INDIGENOUS FARMING CONFERENCE
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Thursday Evening
4pm - 6pm: Arrival and Registration
6pm: Ojibwe Teaching and Greeting in Bejou with Michael Dahl. Dinner
following.
7:30 Film: Economics of Happiness in Roy Lake
Meals will always be served in room Bejou.
Youth Schedule on Page 5
CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE
Conference Schedule Friday March 14th
All meals in Bejou
Room
Waubun
Gimino-wiisinimin:
Cooking Programs for
Healthy Communities
Sammie Ardito-Rivera
10:00-10:15
10:15-11:45
Roy Lake
BREAKFAST – In Bejou
Winona Laduke – Opening
8:00
9:00-10:00
Naytahwaush
Making Cough Syrup from
Local Garden Plants
Linda Differentcloud
Sharing Stories from the
Garden Trapline:
Power House Producers
Audrey Logan, Natalie
Elizabeth, Anna Sigrithur
BREAK
Metis/Mennonite Seed
Project- Caroline Chartrand
and Kenton Lobe
Food Sovereignty Mapping
on Leech Lake Reservation
Shirley Nordrum, David Abaz
Mobile Farmer’s Market
USDA & NRCS Programs
for Natives & the Farm Bill
Dan Cornelius, Adam Woltjer
12:00
LUNCH
12:30-1:15
Keynote Feature
Henry Lickers – Ancestral Gardening in Forests and Wetlands
1:30-2:30
2:30-3:30
3:30-4:30
Southern US Fruits Grown
in Northern Minnesota
Dallas Flynn
White Earth Seed Library
and How it Works
Rebecca Dallinger, Diane Roy
Food is our Medicine in the
Seneca Nation
Ken Parker
BREAK
Seed Swapping happening in Seed Room. Visit Vendors and Booths.
Squash Breeding Project at
the United Tribes
Technical College – Robert
Fox
Indigenous Seed
Networking
Discussion Part 1
Rowen White
Urban Farming: Raising
your Food in a Backyard
Plot – Skip Heffner
4:45-5:30
Keynote Address – in room Beaulieu
Dan Longboat – The Roots of Indigenous Agriculture
6:00
DINNER
7:00
7:30
Evening Activities
Storytelling: Jules Chartrand – sharing funny stories, in room Naytahwaush
Making Cough Syrup from Local Garden Plants Linda Differentcloud
Mocassin Game for Men: in room Waubun
Film: Metis Red River Valley Wagon Reinactment: in room Roy Lake
Saturday, March 15th
Time
Waubun
Naytahwaush
8:00
9:00-10:00
BREAKFAST
Investments in water and
Sanitation in First Nations
Communities
Wendy Ross
10:00-10:15
10:15-11:45
Roy Lake
Rainbow Corn Speaks!
Its Story and Wonder –
Nancy Kuhta
Food and Health
Sovereignty Innitiative
Woodrow White
BREAK
Incorporating Sheep into
your Permaculture
Landscape
Sue Wika, Tom Prieve
Indigenous Seed Networking
Discussion Part Two
Rowen White
Biocultural Framework for
Indigenous Food
Sustainability
Dan Longboat
12:00
LUNCH
12:30-1:15
Keynote Feature
Amos Hinton of the Ponca Tribe Oklahoma will discuss how they grew over
12,000 pounds of produce last year.
1:30-2:30
2:30-3:30
3:30-4:30
4:45-5:30
7:00
Tatanka Wakpala EcoDome Project in the
Lakota Nation
Ahan Hehaka Sapa
First Medicines Program
Sharon Day/Suzanne Nash
Toxic Taters: Fighting
Hazardous Pesticide Drift
from Potato Fields
Bob Shimek, Lex Horan
BREAK
Seed Swapping happening in Seed Room. Visit Vendors and Booths.
Discussion: Developing and
Implementing Family
Gardening Programs
Michael Dahl
Pick the Right Critter for the Discussion: Developing and
Job: Scale Appropriate
Implementing Family
Complimentary Enterprises
Gardening Programs
Andy Hayner
Michael Dahl
Breads of Native Cultures
Abdullah Jaradat
Rabbits for Profit and
Free-Range Chicken for a
Healthier You
Sharon Nordrum
How to Start Raising Your
own Food and Market
Specialty Crops
Becky and Jim Gawboy
BANQUET DINNER
Indigenous Farming Conference Awards
Music and Metis Traditional Jigging
Conference Schedule Sunday March 16th
Waubun
Naytahwaush
BREAKFAST
8:00
9:00-10:15
Roy Lake
Land Use and Impacts on
Water Quality and Wild
Rice Production in White
Earth – Hannah Smith
High Impact Food
Programs to Decolonize
and Re-Invigorate Food
Production
Shirley Thompson
10:15-11:00
BREAK
11:00-11:45
GROUP DISCUSSION IN BEJOU
12:00
LUNCH
Winona Laduke - Closing Remarks
TBA
Lorraine Lampert
YOUTH SCHEDULE
In room - Beaulieu
Friday March 14th
9:30 - 10:15
9:30 - 10:15
10:20 – 11:05
10:20 – 11:05
11:10 – 11:55
12:00 – 1:00
Nancy Kuhta – Rainbow Corn - Jewlery
Beading Jewelry with Wendy Roy
Nancy Kuhta – Rainbow Corn - Jewlery
Beading Jewelry with Wendy Roy
Musical Chairs with hand drums and
dancing – Sharon M. Day
LUNCH in Bejou
Seed Swap
Our good friend Gregory Chester has helped keep the seeds organized for the seed swap. Please
take seeds with care and respect. When you take seeds, be mindful of all the cultivation that went
into producing that unique variety. Learn their story and how to grow them. Write down all the
information you can about the seed you are taking. Take a “How to Seed Save Pamphlet” and ask
any of the seed savers in the crowd about any more seed saving information; Rowen White, Caroline
Chartrand, and Zachary Paige are three of many.
Vendors
Wendy Roy - I will be selling beadwork, semi-precious gemstone jewelry, pow wow regalia etc.
Estella Young - My products are 100% natural, even the preservative is a natural product. Many
of the herbs I use are collected by me, others I purchase from reputable sources. When I have
extracted the oils from the herbs, I return the herbs to the earth, to complete the cycle of
life. What started out as a hobby, has become my full-time job. I now make all natural soaps,
lotions, salves, bath salts, body oils & sprays, hand sanitizer, lip balm and candles.
Presenter Biographies - Uneditted
Featured Bios
Dan Longboat is Mohawk from the Six Nations of the Grand River. He is Director of the Indigenous
Environmental Studies Program at Trent University, Ontario. Dan is known for
his Traditional Haudenosaunee knowledge and has taught Mohawk culture at
Trent in addition to his work in Indigenous Environmental Studies. Professor
Longboat will be the keynote speaker on Friday, March 14th named The Roots
of Indigenous Agriculture and presenting a workshop on Saturday called
Biocultural framework for Indigenous Food Sustainability.
Amos Hinton Is presenting on sustainable agriculture from the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma. They
grew 12,000 pounds of produce last summer, raised pigs and donated meat to tribal elders, and
raised and sold eggs to their tribal members. Their goal is to produce all of their our food.
Henry Lickers For over 29 years, Henry Lickers of Cornwall has been Director of the Mohawk
Council of Akwesasne Department of the Environment. He will talk about the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement and the importance of looking after the environment for future
generations.
Rowen White is a passionate seed saver. She is from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne,
and curates an extensive collection of rare northeast native seeds. She is the co-founder of the
Sierra Seed Cooperative, a local community seed organization focusing on local seed
production and education, located in California. She is going to present her first nations seed
keepers manual and will talk about the upcoming five-day “seed school” happening in May of
this year at Shakopee.
Sammie Ardito Rivera is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe with paternal ties to
White Earth. She currently is in her third year as Outreach and Education Coordinator at Dream
of Wild Health where she organizes the farm and urban youth programs and several urban
growing projects.
Caroline Chartrand grew up moving, experiencing rural farming communities in Manitoba
and Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba communities as well as urban settings in Manitoba. Her
roots, family gardens and hunting grounds are in the Métis community of St. Laurent,
Manitoba. She has a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Manitoba and
taught academics and Traditional Métis Dance at Children of the Earth High School. She
founded the Métis Horticulture & Heritage Society in 1997 and began to network with other
seed saving organizations and Indigenous communities across North America working to
revive seed saving practices while restoring traditional seed varieties. She leads workshops and
training on seed saving and squash pollinating teams and is currently in the process of working
to establish a regional seed library in the Red River bioregion.
Tatanka Wakpala Model Sustainable Community is a project whose foremost goal is to demonstrate how
small, self-sustained, family oriented communities can flourish in today's consumerist society. They practice and
teach a model of low cost, easily constructed, environmentally friendly community that can provide new
opportunities for Native people to thrive while continuing their ancestors’ teachings on how to live in harmony
with Unci Maka (Mother Earth).
Presenter Biographies
Abdullah A. Jaradat serves as a Research Leader, Supervisory Research Agronomist, and Location Coordinator,
Agricultural Research Service, Morris, Minnesota and adjunct professor, University of Minnesota. He provides
administrative and research leadership for a “Natural Resources Conservation Research Laboratory” in support of national
programs on climate change, land use, and cropping systems. His professional career in undergraduate and graduate
teaching, advising, and research administration covers theoretical and applied aspects of a wide range of agricultural R&D
disciplines under continental, Mediterranean, rainfed, irrigated, saline and desert agro-ecosystems. He works with farmers,
NGOs, and the private sector, and advised several national and international R&D centers in the US, Europe and the
Middle East on the diversity and unique characteristics of landraces of native crops and their health, environmental and
economic values.
Andy Hayner is co-founder of Freedom Rangers LLC, an agroecological education service. Andy provides on farm
assistance and education for over 40 local producers in west central Minnesota. Andy, a graduate of the Sustainable Food
Production program, received the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society's student scholarship in 2011. He strives
to promote fresh air, sunshine, mineral cycling and biodiversity at all levels.
Becky Gawboy grew up in Tower and learned gardening from here Finnish grandmother and her father always organically.
As soon as she became an adult she lived on farms and has raised farm animals and grown a garden. She and Jim have
spent 23 years growing food to feed their large family. They give garden tours and share their knowledge with all who are
interested. I taught American Indian Studies, he taught American Indian Philosophy and we both taught American Indian
History. I was a community organizer for 25 years working on a variety if peace and justice, housing and environmental
issues. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point with a degree in History and Russian Studies.
In addition to growing more than half the food to feed their family of 14, they have become experts at food preservation.
Jim Gawboy, born in 1936 on the Vermilion Reservation. Lived there until he was 6 and then after the death of his
maternal grandmother he and his parents and 7 siblings moved to the Gawboy farm near Ely.He grew up learning farming
from his grandfather and parents. He has always grown plants indoors and out and raised animals whenever he could. He
has a degree in zoology and also studied botany at the University of Minnesota. Mir the last 23 years Jim has raised food
and children on 100 acres in Kugler Township near Tower. Jim is enrolled at Bois Forte. His mother was Finn as was my
father. We are the parents of 12 adopted kids, all Ojibwe. Jim and Becky taught at Mesabi Community College. He is a
graduate of the University of Minnesota with degree in Zoology and Anthropology and worked as a Game Warden for the
Minnesota DNR until he retired in 1991.
Hannah Smith - Fall of 2012 I started a NASA/KIKSAPA internship working with geospatial technologies, this year's
objective is to analyze land use impacts on water quality for White Earth Nation, focusing on, but not limited to, Wild Rice
harvesting lakes and determine data gaps of specific interest to White Earth Natural Resource Department (WENRD). I
am currently a full time student at White Earth Tribal and Community College on my last semester, planing on graduating
this May. Future plans are to continue my education at University of Minnesota- Duluth campus for an Environment and
Sustainability degree. Within the last two years I picked up new interests; TEK (traditional ecological knowledge) and
"indigenuity". I am very excited to be apart of a science community that is finally accepting TEK. I want to learn more
about how other First Nation peoples are dealing with problems they face, in most cases, they are similar across
reservations, states, and countries. When humans and their environment have issues to work out there is usually an overlap
in another part of the world, meaning solutions are also likely to overlap. Connecting with other indigenous people,
comparing and contrasting resource management has become a growing passion of mine.
Kenton Lobe
Kenton Lobe’s family first settled on Treaty 6 land in Northern Saskatchewan but he now lives in Winnipeg, on Treaty 1
land. Together with the CMU Farmers’ Collective he farms a one-acre urban Community Shared Agriculture vegetable
farm on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University. Kenton is interested in the ways in which collaborative seed
saving practices create space for settler communities to learn more about land, identity and agricultural biodiversity. He
currently works with members of the Manitoba Metis community and members of the White Earth Land Recovery Project
to grow and save seed from varieties of vegetables indigenous to the prairie bioregion, and together they are establishing a
community seed library. In the winters, Kenton teaches International Development and Environmental Studies at CMU
and, together with his partner, home schools their two children.
Kenton Lobe’s Students
Megan Klassen-Wiebe is from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She began her passion for farming while studying at Canadian
Mennonite University in Winnipeg and has continued to nurture it there by founding and working at the CMU Farm. She is
a novice seed saver and was a participant in the squash pollinating workshops held at the CMU Farm over the summer of
2013.
Matthew Dueck grew up in the small farming community of Kleefeld, the original Mennonite settlement on Treaty 1
territory, located in southeastern Manitoba. Having worked in various areas of the agricultural sector, he is currently
involved at the CMU Farm CSA as an urban farmer and novice seed saver. Matt has found his experiences in seed saving
to be a rich blend of connecting traditional family practice with new understandings; a living memory of the past and a
hope for an uncertain future.
Jeanette Sivilay hails from Steinbach, Manitoba and is a recent graduate of the International Development Studies and
Environmental Studies departments at the University of Winnipeg. Jeanette grew up gardening, but her interest in
sustainable local food developed in 2011 as she began farming with the CMU Farmers Collective at the on-campus CSA
vegetable farm in Winnipeg. Through the CMU Farm and community partners she has also begun to explore seed saving
with a special focus on indigenous seeds. Good food and urban agriculture have also emerged as interests through her
volunteer work with school lunch programs, academic projects in university, and experiments in the kitchen.
Continued presenters
Lex Horan is an Organizer with Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), which works to replace hazardous
pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. Lex joined PAN's Minneapolis staff in June 2013. His
organizing experience comes from being a part of multiple social justice movements, including organizing against mass
incarceration, building community power with transgender youth, and working with other white people against racism.
Nancy has an entrepreneurial background in germinating, growing flowers and vegetables in greenhouses, also growing
out varieties and harvesting. Teaching successful growing and preserving plants on a large scale.
Nancy is a design flower landscaper at Bemidji University for the last 12 years. Creating visual excitement yearly and has
added the natural beauty of herbs, flowers and grasses at the cultural center.
She is passionate about seed preservation, and currently focusing on Rainbow Corn and a few other heritage varieties.
Recently working with Greg Schoen, receiving, Glass Gems Corn seeds and growing them out with amazing results in our
northern climate. She has also worked with seed grower Dianna Henry, author of Whispering Ancestors and assisted with
corn heritage teachings in different communities.
She is committed to sharing seeds and growing practices with seed banks. Last year in March, while attending the opening
of the seed temple, "The Path", with Grandmother Floredemayo and the seed keepers, all committing to seed preservation.
Nancy is a volunteer as the event coordinator for Honoring the Circle group, promoting diverse heritage, wildlife
preservation and rehabilitation. While teaching and mentoring children and adults on sustaining through the love of
gardening. Teaching seed saving for the next generations, and creating fun ways to keep children interested and interacting
with all the beauty gardening has to offer.
Sharon M. Day, Ojibwe, is the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force.
Hi my name is Sharon Nordrum, I live on a small hobby farm with my sister and son. For the past year and a half I have
been making a living by selling my art. I am a person that is easily bored so I like to try new things expand my horizons. I
got my first Chickens about 11-12 yrs ago. A farmer was selling his Barred Rock hens. My mom and I went a picked up 20
of them. I fell in love with them. I also have rabbits I am going to specialize in just one breed this year and have decided on
the Dutch. I also raised dairy goats for about 10yrs. All my knowledge I have gain in my adventures is through trail and
error. I don't profess to know it all and I am sure there are many areas that I am lacking in knowledge but I love what I do
and I go into everything with gusto.
Shirley Nordrum, University of Minnesota Extension Educator, in Water Resources Management for the Leech Lake
Band of Ojibwe. The goal of the Leech Lake Extension Program is to assist the Band and its membership preserve water
quality, and secure indigenous food supplies. Shirley has also served as the Leech Lake Band’s Environmental Director for
18 years prior and has a total of 26 years of Natural resources experience. Shirley’s educational focus is on Anishinaabe
traditional ecological knowledge, the gifts of the individual and the collective actions and decisions of community.
Shirley Thompson is an associate professor at university of Manitoba. After finding very high food insecurity rates in
remote northern Manitoba communities she is doing participatory community development research on high value added
projects, such as country foods programs, youth gardening programs and value-added fish sales. Please visit her website
at http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~thompso4/index.html for further