Indigenous Seed Sovereignty: Collaboratively Building Seed Systems With Midwestern Native Communities

Commodities

Practices

Today, many Native communities are rejuvenating Indigenous agricultural practices, but often have insufficient resources to accomplish their goals. One pressing issue is access to rare and culturally appropriate seeds and resources to grow them. Thus there is a critical need for knowledge on varietal selection, production, storage, and distribution. In consultation, Native producers expressed their interest in developing culturally appropriate seed conservation systems. To address these issues, our project, Indigenous Seed Sovereignty: Collaboratively Building Seed Systems With Midwestern Native Communities, is designed with an overall objective to further cultural and agronomic practices surrounding the conservation of Indigenous seed in collaboration with Native communities and colleges in Nebraska. Our rationale is that by working collaboratively with Native growers and educators to document each community’s needs around seed sovereignty, we will develop culturally appropriate, sustainable Indigenous seed systems. 

Our specific objectives are:

1) Determine cultural definitions of seed sovereignty through participatory methods that identify crop varieties and historic seed conservation and sharing methods. We begin with visioning sessions in the Ponca, Santee, Winnebago, Omaha, and Indigenous Mayan communities of Nebraska, to develop each community’s vision for seed sovereignty and steps to attain their goals. Historical records will also be accessed and analyzed.

2) Build capacity in Indigenous varietal selection so communities can maintain culturally appropriate quality seed internally. By collaborating with small farmers in communities, this project will find Indigenous seeds held in institutional repositories, select for rematriation, grow these seeds in community, and select and save seeds using collaboratively designed Indigenous methods. Participatory processes will be used to design and conduct workshops on seed growing, selection, and saving practices. 

3) Build seed sharing networks between Native growers, university researchers, and tribal colleges that collaboratively design workshops and educational materials to support seed sovereignty within communities. Demonstration plots, workshops, facilitated conversations, and harvest activities will provide a forum for shaping these networks within communities. Exchanges between communities will provide a forum for sharing processes, seed knowledge, and for expanding the network. 

The Indigenous Seed Sovereignty project has relevance for Indigenous growers and communities because it will encourage collaboration to produce healthy, culturally appropriate food for Native American communities while creating a living classroom for cultural, historical, and scientific knowledge.

Learning outcomes include gaining a deeper knowledge of seed selection and growing practices. Action outcomes include improved seed conservation practices and networks generated for sharing seed.

Objectives:

1) Determine cultural definitions of seed sovereignty, cultural understandings of crop varieties, and historic seed conservation methods.

2) Uncover varieties held in seed banks, build capacity in varietal selection and maintenance of culturally appropriate quality seed, and grow varieties in community designed demonstration trials.

3) Build networks between growers in Native communities, university researchers, and tribal colleges to collaboratively design workshops on seed selection, seed conservation, and seed sovereignty.

Action outcomes: Indigenous seed rematriated and in production.

 Learning outcomes: Skills in seed selection and conservation techniques developed and shared. Increased knowledge of culturally sensitive seed production, saving, and distribution