LAND & FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Land Restoration
& Land-Based Activities
We have used many strategies to offer community engagement, cultural revitalization and holistic wellness through land- based activities. These have included:
- Planting Chanshasha, or Red Dogwood Osier to restore native vegetation along riverbanks
- Master- Apprentice, multigenerational learning opportunities
- Indigenous plant foraging opportunities for food and medicine
- Outdoor engagements including Isnati Awichalowanpi, and summer culture camp for youth
Three Sisters Culture Camp
CHANŠÁŠA REVITALIZATION PROJECT
The Mni Wiconi Clinic and Farm, in collaboration with the University of North Dakota (UND), developed a project to give community members and Elders the opportunity to work together through a paid Master-Apprentice to revitalize the teachings around čhaŋšáša (Red Willow- traditional tobacco). Using the Master-Apprentice model, the community members, guided by Elders, will:
1.) map out four (4) natural creeks on Standing Rock
2.) plant čhaŋšáša seedlings
3.) create a natural walking trail for future propagation, and
4.) develop a protocol for harvesting čhaŋšáša in a traditional and sustainable way.
Learning with our elders on the land, about how to steward the land, will undoubtably have positive implications for healing for our people.
Yuthecha Land Stewards
Since 2023, we have had a land stewards program where our team supports land based engagement. We have encouraged community gardens at local churches, elderly nutrition spaces, as well as increasing other community individuals’ abilities to access local nutrition. Our land stewards not only grow and forage food, but they also educate others about processing food to develop life-sustaining skills. We prioritize culture based engagements for our youth throughout the year. Our land stewards have helped to plan our Honoring our Elders series where they have offered education and plant based medicine.
Food Access
& Cooking Demos
Other than community gardens we have been advocating for nutritious foods to be available locally. Our land stewards have been offering food demos and recipes at the local grocery store. This helps spark new ideas in our community members while encouraging them to incorporate whole, fresh food as much as possible.
Traditional Harvesting Protocols
Many land-based activities will offer education around our Traditional Harvesting Protocols. This includes accessing plant habitat and population to ensure we are not overharvesting. When there is an abundance of food and medicine, like sage, turnips and bee balm, we encourage people to only harvest what they need or will use to share/ trade throughout the year. Before harvesting we encourage an offering to be made in the form of a prayer, song, tobacco, chanshasha, water, seeds or any other appropriate gift of reciprocity. There are plant protocols we follow in order to ensure a healthy population for future generations to harvest from.
Community Buffalo Processing
Since 2021 we collaborate with local schools, community members and organizations for buffalo harvesting and distribution. Annually from 2024, we have worked with the Brown Otter Buffalo Ranch, and the American Indian Public Health Resource Center, during their Indigenous Food Sovereignty Emerging Leadership Program to educate their cohort around animal processing.
This engagement offers hands-on, outdoor education for their students to broaden their skills. For many participants it may be their first time butchering an animal, and others may have had the chance to process an animal with their family. It has always been a powerful learning experience for us to work together while being able to distribute thousands of pounds of meat, organs and bones to be used for nutrition locally.
Seasonal Awareness & Star Knowledge
During our land-based activities while foraging for food we follow a culturally relevant seasonal calendar. We encourage our community members to observe the land, observe the plants cycles and monitor significant ecological change that marks the passage of time through the seasons.
We have offered star knowledge workshops to learn more about our skills for time keeping based on their movement through our sky. We use the signs from constellations at specific locations as a reminder for when we perform various ceremonies.
Wakinyan Agli, or Welcoming the Thunders, is a spring ceremony we have been practicing and supporting for years. This is a time when we offer our gratitude to the elementals in exchange for blessings in the upcoming year. Many people refer to this time around the spring equinox as the Lakota New Year.
Traditional Medicine Making Workshops
Many of our staff have experience in cultivating, processing and using our traditional medicines. We offer workshops for schools, professionals and community members to learn more about the abundance that our prairie is able to offer us in terms of medicine or food. Our medicine making includes teas, salves, syrups, broths, infusions and many other techniques to incorporate our plant allies. We offer intergenerational engagements where we reach community members from babies to elders. Often in our spaces we are encouraging community based transfer of knowledge.
Respiratory Care Kits
We are beginning to offer respiratory kits for community care! Just fill out the survey so we can collect information about how they will be used- this will help us improve them for the future!
