The Indigenous Preservation Center
The Indigenous Preservation Networking Center (IPNC) is an independent,
non-profit institution with research, educational and community
development projects in American Indian traditional agriculture, women's
health, herbal medicines, forestry, and marketing. The center is
dedicated to the revitalization of sustainable community culture and
economics, land reinhabitation and the preservation of natural
environments. Since its creation in 1986, the IPNC has been located at
Crows Hill Farm, a Native American homestead in Berkshire, NY.
The IPNC advocates a coordinated effort to stimulate, organize and help
fund community development among American Indian people. The IPNC works
with several American Indian communities in North and Central America,
channeling development resources to self-help projects. One goal is to
preserve and to rescue native crops and varieties. Instructors,
researchers and other resource people, from Cornell University and other
institutions, make up a network of more than three dozen Native and
native-identified professionals who inform and participate in the
Center's activities.
The IPNC encourages the development of new models (domestic and
regional) of production and consumption, integrating the extended
family-community based economic system used by American Indian and other
traditional peoples. The IPNC stimulates planning around land-based,
sustainable development for Indian and other rural families. It intends
to integrate traditional practices of food production, marketing and
environmental preservation. Preliminary research studies, both in
Indian agriculture and varieties of business and marketing projects, are
underway at IPNC.
One exciting project coupled our Indian corn-based food products with
the kitchen expertise from Ithaca's famous Moosewood Restaurant. An
Iroquois white corn food-fest held in 1991 introduced the resulting
dishes, both traditional and experimental, to the general public. The
white corn, a hominy native to the Northeast, is not only good in soup
and grits; it can be made into cornbread, tamales, tortillas, chips,
breakfast cereal, pound cake, and is a tasty roasted corn snack. It is
a nutritious, healthy food with potential for feeding large numbers of
people inexpensively.
General Objectives:
To rescue, to study and to adapt traditional agricultural and medicinal
practices still used by indigenous peoples in the Americas, as well as
their economic systems, and to establish and strengthen links with and
between indigenous communities and with institutions and organizations
committed to their development, in order to
a) promote the preservation of indigenous scientific and cultural
values and knowledge,
b) incorporate this knowledge into modern systems of
ecologically-sound sustainable production,
c) encourage the socio-economic development of indigenous communities
and nations,
d) enable cultural and scientific interchange and understanding among
people with different ethnic backgrounds,
e) transmit information to individual members of the communities
affected and to assist as requested in the application of the
information.
The IPNC philosophy holds that the food production and medicinal ways of
traditional peoples can yet have a positive impact upon
ecological-conscious development. The IPNC conducts training courses
and seminars in order to transmit this knowledge to the younger
generations. The Center provides educational opportunities for
indigenous students working in areas compatible with sustainable
agricultural practices and other forms of community development.
-- prepared by Jose Barreiro
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