Traditional agricultural methods are being taught to help tribal
families make use of their own land, increase self-sufficiency, and
preserve cultural traditions.
The program for this was developed by the Thakiwa Foundation which
is an independant non-profit group which maintains offices in
Drumright and Prague Oklahoma.
The agricultural program, and projects, was started in the Spring
of 1996 near Cushing, Oklahoma. Dagmar Thorpe, director of Thakiwa, is
the great-granddaughter of Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. She said, "We
want to perpetuate our way of life, our language and our culture. Our
principal focus is our own community, the Sac and Fox, but we're also
linking with people in other places and providing some assistance to
people in other places.
Thakiwa Deputy Director, Jacob Manatowa-Bailey has studied what
types of plantings were done by tribal ancestors and how they were
planted. Land management practices are also included, to help with
wild life habitat. He said, "Eventually, we want to have a fund where
anybody in the tribe can come to us with an idea or project they want
to do and we'll be able to help them get the funds to do that. This
is very grassroots oriented."
This program helps families learn what types of good nutritional
foods, are historically part of the tribal diet. The traditional
planting methods are encouraged without the use of chemicals or
pesticides. Many of the seeds came from the Sante Fe seed company.
Jim Wilson, a tribal member, experimented with different planting
methods in his garden this year. He tried planting corn in single
rows, and in another garden, planted with the traditional three
sisters method.
In this method you plant corn in mounds and two weeks later plant
pole beans on the mounds and squash and pumpkins in between the
mounds. The squash and pumpkin's broad leaves keep weeds down, the
corn acts like poles for the beans, and the beans fertilize the corn.
Comparing the harvest, Wilson said the row corn gave one ear per
stalk, and the three sisters method gave three or four ears per stalk.
This year there were four gardens in the traditional agriculture
program. The program participants are going to use their harvest in
four ways,as their ancestors did.
The harvest will be used to feed the family, to give away to
others, to save some for ceremonial purposes and feasts.
Next year Wilson expects the number of people to grow as people
find out about the program. Wilson said, "We want to be sure people
don't overextend themselves because then people have a tendancy to get
discouraged. Most of all we want people to have success."
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Submitted to the Net by
John Berry