Eastern Upper Michigan Sustainable Agriculture Curriculum Initiative

As interest in sustainable agriculture is expanding, opportunities for young people to gain exposure to food production is often limited by lack of available educational opportunities. This is the case in Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula (EUP), where Bay Mills Community College (BMCC) is located, and is even more lacking among Native American youth. One of the challenges facing agricultural today is, “The days when agriculture-related employers could expect to hire new employees with farm backgrounds are over. There are not enough “farm kids” available. Even the land grant institutions in farm states are largely and increasingly populated by students with urban and suburban backgrounds.” (National Research Council, 2009, pp. 17-18) This reality is of particular concern for Native American communities in Michigan as they: 1) do not have significant recent agricultural involvement; and 2) are the least represented ethnic minority group when looking at baccalaureate degrees awarded in agriculture and natural resources in the United States from 1995-2007. (National Center for Educational Statistics Completion Reports)

In Michigan’s EUP, there are no FFA programs or agriculture educators in the K-12 schools; local schools and the regional ISD currently lack the capacity to develop sustainable agriculture curriculum. Bay Mills Community College, and its partners, propose the development and implementation of a sustainable agriculture curriculum targeting middle school students that incorporates Native American values, and partners with local agriculture interests to provide regionally relevant, classroom, and hands-on learning opportunities. Additionally, we propose K-12 teacher professional development targeting sustainable agriculture concepts for their classrooms.

A staff change took place as Michelle Sweeten left the position and Aamookwe Amy McCoy was hired. Amy McCoy, furthermore written as I, then brainstormed with Director Steve Yanni for efficient avenues to grant objective completion given the time and scope of remaining tasks until grant completion.

We intended not to reinvent the wheel regarding the curriculum that had been created prior to staff changes on the team, and worked diligently to  tweak previously submitted curriculum documents in ways they were in juxtaposition to indigenous epistemologies about reality and history. One of the contributing developers, Abbie Palmer, expressed interest updating her contributions along those lines as well and we met to discuss this process as well as set goals specific to this change. However, after hard work and deliberation, it became clear that Anishinaabe scientific thinking cannot be piecemeal to a curriculum framework that is grounded in different ways of knowing the world. Rather than pepper what has been built from a non-indigenous framework with Anishinaabe values, we decided that taking the time to create an additional module of indigenous science lessons to be titled “Indigenous sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty (or food systems)” would solve the problem. This curriculum development process ensued with yet the nagging thought at the back of my mind that it was still less helpful to the objectives of this grant. If we are to truly inspire youth to pursue careers in agriculture, it made the most sense to contribute an entire curriculum framework for teaching students and teachers alike how to build relationships with more than human relatives that provide us the sustenance to live with food sovereignty. The model serves to present a larger framework of interconnectedness within indigenous perception and worldview and is pragmatic in that I have also created demonstrated lessons that will be useful to Bay Mills Indian Community at the Waishkey Bay Farm as well as teachers across the country who can benefit from this professional development. Other Tribal Nations can also easily adapt the framework specific to them. The framework benefits teachers nationally as publicly available and yet still have risen from local tribal needs of this tribal community. You will find the PDF of the Anishinaabe Science and Food Sovereignty curriculum framework upoaded as an attachment. The previous lesson plans attached were created before the vision change shifted into Anishinaabe thinking and being with respect to agriculture and more than human relatives. 

We also provided 6 additional farm experiences for students spring-fall 2023. We hosted an agricultural career fair locally for 61 middle school students on November 7th with great success and inspired positive feedback from teachers and students alike. Local Tribal food producers filled tables in a circumference of the room that students were fully engaged in exploration of agricultural and other Anishinaabe food systems career options. Food producers brought hands on activities to engage youth. Activities included: Three sisters corn, bean and squash beadwork, maple cream making, hands on vermiculture, seed saving, pig farming, honey bottling and an interactive lesson about seasonal harvest according to the 13 moons curriculum from White Earth. Participants were provided a food sovereignty bag to bring home to share with their families. The contents of the tote bag included: Maple sugar, hand harvested Leech Lake Manoomin (wild rice), BMCC water bottle, BMCC gilly ganoozhe hooded sweatshirt, the decolonizing diet project cookbook, honey from Waishkey Bay Farm and a locally made cloth feast bag for eating utensils as per cultural protocol. Two additional local middle schools were also provided the family food sovereignty experience tote bags.

Additionally, I provided two experiences  with the curriculum framework that I created for the youth track grades 7-12 at the Michigan Indian Education Critical Issues Conference March 2023. The theme of this year’s conference was Aanji-aki: The Changing Earth and Indigenous Adaptation:Indigenous peoples have adapted to changes on Shkakimikwe (Mother Earth) since time immemorial. We value repatriation as core to the revitalization of our traditional education systems. These traditions will help us bring our world back into balance as we restore healthy relations, especially for those who are most vulnerable, including women, children, and two-spirit. We will adapt to climate change as we continue to find our identity as rooted in Shkakimikwe (Mother Earth).
I created two lessons for the curriculum that were tested out in these workshops. The first is an experience reclaiming seeds as relatives. Students engaged hands on relational experience with our sacred seeds. Youth engaged a service learning project with Anishinaabemowin language and cultural teachings while processing relatives from a local 4 sisters tribal garden. We engaged arts based methods of discovery through nanda-gikenjigewin, indigenous science. In support of a local tribally owned farm, Three Dogs Seed Farm, I purchased the time the tribal farmer has dedicated to caring for these relatives and in return she is gave me plants that I introduced workshop participants to and facilitated the building of a relationship with as they processed the harvest. They expressed their relationship on blank seed packets through their own artistic expression. The completed seed packets were gifted back to local tribal seed banks as well as the Waishkey Bay Farm.

The second workshop was: Fun with Food Soverignty! A hands on relational Anishinaabemowin rich experience with various avenues to food sovereignty. Youth participants engaged centers based experiences with relatives in creation that have taken care of the human beings since original instruction. We engaged arts and play based methods of STEAM discovery through nanda-gikenjigewin, indigenous science. Indigenous STEAM centers on reconnecting the next generation to their relationships with the rest of creation and sustenance from Mother Earth as we adapt with resilience.

Centers included pilot studies of indigenous STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) lesson plans for the indigenous unit. A digital classroom slide was projected with interactive video links. Students explored lessons involving the Mikinaak shell Anishinaabe calendar, seeds as relatives, and a bison activity regarding the relationship bison have in support of the plants in their biological tilling intelligence of hoof structure. There was also exposure to the interconnectedness of plants and bees. 

One of the lessons mentioned connects to a larger project that I’m working to manifest for the Waishkey Bay Farm. Student field trips are in process whereby youth can take part in the inspirational connected engagement of agricultural career capabilities at our Tribal farm. I have worked with a mechanical engineer to draft a life size turtle shell calendar experience. We are going to plant an interactive pollinator tea garden within 13 raised beds that represent the 13 moons of the year with a walking path measuring out the 28 days of each moon. This is the true scientific calendar of Anishinaabeg. I am working on creating lesson plans that involve hands on experience of this non-linear measurement of time for a planting calendar that engages seasonal activity.

Farm Techs built the turtle shell boxes and Waishkey Bay Farm Manager Kat Jacques plans to plant their garden as a tea based garden spring 2024.

I enrolled in Rowan White’s Seed Seva mentorship program to seek new inspiration for lesson plan creation within the indigenous farming scope and sequence as it can benefit Waishkey Bay Farm and Bay Mills Community College as well as the larger community as a whole. I am also completed the American Indian Art Institute’s Indigenous Bee Keeping Stewardship Program to work toward inclusion of indigenous science based apiary lessons to include in a future module for curriculum development.

I have established a relationship with Orv Kabot of Circle K Bison Ranch in Rudyard, MI. I’ve built my relationship with Bison in order to create lesson plans for this curriculum and am working with Orv to plan youth student experiences at his farm this summer. These lessons also need to be revisited for future curriculum development as the creation of the foundational framework took precedence. 

I provided Sault Tribe Youth Program grades 3-8 three experiences at Waishkey Bay Farm this summer focused on seeds and bees as relatives. I also co-taught with Kat Jacques these same lessons on Earth Day in April to a number of local Girl Scout troops within the target age group.

Project Objectives:

Objective 1

Establish a middle school Anishinaabe science and food sovereignty curriculum framework/K-12 teacher professional development task force and develop a middle school demonstrated curriculum based upon the framework and related K-12 teacher professional development experiences.

Objective 2

Introduce sustainable agriculture learning opportunities among middle school students (new curriculum) and K-12 teachers (professional development).

Student Outcomes

1. Improved understanding of sustainable agriculture from an Anishinaabe scientific perspective. 
2. Explore tools to make informed choices about the food they eat and purchase through experiential learning
3. Improved knowledge of agricultural careers in food sovereignty
4. Improved awareness of current issues and challenges in agriculture and Anishinaabe food sovereignty.

Teacher Outcomes

1. Develop Anishinaabe science and food sovereignty curriculum framework
2. Improved access to agricultural/food sovereignty experiential learning opportunities
3. Connect science concepts to real problems within food sovereignty systems through experiential learning 
4. Connect teachers with local farmers