Abenaki Involvement at the Knoll – Middlebury College and the Western Abenaki

By Rose Robinson ‘24.5 and Sylvie Linck ‘24.5

Since 2003, The Knoll has played an important role for the Middlebury community. As a wonderful location to watch sunsets and enjoy spring weather with friends, students enjoy The Knoll for its natural beauty. But as a functioning organic farm, it offers so much more–fresh produce, educational opportunities, and spiritual solace. Through three programming areas–the Educational Garden, the Outdoor Kitchen and the Serenity Garden–The Knoll’s goal is to “explore food as a medium to cultivate wellbeing in people, place and the planet” (“The Knoll”).

Within the past 15 years, local Abenaki people in Vermont have created new agricultural programming, starting new gardens as well as collaborating with pre-existing farms and gardens (Midd Sustainability). The goal of these projects is to revitalize traditional Abenaki agriculture, inspire quality education on Abenaki culture, and provide food for the community. One recent collaboration has been with the Knoll. In the summer of 2019, The Knoll began to grow traditional Abenaki varieties of corn, beans, and squash that could be lost to time without continuing their cultivation. Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Abenaki tribe visited the farmers and interns to share his vast knowledge on Abenaki agriculture and food and told the stories of the Corn Mother and the Three Sisters (Middlebury College). In addition, Chief Don Stevens graciously “offered an Abenaki blessing on the fields, and offered song and a blessing at harvest” (Middlebury College). Farmers and programmers at the Knoll hope to continue the partnership with the Chief Don Stevens and the Abenaki, to continue growing traditional crops and provide immersive and thorough Indigneous education on agricultural methods, traditions, and stories.

A sign at the Abeneki Heritage Garden at the Intervale in Burlington, VT.

The collaboration with the Abenaki at the Knoll represents a larger goal of re-Indigenizing American agriculture. By taking power away from Native nations American colonization has also taken power away from the land’s best stewards. From generations of experiential learning and a cultural and spiritual value for the Earth, the traditional agricultural methods of the Abenaki and other Native American tribes are marked by a clear prioritization of planetary health (Aftandilian 228, “About Seeds of Renewal”). As such, to revitalize Abenaki agriculture is to revitalize a tradition that represents much more: culture, spirituality, knowledge, and community.

Colonization and its ramifications have also left Native Americans with the highest rates of food inaccess, diet-related diseases, and poverty, one of every four Indigenous people experiencing food insecurity in comparison to one in nine overall Americans (Meredith). The Abenaki have not been spared from this structural epidemic of food apartheid. In discussing collaboration at the Knoll in an interview with Meagan Brakely, a food and garden educator at Middlebury College, Chief Don Stevens discussed that “Indigenous peoples had originally helped European settlers survive by sharing their knowledge of local crops” and that “Indigenous peoples today are asking for the favor to be returned and to be supported in growing healthy and traditional food for their communities” (Midd Sustainability). The collaboration at the Knoll is a step in returning the favor to the Abenaki, increasing local Abenaki people’s access to traditional and healthy food, and working towards Abenaki food sovereignty, “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” (US Food Sovereignty).

By practicing Abenaki farming techniques at The Knoll, Middlebury is playing a role in the decolonization of agriculture. The steps taken by Megan Brakerly, Chief Don Stevens, and others at The Knoll aid in the longevity of Abenaki agricultural practices themselves, but also the culture, spirituality, and traditions that revolve around the growing of food. The collaboration at The Knoll also benefits the lives of Abenaki community members themselves, increasing their access to healthy, local, traditional food. These positive impacts are all interwoven, demonstrating that work like that at The Knoll, work in the re-Indigenization of agriculture, has resounding effects for Native communities.

Students at the Knoll.

“About Seeds of Renewal.” The Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center, Alnôbaiwi, www.alnobaiwi.org/seeds-of-renewal. Accessed 21 Apr. 2021. This website is about the Seeds of Renewal project created by Dr. Fred Wiseman, which has to do with the importance of Indigenous plant varieties and reinstating their place in local agriculture.

Aftandilian, Dave. “What Other Americans Can and Cannot Learn from Native American Environmental Ethics.” Worldviews, vol. 15, no. 3, 2011. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43809445?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=native+american+farming+technique&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dnative%2Bamerican%2Bfarming%2Btechnique%26filter%3D&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aee698255664bb29a95b8a84ce052d757&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. Accessed 28 Apr. 2021.

Archer Kneeland. “Food & Garden Educator’s Report for 2019.” The Knoll at Middlebury College, 13 June 2012, middfarm.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/check-whats-cooking-3.

“Food Sovereignty | USFSA.” US Food Sovereignty Alliance, 2020, usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/what-is-food-sovereignty.

“The Knoll.” Middlebury Sustainability, Middlebury College, www.middlebury.edu/sustainability/operations-and-action/global-food-program/knoll. Accessed 20 May 2021.

Meredith, Eric. “November is Native American Heritage Month.” Hunger + Health: Feeding America, Hunger + Health, 10 Nov. 2020, hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/2020/11/november-native-american-heritage-month/#:~:text=Native%20Americans%20suffer%20from%20some,1%20in%209%20Americans%20overall. Accessed 13 May 2021.

Midd Sustainability. “Abenaki at the Knoll Webinar 09 01 2020.” YouTube, uploaded by Midd Sustainability, 3 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dlQxi-KE5o.

United Plant Savers. “Sacred Seeds at the The Intervale Center: The Abenaki Heritage Garden.” United Plant Savers, 17 Dec. 2020, unitedplantsavers.org/sacred-seeds-at-the-the-intervale-cente-the-abenaki-heritage-garden.

Further Reading