Image above: Buffalo on Lakota land in Pine Rifde, North Dakota. From second article in this posting.
By Samy Grover on 14 October 2010 in TreeHugger.org - (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/lakota-permaculture-project.php)
From massive solar installations in Nevada to environmental education tours, many Native American communities are implementing innovative and exciting sustainability initiatives. Now one farmer on the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation in South Dakota is hoping to create an ongoing permaculture teaching and demonstration project to promote self-sufficiency and community resilience.
According to Keith Johnson of Permaculture & Regenerative Design News, the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Environmental Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI) is intended to deploy "existing resources to design and create sustainable systems, abundant production of food, energy and shelter, and systems of local trade that will create economic independence."
Central to the whole initiative is the founding of a permaculture design school on the reservation, teaching both local residents and international students the principles and practices of permaculture, and providing them with hands-on training with various community projects.
Like many Native American communities, the reservation suffers from high unemployment (90%), substance abuse issues and fuel poverty. But Bryan Deans, a Lakota cattle rancher, started the sustainability school with a view to reversing these trends. Already the school has build several demonstration natural buildings, planted a kitchen garden and food forest, and worked on a root cellar and super-efficient sawdust stoves. (A nearby sawmill provides abundant sawdust.)
OLCERI is apparently looking for donations to fund equipment purchases and training costs. The initiative plans to be full self-sufficient by September 2011.
Permaculture at Pine Ridge By Cory Brennan on 24 November 2009 for Permaculture.org- (http://permaculture.org.au/2009/11/24/permaculture-takes-off-at-pine-ridge-lakota-reservation-south-dakota) At Pine Ridge Lakota reservation in South Dakota, Bryan Dean’s cattle ranch embraces thousands of acres of tribal and private lands. One watershed on the range covers 3000 acres of rolling prairie hills and canyons – in heavy rains a wall of water rushes through the eroded beds. The prairie is covered with stunted bufflegrass, a tough pioneer grass that can survive drought, cattle grazing and other abuse, rather than the rich, diverse mixture of tall grasses, wildflowers and other plants that covered the prairie 100 years ago. Bryan is an experienced rancher, an inventor, machinist, builder and man of all trades. On the rez, it pays to have lots of skills. He is also a major source of leadership for his tiospaye, the Lakota name for extended family, or tribe. He has started Oglala-Lakota Cultural and Environmental Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI) to address some of the problems on the reservation and create a model of self-sufficient sustainable practices. Pine Ridge suffers from up to 90% unemployment and 60% diabetes. It is the poorest county in the United States. Shelter is a major issue with much of the housing being inadequate for the severe weather – people freeze to death in the coldest nights of winter. Food is substandard; many are still on government rations which are highly processed and lacking in nutrition; dependency is still encouraged. The Lakota are warriors and when they signed a treaty with the US, it was with a defeated US army – most famously at Little Big Horn but also at several other locations. After the treaty was signed, the Army, unable to defeat them in open warfare, paid hunters to kill buffalo – the primary food supply of the Lakota – en masse. The herds were decimated and many of the tribes, starving, agreed to live on the reservation. The oppression was not yet over – the social engineers in charge decided that wiping out every vestige of the Lakota culture was needed in order to “assimilate” the tribe, even though their signed treaty made them a sovereign nation in their own right. Their spiritual ceremonies were outlawed, and their children were carted off to boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak Lakota, wear Indian clothing or practice any Lakota cultural traditions. These acts and oppressive economics which made the tribe dependent on the US government for food, decimated the culture and the ancient wisdom of the people who had stewarded their land for many hundreds of years. The result was mass despair, alcoholism, drug addiction, health problems and loss of heart and focus. A student learns to use a bobcat while gathering manure for the garden But some on the reservation have a different vision now. There is an organic garden program, a solar and wind power company, education programs revitalizing language and culture, and the tribe has declared itself, once again, a sovereign nation and is pursuing this in the court system. Bryan has assisted Running Strong, a program that brings horses and young people together. There are many opportunities to ride – a 100 mile race, a Crazy Horse ride, Indian style ‘rodeos,’ bow and arrow hunting from horseback, and cattle herding at the ranches that dot the rez. His cattle and a few other cottage businesses at his ranch offer employment to a number of people on the rez. There are still many challenges – the land is degraded, water is somewhat scarce, weather is harsh, with frost as late as June and early as Sept, tornados, heavy storms and sweeping winds. Economics in the region are equally harsh, with limited trade, a slow economy and sometimes racial issues. In other words, a job for permaculture! When I asked Bryan on behalf of the Permaculture Guild if he would host a permaculture course at the rez last September, he had a vague idea of what permaculture was, but wasn’t sure what it could do for him, or for the rez exactly. He agreed to do it, though, and the results exceeded expectations. He found it to be one of the best courses he had ever done, and he now wants to get the principles and techniques into broad use on the rez. When instructor Warren Brush (of Quail Springs) toured his dam system with him (on the 3000 acre watershed) and showed him exactly how to build the dams so they wouldn’t wash out in a large storm, and then showed him how to place keyline dams to recharge the water supply throughout the system, he was sold. He could see the value of permaculture and started talking to other Lakota about it. As the course progressed, Warren and Bryan continued to plan to create major changes towards sustainability with the resources to hand. After the course, Bryan started teaching a beginning farmer/rancher program, implementing some of the permaculture principles. He wants to set up microlending of cattle and other resources to get young ranchers off the ground. He has had a vision for years of a sustainability school on the rez, that would be open to Lakota, members of other tribes and non-Indians – an ideal model that could serve as something that can be replicated at other reservations. Permaculture opened many doors and the first course became the official launch of the school. In 2010, we have planned a number of workshops, another full Permaculture Design Course plus a keyline course, taught by Warren Brush, as well as something new and different. When I saw how my 17-year old son thrived in the huge open spaces at Bryan’s ranch, an idea I’ve had for years manifested as well. I’m a long time homeschooler and have explored many alternative educational methods. The ranch is an ideal place for immersion education, which aligns with traditional Lakota methods of teaching through experience. Thus, we will hold the first youth/young adult Regenerative Skills apprenticeship next summer, which will include hands on learning via the many opportunities at the ranch – handling animals, welding, food forestry and kitchen gardening, water catchment and reuse, natural building and retrofitting, building wind towers, wildcrafting and medicinal herbs, native craft skills and traditions, tracking, and wilderness survival are a few of the things that may be available to learn. Permaculture principles will be the core of every lesson, with living examples of these principles being created by the mentored students. The course will be open to Lakota and people from outside the reservation (as will most of the courses at the school), to create maximum beneficial connection and diversity. This will be fun for all ages! Most of the activities at the ranch stack functions, create niches, remedy scarcity with abundance, and create lots of beneficial connections with one another. Bryan has a vision of real sovereignty created on the reservation through sustainable self-sufficiency, and dreams of someday regenerating all two million acres of Pine Ridge, bringing it back to the days of pristine and fertile prairie land. It is already beautiful land with a deep and rich history of The People, the Lakota. .
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