by Sylvan Linck ‘24.5
I would like to begin by stating my privilege as a cisgender white woman, acknowledging that I am a non-indigenous person and that I do not speak for the Abenaki or any other Indigenous community.
Education and collaboration between Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples help advance Indigenous goals, including the “survival of peoples, cultures, and languages; the struggle to become self-determining” and the struggle to “take back control of our [Indigenous] destinies” (Smith 143). Agricultural and interactive programming at the Knoll at Middlebury College, as well as the Abenaki Heritage Gardens in Burlington, Vermont are excellent examples of goal-advancing Indigenous collaboration and education. Agriculture is an important Indigenous topic for education because it was and is an essential force in Abenaki survival and culture. The connections and community that formed and continue to form through Abenaki agriculture should be preserved and celebrated.
Unfortunately, Native American education curriculum is required in less than half of the United States and when it is offered, it is not required to be specific to the state’s local tribal nations (Broaddus). This is often due to a lack of funding, governmental support, and “collaboration between state education agencies and tribal nations” (Broaddus). Steps should continue to be taken to provide quality Indigenous education, including “providing funding, committing to collaboration, setting teachers up for success, emphasizing cross-curricular — and complementary — options, and recognizing the benefit to all students” (Broaddus). Education should also be focused particularly on young people, so that they grow up inspired, aware, and empowered to help work towards the future that is best for Indigenous people. It is also essential that non-Indigenous educators are well informed of Indigenous culture, history, and preferably are taught by an Indigenous person.
In Decolonizing Methodologies, Linda Tuhiwai Smith outlines twenty-five Indigenous projects by which predominantly Indigenous people work towards Indigenous goals, including education. Some of these are specifically accomplished in the interactions at the Knoll and the Abenaki Heritage Garden. The first project, named Revitalization and Regeneration, focuses on the importance of preventing Indigenous languages and cultural practices from being forgotten (Smith 148). It is essential to continue practicing traditional ways, including agricultural ways, to keep them alive and thriving. Putting in place systems where people will ensure traditional forms of Abenaki agriculture will continue to be used on Abenaki land is a form of (re)Claiming and Returning, two more of Smith’s projects (Smith 144, 156).
Within the past 15 years, local Abenaki people in Vermont have created new agricultural programming, starting new gardens, such as the Abenaki Heritage Gardens, as well as collaborating with pre-existing farms and gardens, such as the Knoll at Middlebury College. (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. Food, and therefore agriculture, is culturally powerful. It has ties to family, community, gratitude, everyday way of life, and is deeply connected to the people and techniques that grow and nourish the crops. Food is a way for people to connect with one another and build connections and communities. Furthermore, food sovereignty and security are essential to all communities, and continuing to honor and support Indigenous agricultural and food practices is extremely important in supporting Indigenous communities (Berton-Reily).
Both the Knoll and the Abenaki Heritage Gardens grow traditional Abenaki crops, including the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash. The three sisters are grown together because of the variety of nutrition they provide (carbs, proteins, and vitamins), as well as their successful planting abilities and connections. Corn, beans, and squash all had multiple uses. Some varieties of corn were eaten fresh, while others were stored and dried, and others, such as flint corn, were “ground for flour” (Abenaki Heritage Garden). Different varieties of beans could “be eaten fresh whole, shelled when slightly older, and dried once fully ripened,” where they could then be stored throughout winter (Abenaki Heritage Garden). Squash could also be served fresh or dried. Corn “provides a natural pole for the climbing bean vines” and the beans “fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the soil.” The squash is planted below and its vines and leaves “provide shade to keep the soil moist and inhibit weeds” (Abenaki Heritage Garden).
The Knoll, which is also known as the Middlebury College Organic Farm, is used to grow food to eat, as well as for classes, research, and events. The Knoll is made up of three main areas, the Educational Garden, the Outdoor Kitchen and the Serenity Garden. The Knoll grows some of the traditional foods of the Abenaki, such as corn, beans, and squash. Local Abenaki have become involved with specific gardens/farms within Vermont, including the Knoll, in hopes to educate and provide healthier and fresher food to members of the Abenaki community (Midd Sustainability). Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe Chief Don Stevens visited the intern crew in the summer of 2019 and shared his vast knowledge on Abenaki agriculture and food. While working with the farmers and interns, Chief Don Stevens shared the story of the Corn Mother, as well as of the story of the Three Sisters with the students and faculty working there. In discussing the collaboration, Chief Don Stevens mentioned how Indigenous peoples had originally helped European settlers grow crops, and now Indigenous peoples are asking for the favor to be returned and to be supported in growing food for the community (Midd Sustainability).
Chief Don Stevens also very graciously “offered an Abenaki blessing on the fields, and offered song and a blessing at harvest” (Middlebury College). Sharing is another of Smith’s projects that is shown in part in this collaboration, which Smith describes as displaying the view that “knowledge being a collective benefit and knowledge being a form of resistance” (Smith 162). Sharing can happen solely within Indigenous communities, as well as extend beyond to nonindigenous communities depending on the topic, the goals of the Sharing, and the comfort level of the Indigenous people doing the Sharing. Sharing is about giving knowledge and wisdom and personal stories in order to connect, educate, and empower Indigenous peoples. Chief Don Stevens shared educational and historical information and stories, and also put a deeply personal effort into the collaboration.
The Abenaki Heritage Gardens are another excellent example of Abenaki involvement and education surrounding the topic of agriculture. There are two Abenaki Heritage Gardens, the first being formed at the Abenaki Tribal Headquarters in Swanton at Missisquoi, and the second being “established in solidarity” at the Intervale Center in Burlington, Vermont (Abenaki Heritage Garden). The Abenaki Heritage Garden (in Burlington, VT – or BTV) states its goals are “to honor the agricultural heritage of the Abenaki at the Intervale, educate the public about Abenaki history and culture, and grow food for the Abenaki community” (United Plant Savers). Both gardens distribute food grown within the surrounding Abenaki community and beyond (Abenaki Heritage Garden).
Students in the nearby Burlington and Swanton areas can take internships at the Abenaki Heritage Garden, similar to joining the farm intern crew at the Knoll. Kristen Doerig, a student at the University of Vermont, participated in an internship at the Abenaki Heritage Garden in Burlington and wrote about the garden and her time there. She describes the makeup of the managing board, which includes Intervale Center members, professors, and volunteers, as well as some of the work she did working with traditional methods used (Doerig). Doerig believes that she “gained a great deal of experience with gardening, and organic farming techniques” as well as in “traditional [Abenaki] agriculture and community outreach” (Doerig).
The Abenaki collaborations at the Knoll and Abenaki Heritage Gardens are great forms of Indigenous education. The Knoll is an example of a pre-existing non-Indigenous program that experienced a collaboration and Indigenizing process by local Abenaki, while the Abenaki Heritage Gardens were programs created by Indigenous people that were designed to reach non-Indigenous people. Both examples are excellent forms of education because they reach young people, and are a form of hands-on and physical education with the land. Rather than learning something while sitting still in a classroom and not getting much of a sense for it or forming much of a connection to it, educating in the outdoors in hands-on ways allows for deeper immersion, education, connection, and a longer-lasting impact. Instituting traditional Abenaki agricultural techniques and crops is also a form of reclaiming land, revitalizing and regenerating traditional practices to prevent erasure, sharing wisdom, and building community.
Bibliography
Abenaki Heritage Garden. Abenaki Heritage Garden at the Intervale in Burlington,Vermont. Advantage Press, www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1101651.pdf.
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.
Broaddus, Mandy Smoker. “The Importance of Providing Native American Education for All Students.” EdNote, 2019, ednote.ecs.org/the-importance-of-providing-native-american-education-for-all-students/#:%7E:text=Improving%20the%20quality%20of%20and,and%20help%20uphold%20tribal%20sovereignty.
Doering, Kristen. “Kristen Doering: My Internship at the Abenaki Heritage Garden.” Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources | The University of Vermont, 2013, www.uvm.edu/rsenr/news/kristen-doering-my-internship-abenaki-heritage-garde
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.
“Native Knowledge 360° | Essential Understandings.” National Museum of the American Indian, 2021, americanindian.si.edu/nk360/about/understandings.
Berton-Reily, Elizabeth Ann. “Our Corn Is Still Standing: Indigenous Foodways and Identity in New England.” Digest, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1–16, digest.champlain.edu/vol5_issue1/PDFS/BertonReilly_PDF.pdf.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. “Twenty-Five Indigenous Projects.” Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 2nd ed., Zed Books, 2012, pp. 143–64.
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.