Final report for YENC24-218
Project Information
- What We Taught Youth About Sustainable Agriculture: We have five Indigenous and organic farms in the Crow Wing and White Earth reservation area which provide food to our villages, our cultural events, ceremonies, and markets. This project deepened the work on these farms with horses. We face intensifying climate-related food system disruptions, regulatory instability affecting farm labor and environmental protections, and global conflicts impacting fertilizer access. These challenges pose serious risks to our communities. In response, we are advancing solutions rooted in food sovereignty, including pre- and post-petroleum agricultural systems, electrification, solar-powered equipment, and increased use of horse-powered farming.
- Educational approach used and learning outcomes: Youth ages 16–19 participated in horse training, cultural education, and equine-assisted learning certification programs. Youth are now helping grow food for our community using horse-powered farming. We call this the "Green Riders Program."
- Succinct statement of conclusions: Our youth horsemanship program, the Green Riders Program, integrated our youth horse programs with our farming programs through training in fish emulsion, manure spreading, various small and larger scale cultivating equipment, and seasoned farmers, including Amish farmers as neighbors. We understand that the carbon footprint of our horse farming is benevolent. FAll-Report-AAI.pages
- Youth, educator, parent adoption: Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute has been working with a set of young horse people for four years now. Our goal has been to teach horse work in the field and in the forests. During this time, we’ve developed both horse teams and people teams, and we are successfully growing crops with horse-power.
l. Increase horse farming activities to five acres in 2024, on these farms.
2. Increase the youth farming experience of 8 youth, lead horse people, with training by Kara and others by 8 sessions on fields, with additional emerging youth horse riders, learning from this experience and understanding that horse power with horses is a viable farming system.
3. Produce food using these methods for our village, delivered by horse and wagon.
4. Develop a video and set of media on this amazing work to share in social media and with youth programs in tribal communities in our region.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation summary:
2025 Update:
Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute has been working with a set of young horse people for four years now. Our goal has been to teach horse work in the field and in the forests. During this time, we’ve developed both horse teams and people teams, with two sets of cultivating and work horses presently- a team of halflingers ( Chaga and Lolita) and a team of percherons- we have been using Shiyaa and Bud, but also purchased Zaas to better carry on the team- Zaas is a young horse.
There are two teams of youth who have excelled in learning horsemanship. We were able to put in four acres with horses in one location and in another location we will cultivate another two acres for winter wheat.
2024 Update:
We are restoring some very significant knowledge in our territory with horse farming. Kara brought the horses into the village about l0 times this past year, giving kids the chance to both ride and also work with the small carts. Five of our youth really grew out in the horse cultivating work- Giiwedin Buckanaga , Aandegoons Neeland, Sasaha Richards Josh Roy and Leroy Ross. These kids excelled in horse work, in cultivating some small fields. We put in potatoes, and harvested them with the horses. We were able to cultivate fields and put in corn with our horses. and this year will expand our work to larger fields. We purchased additional equipment for the work and repaired most of our equipment, but have new harnesses and essential equipment after last year. We had a lot of interns and researchers come see our work, and were able to produce about 2400 pounds of potatoes, and three different varieties of corn.
- Host webinar or in-person workshop
- Other
Learning Outcomes
Youth were able to work with most of the equipment we have - cultivators. seed drills. and planting equipment as well as harvesting equipment.
We see post petroleum agriculture and the restoration of horse agriculture as a healing journey for our community. We have a lot of youth who really engage well with horses, and are training horses and riding long distances developing the skills of other youth as riders. This program allows the youth to really engage in farming from a place which resonates more with culture and also is so important for the community- both young people and elders to see the resonance of the horses and the young people.
This was hands-on cultivation work. Kara Knowles did the teaching and instructing and the youth worked with Kara on this. We looked at horse cultivation books which are available, and this helped us identify and better use some of the equipment.
We are developing a curriculum and lesson plan with Elena Creef from Wellesley College, which reaffirms the cultural relationship to horses and the relationship to soil and plants.
Strength is the hands on nature of the youth learning and action. A weakness is a written curriculum and lesson plan, which we hope to more fully develop in the future.
Project Outcomes
2025 Update: Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute has been working with a set of young horse people for four years now. I am super proud of these kids. We have built this work into many aspects of our organization. Additional training included horsepowered logging, hoof care, and beekeeping. Youth participated in significant cultural engagement, including Grandmother Ride, War Pony Races, Upcoming Whitestone Hill Massacre Memorial Ride. These experiences support cultural continuity, healing, and leadership development. The Green Riders Program is emerging, engaging youth in land stewardship, renewable energy, and agricultural work. Early activities included participation in ceremonies for a future solar installation.
2024 Update: We really did not fundraise a great deal this past year, as we have been restructuring- moving the hemp and larger agriculture work into a new hemp cooperative. We really had significant and increasing youth participation in our work, and expect that we will be able to have some of these youth move into our horse logging program which was just funded. We have good interest in the community for this.
We increased gardening in the village substantially, and in 2025, we built a stronger partnership with the Pine Point village to carry out youth and farming programs like a community garden, where entire families were involved. Our work in Pine Point expanded by supporting community gardens and training youth in farming and food production. Six young women participated directly, alongside interns from Heritage Foods and the Ann Saxelby Internship Program. We installed raised garden beds and increased food production while adding berry bushes. 2026–2027 plans include expanding production and introducing domesticated hazelnuts. We provided fresh produce weekly to the Elder’s Lunch program, including zucchini, arugula, beets, kohlrabi, and herbs. We also supplied buffalo meat for community feasts and ceremonies, securing two buffalo this year with plans to expand to four. Additional efforts include butchering and distributing pork; raising goats and developing a regional goat market, serving Congolese and the immigrant community; and exploring long-term opportunities for a sustainable goat economy integrated into a regional food system. As other food programs have increased supply in the community, our focus has shifted more toward youth development and farmer training. We strengthened our regional food system by purchasing and distributing buffalo and pork from local producers. We secured a Minnesota Department of Agriculture grant to research the halal goat market and expanded partnerships with communities in Fargo, North Dakota.
2025 Update:
There are now two teams of youth who have excelled in learning horsemanship. Sasha Richards has a history of working with smaller horses and during this grant period graduated to the larger team. She was able to cultivate the field, manure spread and then use a seeder for the field with the larger team . She both works on her own and with Leroy Ross and Adrian Jones, both of whom are avid horsemen. We were able to put in four acres with horses in one location and in another location we will cultivate another two acres for winter wheat.
2024 Update:
We were able to grow potatoes on the Crow Wing Farm and had good production there. We trained ten youth in more of the equipment and cultivators. and had four of the youth really take to it and expand their skill set with a smaller team of horses. We have a core group of about ten kids who are really becoming adept at the horse farming and team work. These kids also have been going into the village for more interaction with youth and in 2025, we expect a much more elaborate community food program.
Sasha Richards and Leroy Ross have taken real leadership in the horse farming programs and in 2025 will grow out those programs and we will be able to farm 5 acres. In the upcoming year. we will shore up this work and expand to fields in Osage/Snellman, Round Lake on the Ponsford prairie and on our farm on Madeline Island. We expect to be able to carry out up to 5 acres of work between these farms.
In the fall of 2024, we began strengthening our curriculum in a collaboration with scholars at Wellesley College, with the intention of shoring up an Anishinaabe farming and horse program. We expanded this by meeting up with a farm program from Vermont which gives out badges/patches for a youth program and plan on developing a similar program here. coordinating with other tribal youth programs on the reservation and regionally. We need more of a youth program coordinator to be developed and will hope to hire that person in the upcoming month.
Thank you for the opportunity to do this work. The youth programs are really core to AAI as we intend to raise the next generation of farmers, and the horse programs are critical to this for youth and for our sustainability. We see the interest in farming with horses and by hand increasing dramatically in our village of Pine Point as a result of this project.