St. Lauren Metis Community, Manitoba, Red Lake and urban communities of Bemidji, Minneapolis and elsewhere.

Most of those who attended were gardeners and farmers,growing traditional tobacco, corn, squash and bean varieties, some of them for tribal programs and most for community programs and heritage restoration. The conference was also attended by representatives of the White Earth Tribal and Community College, tribal and USDA programs, the Heifer Project International, Green Routes Eco-tourism program, Pesticide Action Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sunday’s Energy, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, and a host of other organizations. Some 20 children from the Pine Point School attended on Tuesday for workshops on butter making, garden boxes, and a puppet show on genetic engineering and corn. Traditional teachers of Ojibwe knowledge were also present and active participants in workshops.

The main elements of the conference included tracts on how to: seed save, make butter, create garden boxes, install a solar heating panel and tours of the WELRP facilities for those from off the reservation. We had a number of practical discussions on program implementation in our communities, and then a set of workshops on challenges. There was a regional meeting on the strategies to combat pesticide contamination and aerial spraying on our reservation and region and a separate strategy meeting on the impact of a neighboring coal fired power plant which is proposed near the Sisseton Dakota reservation.

There was a good deal of discussion on tribal food policies, farm to school programs, genetic engineering and strategies to create larger discussions inside our reservations and communities on all of these issues as well as create a broader discussion in the Indigenous community nationally. The overview speech was on the state of the food system, the addiction of this food system to petroleum, certain threats to food security and climate change as well as our strategies to restore our food systems. Many people traveled to look at the WELRP Projects and were very interested in the solar installation.