Now in Season Mud Season Subscribe

Seed Work is Slow Work

Foodways

To begin to appreciate the power of seeds, we must first understand the role in which industrial agriculture works to control them. Despite the energy and infrastructure behind patenting, modifying, and owning seeds, there is a growing movement of intergenerational Indigenous seed keepers, farmers, and chefs working to regenerate the seed security that was uprooted by the commoditization of the agricultural landscape.

“I wish that people would just pay more attention to their food systems and what happens with genetically modifying what you eat,” says Elena Terry, of the Ho-Chunk Nation. “Unfortunately, you get into this political, economic conversation about the fact that people are starving, so if they have to purchase this very cheap, highly processed food, that’s what it has to be. But how can we change that?” Elena is the founder and executive chef of Wild Bearies, an educational non-profit based in Wisconsin Dells, that connects Indigenous communities through a mentorship program and seed-to-table culinary events. She has emerged as a leader in Native food reinvigoration through her work as a chef, seed keeper, and community organizer. She has had an impact not only on the regional level but is also an integral part of the larger Indigenous seed movement.

Elena’s journey through her Indigenous food heritage began with her passion for cooking and sharing her unique approach to traditional Ho-Chunk foods with her community. By following her deep interest in connecting with food at the source, Elena has become a respected pit master, butcher, forager, and keeper of seeds. Prior to establishing Wild Bearies in 2018, Elena had been a tribal legislator for the Ho-Chunk Nation. After realizing that she would be a more effective leader working directly with food and sharing her ancestral traditions through her cooking, she decided to make the leap into centering her life around food. “I have always cooked for ceremonies, and I feel connected to our spirituality through our food. I was part of the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit and through that became a part of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliances pilot mentorship program. During those experiences, Wild Bearies kind of manifested itself and I’ve just been along for the ride.”

We all knew it was about taking care of one another, but also sharing our abundance with each other. The solution to our food issues is about trying to get back into that mindset.

Native communities’ work to reclaim their traditional food systems has been built on a collective effort that is coordinated among a network of inter-tribal leaders who work together to rematriate seeds to their origins. Elena explains, “I don’t like to think that people are the ones who do it. I really feel that the seeds are the ones that dictate when it’s time to go home and that people are the vessels that bring them there. Those seeds going back to where they came from is the rematriation. Some of those seeds have been sheltered or kept in a safe place because it wasn’t safe for them to be where they were originally meant to be, so they were protected. The mothers are going home to care for us.”

In Elena’s work within the Indigenous network of seed keepers, Jessika Greendeer, her grandmother through the Ho-Chunk kinship system, has had an incredible impact both as a collaborator and mentor. Jessika is the Vice President and a founding board director of Wild Bearies as well as the Seed Keeper and Farm Manager at Dream of Wild Health, a non-profit farm organization that serves the Twin Cities Indigenous community through a CSA program, farmers market and Indigenous seed collection. Following military service, Jessika completed the Veteran-to-Farmer program at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. Jessika has brought her experience and wisdom of Indigenous growing practices full circle from her work in the garden as a child, to her time at Rodale Institute, and now as a leader in her farming community. “The more I look at Indigenous farming, the more I realize that we were the original regenerative farmers. Regenerative practices are just the methods of farming that we use. It’s not extractive to the Earth. It’s about forming a relationship with the Earth and by doing that you take better care of her."

After meeting at a Ho-Chunk food-tasting competition, Jessika and Elena began supporting one another through seed saving and food sourcing. Jessika remembers how Elena and her daughter, Zoe, helped her plant a quarter acre of corn, squash and sunflowers. “Seed work is slow work. As much as you want to be able to grow acres and acres of something, when you start off with a handful of seeds, that takes a long time to get it to that population size. While I was working for the tribe, I had put a call out for anybody who could help me do this hand seeding. The only person who kept showing up was Elena and she would bring Zoe along. Zoe already had caught the seed bug, whether she knew it or not.”

The choice of Zoe to continue in the culinary and seed keeping tradition of her mother and her kindred grandmother illustrates the power of generational knowledge. “I’ve worked in the kitchen with my mom for over five years, but this summer I had the opportunity to go and work with Jessika at Dream of Wild Health. It was eye- opening to be able to work with the ingredients and know where they come from and how they are grown. To see what it takes to grow seeds and care for them, to be part of feeding people has been beautiful. I’ve worked in the whole spectrum of seed production now and being able to study with some of the most knowledgeable people is very meaningful to me.” Jessika explains the Indigenous approach to keeping and multiplying seeds, “with all of our seeds we consider them members of the extended family because seeds are living beings and so it’s not something that you can just sell. Like we can’t sell human beings. As Native people we look at the perspective of The Seven Generations. It’s not only looking for what’s going to happen today or even a year from now but thinking seven generations from now. Everything that we do today is going to ripple into our future generations or the generations who have yet to come to Earth. Like seed keepers have thought of us long before we ever came here. And that’s not just for Indigenous people, but it's all around the world."

This past summer Elena traveled to the Pacific Northwest on Indigenous trade routes visiting farmers, traditional food knowledge keepers and seed savers along the way. The wildfires and hailstorms that devastated much of the West also had an impact on the seeds that were to be harvested this year. In the cycles of seed production, some seed must be planted while some seed must be saved. When conditions like natural disaster, disease or pests wipe out a crop, Indigenous seed keepers support one another by trading, sharing, and storing seed in various locations. Elena talks about how the Native seeds that were stolen from Indigenous communities are kept safe through a group of trusted seed keepers, “We can share some of the seed but some of it has to be protected. And those conversations need to happen. Because once we start talking about intellectual property it really is a matter of making sure that those seed lines are kept safe from ill intentions.”

Indigenous trade routes weren’t historically limited to North America. Elena and Jessika both feel connected and inspired by the Indigenous foodways not only of the upper Midwest but also the entire Western Hemisphere. Jessika points out that trade and knowledge sharing spanned from South America all the way into Canada, “A lot of what Elena did this past summer was ultimately based on our Indigenous food trade routes, pre-European contact or even post-contact. During an archaeological dig down in South America there was evidence of wild rice. Even as far as Canada, at another archaeological dig, there was evidence of cocoa in a pot. These dig sites were from thousands of years ago. At one time all Indigenous people across the Americas had traded not only food, but different goods and items with one another even though we spoke different languages. We all knew it was about taking care of one another, but also sharing our abundance with each other. The solution to our food issues is about trying to get back into that mindset."

For Elena, keeping alive ancient traditions through sharing knowledge within her community is at the core of her work as a mentor, chef and mother. In an excerpt from an essay written for an anthology to be published for the Inter-Tribal Ag Council, Elena beautifully shares the depth of importance in her work:

Our grandmothers, the matriarchal knowledge keepers, knew the importance of continuing these teachings. The way that they shared the knowledge with us was by implanting it in our sensical memories. The way the fire crackled, or the corn felt, or the way the forest smells...all these feelings embed in the activities that went along with them. All harmoniously intertwined by the calm sound of my grandmother’s voice. These were the seeds of strength, resilience, compassion, kindness, and endurance that were planted as blood memories. Those memories will continue deep within our DNA, as a gift from our grandmothers. In continuity, we will share these stories, knowledge, and good intentions with our grandchildren.

We are our grandmother’s prayers.

Blue Corn Waffles with Wild Rice

Waffles with a twist from Elena Terry of Wild Bearies!

Make This

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

More Stories by This Author