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Pawnee Nation College students and volunteers at the OSU-Stillwater Greenhouse Learning Center collaborate on the Pawnee Gardener Program. (Photo by Kirsten Hollansworth)

Deep roots: Tribal tradition incorporates modern gardening practices

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Media Contact: Kirsten Hollansworth | Communications Graduate Student | 405-744-0442 | kirsten.hollansworth@okstate.edu

Nestled in the bend of Black Bear Creek is the relocated home for the Pawnee tribe. Among the century old native stone buildings is the Pawnee Nation College, which preserves and revitalizes the deep roots of tribal community, culture and tradition.

Pawnee Nation College faculty collaborate with Oklahoma State University Extension and outreach programs to develop STEM-related fields, such as the agricultural industry, to educate students and volunteers about food security and wellness.

Patricia Rayas-Duarte, a cereal chemist at the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center, proposed an agricultural project: Pawnee Agricultural Nutrition Initiative Outreach Program. The project goal is to establish a garden to educate tribal members while promoting a healthier lifestyle.

“It has been a great project with multidisciplinary teams from OSU, Pawnee Nation College and Langston University,” Rayas-Duarte said. “We have amazing Extension project co-directors — Lynn Brandenberger and Tim Bowser — who have enriched the experiences of the Pawnee Nation College staff, students and volunteers.”

As project director, Rayas-Duarte works to provide hands-on training in basic gardening agricultural practices. Focus areas include the production of native crops, nutritional education and the preservation of native foods.

Sara Wallace, OSU Extension assistant specialist in entomology and plant pathology, presented a training course at the OSU Greenhouse Learning Center for Pawnee Nation College students and volunteers. The training was designed to be attainable and applicable to the tribal community garden.

“I love to teach people how to grow their own food, not necessarily for self-sufficiency, but to empower them,” Wallace said. “I teach classes because I think the community aspect of gardening is important.”

Wallace is a self-taught gardener who has a passion for teaching others. With an interest in edibles and landscape design, she has been gardening for over 22 years.

“Gardening is a valuable skill, and I’ve been involved in community gardening in Tulsa because I enjoy helping people learn a new skill,” she said. “I think with growing tips and some management practices, gardeners can learn to avoid plant disease.”

To educate tribal members who manage the garden, Wallace presented information about plant pathogens, management of diseases, current plant issues and how to properly diagnose problems.

This gardener program can educate members of the tribe to have a better understanding of food production as a whole, by giving students and volunteers hope they can garden in Oklahoma, Wallace said.

“One of the most common garden mistakes is buying varieties that are not recommended for our area, but stores still provide,” she said. “Long-term plants such as fruit trees, which may take five years to produce, have many varieties found in stores which are not recommended for this area. My frustration is that the gardener is doomed to fail from the beginning.”

Similar to the strict variety selection of fruit trees, sacred Pawnee corn struggles to grow in Oklahoma.

The Pawnee Seed Preservation Society serves to replenish ancestral seeds by establishing a seed bank. The corn kernels nearly didn't survive in the 1870s, when the Pawnee Nation was forced from the established homeland in Nebraska, which is where varieties of non-hybrid corn grow successfully.

The Pawnee corn did not take root in the Oklahoma soil, but after returning the seed to its native home, the corn continues to thrive in the rich Nebraska soil.

It takes an educated farmer because that is key when there are only a few available seeds the tribal wants to multiply, she said.

“Finding a grower that has experience and the right set up is important to preserve seeds,” Wallace said. “Corn needs high nitrogen and water at particular times in its growth and by following these guidelines, one healthy row can produce enough seeds to expand rows for the next year to grow.”

Despite the challenges of growing the sacred non-hybrid corn, Pawnee Nation College students and volunteers grow a variety of produce in their community gardens.

Kim Murie, a faculty member at Pawnee Nation College, values the importance of applied and technical skills.

“Our whole theory is that we were traumatized during the boarding school era, and we were not allowed to garden,” Murie said. “Everything had to be learned over and we did not think we were capable of learning.”

The tribal members could not grow their own food because the land was held in trust by the government, and they did not have the machinery. Commodities such as canned foods and meats were provided by the USDA, but the tribe lost hundreds of young people to diabetes and high blood pressure, Murie said.

“Our whole goal is to help people change their diet,” she said. “When our ancestors came from Nebraska, they brought the sacred corn with them.”

Deb Echo-Hawk, keeper of the seeds, began collecting bundles of corn from museums and families to start growing the sacred corn.

“Every year, we go to Nebraska to harvest Pawnee corn in late August,” Murie said. “After bringing the corn back to Oklahoma, we do a ceremony. Some of the harvested corn becomes seed, while some is used to feed the people.”

Beans, squash and Pawnee watermelon are other crops that remained untouched from chemicals and pesticides.

“We hope that bringing back untouched foods and feeding it to our people will help prevent diseases, since we are not used to eating fats, salts and processed foods,” Murie said. “When I first went to Pawnee, I was shocked because I did not realize how isolated and traditional the people were.”

Gardening is an initiative to provide structure for isolated Indian youth by providing soil therapy for alcoholism, she said.

“Starting out, we designed the garden in the shape of the Pawnee star,” Murie said. “The three sisters, corn, squash and beans all grow together. We have experimented with non-hybrid corn, but it did not do as well as it does in Nebraska.”

With a tribe of about 3,000 people, the garden produces lettuce, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini and sunflowers. But, with a limited number of volunteers, manpower continues to be an ongoing challenge.

“With most produce, we try to make new recipes,” she said. “The recipes are then shared with multiple people and the garden comes full circle.”

The roots of the Pawnee Nation run deep with tribal tradition. While preserving sacred crops, the Pawnee Agricultural Nutrition Initiative Outreach Program inspires tribal members to learn technical skills in the garden, which will benefit the community and help them continue to thrive for generations to come.


FAPC, a part of OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, helps to discover, develop and deliver technical and business information that will stimulate and support the growth of value-added food and agricultural products and processing in Oklahoma.

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