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| Cone Flower |
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| Squash blossom |
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| Ahsayma |
… as I stooped over wiping salty sweat from my brow, a
grandfather sauntered over, assessing my work, and engaging me in banter: “So you think you know something about
gardening, eh? You think you know
something about growing tobacco?” With
a smile, I denied knowing anything about anything, and replied that I was doing
my best to tackle the task at hand, pulling weeds. Kindly, the grandfather shared a little bit of his personal
history as he instructed me to be sure to pull the weeds out by the root, so
they don’t come back. He shared that he
had grown tobacco “about forty years ago” and recounted how indigenous
gardeners would always weed from the root.
He contrasted that with the gardening techniques used by European
settlers, which require much more repeat weeding as well as the use of
herbicides and fertilizers. By pulling
the weeds out by the root, and letting them dry around the garden, the
naturally occurring vegetation provides a natural source for fertilizing the
soil once the garden’s productive season has come to completion. “Burn all the weeds and other plants once
the growing season is over, and then turn it all into the soil. That will make the plants more healthy the
next season,” he instructed.
There were other things as well. “Mound up the earth around each plant to protect the roots. Do this each time you weed, before you
water. That way, the nutrients in the
soil stay with the plant.” Grandfather
Bob brought the tradition of gardening that he learned as a young man growing
up on the reservation to the urban youth of today and shared that knowledge
again with a mom and her toddler at the Elders Lodge garden planted and tended
by multi generational members of the community who are working to ensure that
our methods of subsistence, physically, mentally and spiritually are
remembered, practiced and maintained for the generations of the future.
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| Grandmother Emma Gurneau |
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| Grandmother Eileen Hudon and her helpers |
The Indigenous Peoples Task Force (IPTF) started out as a
task force to monitor and take action against the growing epidemic of HIV and
AIDS that is rapidly plaguing the American Indian community in Minnesota
(American Indian heterosexual women represent one of the fastest growing
demographic groups in acquiring new HIV cases, slightly more cases per
population are being reported in the African American and Latino/a
communities).
In the first few years, IPTF’s activities were centered
largely around issues of HIV transmission reduction, and counseling people
living with HIV about dealing with a terminal illness. There were many losses of family, friends
and colleagues in those early years.
Then the medical establishment released new regimes of chemicalized
plants, animal parts and minerals which have resulted in huge increases in the
lifespans of people living with HIV and AIDS.
Consequently, there are more clients, living longer lives,
despite their immuno-compromised state.
A longer lifespan has given rise to a host of new community needs and
desires in this post HIV antiviral drug era.
People living with HIV/ AIDS now live long enough to notice that smoking
has a drastic negative impact on their health.
And because the life expectancy is longer, though still much more
fragile than the average non-immunocompromised individual, health impacts such
as environmental toxins, air pollution, soil contamination and water quality
and safety have become a major factor in discussions and daily decision making
surrounding lifestyle choices for optimal healthy living.
The acceptable safe levels or TMDL’s of toxic and carcinogen
substances that are allowed by government regulatory agencies cannot be
accurately measured for people living with HIV. Nor can the impacts of unregulated toxic emissions and unsafe
disposal of harmful chemicals into the air, soil or water. Hence the City of Minneapolis Drinking Water
Quality Report notice that “Immuno-compromised people such as people undergoing
chemotherapy, …organ transplants, … HIV/ AIDS… elderly, and infants….should
seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.” (2005 &
2006)
As indigenous people, we are still struggling for our very
survival, still seeking to ensure that there will be a place and a way for our
future generations to emerge and take root in the rocky soil that is our world
today. So we seek out the elders, and
do our best to tease out the helpful teachings, guidance and snippets of useful
wisdom that they may offer. We use our
technology and our teachings to try to ask the questions that our children will
need answered years hence. And we ask
for information to be forthcoming from the scientists and policy analysts who
know by measure what is happening, but are too often reverted to silence or
unintelligibility.
As we engage in this game of strategy, of wits or apathy, we
find that our many paths do, in fact converge and cross at many places, not
just one. Our health department warns
us, do not drink this water, while our traditional teachers remind us how to
make our own filters. Our surgeon
general proclaims smoking a health hazard; our elders tell us to snip the flowers off three times and let the
fourth set of buds go to seed. The
environmental government agency tells us that our soil is contaminated so much
that playing in it poisons our children; our traditional gardeners show us how
to mound up the soil around plants that will form new soil and burn the pulled
weeds at the end of the growing season to fertilize in a way that protects our
children from harm.
As we struggle to live our lives, however long or short they
may turn out to be, in a way that is consistent with the values and
instructions that we each maintain out of our desire and free will as
independent human beings, we learn by our experience, and we remember just how
pitifully interdependent we are with everything that lives, breaths or moves.
As our water becomes more and more contaminated through the
air, on the land and under the earth; as we search the databases for lakes
whose fish are not contaminated with mercury and pcb’s; as we wonder what to
feed our children with every new outbreak of mad cow, brucellosis and avian
flu; we know that we must pray, and that praying alone is not enough. We must learn, we must know and we must act.
Our surgeon general reminded us that smoking causes
premature death. We remembered the Onkwehowe
tobacco growers and sought out 600 year old seeds that had been passed down
from generations through our history of migration, trade and commerce. We were warned that it is our responsibility
alone to ensure the health and vitality of our water. Our grandmothers are beginning to stand up and teach all of the
women whose mothers were not able to teach them about the relationship of women
to water. Our food is being altered by
scientific experiments that have yet to be proven into laws. Our children are reminding us how to reduce
our household waste by choosing what we buy carefully, composting at our homes
or apartments and using the new soil to grow healthy greens, herbs and
vegetables. And, of course,
tobacco. Sacred tobacco. Planted next to the tomatoes and peppers who
are their family members in the world of zuyawgikeeg. Hang them to dry before the first frost so the leaves don’t get
mushy. And don’t forget that the seeds
will fall out of their little cases, so collect them ever so carefully for
post-winter planting once the sun warms enough to heat a southern window for
the whole afternoon.
Whatever happens, we will always have the knowledge, the
wisdom and the technology to do what we need to; as long as we make sure we
have the faith, the desire and the discipline to seek and carry out tasks and
instructions that we receive.
Bawshkeeng Wabigun
text c. 2006
photos c. 2011
Epilogue: Grandfather Bob left us some years ago, and the text only version of this post originally appeared on the IPTF website when I was working there back in 2006, but after finding and reading it again today, this piece seems to have gained a new currency in light of the recent chemical and oil spills.
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