Update: FAIR Crystal medicine garden teaching ‘lessons of respect’

Throughout the history of colonization and destructive land practices, Indigenous teachings have responded to the desperate needs of plants to survive. The forced relocation of Indigenous people from their ancestral homeland onto land unwanted by farmers did not stop Indigenous plant knowledge from prevailing. 

Indigenous people have inhabited Turtle Island (North and Central America) since time immemorial. The longstanding recognition of plants as relatives has led to immense knowledge about how to care for the relatives who care for us. 

“We know how to be kind to Earth while encouraging an environment to be a home for our plant relatives to thrive,” says Angela Gudahl, an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and American Indian Education Coordinator for Robbinsdale Area Schools (Rdale). “We have a history of being placed upon poor-quality soil and have learned how to heal that soil. But it doesn’t always appear aesthetically pleasing to the untrained eye.”

Even so, says Gudahl, “we are all related. When I greet other humans in my language, Anishinaabemowin, I begin by acknowledging those who I am speaking to as my relatives: gidinawendimin (or Mitakuye Oyasin in Dakota). When I greet the plants in the Medicine Garden at FAIR Crystal Middle School, I begin by acknowledging that they, too, are my relatives.” 

However, she says, “our relatives often get mistaken for weeds; our healing processes often get confused with negligence. What is at work at FAIR Crystal Medicine Garden is a story of resilience that has echoed in our Indigenous communities throughout history.”  

Gardening is a process

A grant from the Mortenson Family Foundation made FAIR Crystal’s medicine garden possible, and the process of creating it continues. Seeds were spread in the fall of 2023 to germinate over the winter, but germination was unsuccessful. 

In the spring of this year, sprinkler heads were converted to a water-cautious drip irrigation system, allowing various moisture environments for the diverse plant life we hope to introduce. Next, a dozen varieties of plant relatives were transplanted to the FAIR Crystal Medicine Garden; most transplants did not survive. What did grow were native “volunteer” plants that made a home in the garden. They are predominantly plants that can live in nitrogen-poor soil.

“Almost 90 percent of the plants in the medicine garden are easily accessible and highly nutritious Indigenous food,” says Anakwad Migizi, director of Migiziwazison Foundation. “Lamb’s quarters and prickly lettuce might be considered weeds, but they can be eaten in salads and treated like kale or spinach. To me, this was a clear message: Far too many families in the community are not getting the nutrition they need.” 

After learning from the plant relatives that the soil was deficient in nitrogen, the team turned to a low-cost, low-labor method for improving the soil quality. 

Anakwad Migizi explains. “Green ‘manure’ is a strategy for growing annual, nitrogen-fixing plants that will not survive our winters. We replanted two-thirds of the space with green manure seed mix, and most grew. We will be leaving that on the ground. 

“In areas it didn’t grow, we will be bringing in compost and amending the soil by hand. We also trimmed the lamb’s quarters and the prickly lettuce and laid them on the ground where we will continue to grow those plants. The stalks and leaves will degrade into compost, and the seeds will sprout next year. 

“After the first frost, we will be moving other volunteer plants so they are in a grouping, which will make teaching about those plants easier. We will also put down seeds that need to over-winter on the ground. In May next year, we will assess what has come up and plant seedlings grown at Migiziwazison or purchased from Native plant vendors.” 

Rdale’s facilities department is collaborating with American Indian Education to create signage that will help educate the community on the process of restoring the land to better conditions and the usefulness of the plant relatives growing there. The signage will be installed this fall.

Anakwad Migizi says, “On the day I spent planting the green manure crop in August, I spoke with several FAIR Crystal staff members and explained what we were doing. I showed them all the food plants, plucked leaves and had them try them. I could see their thinking change. I really appreciated their openness to understanding what a truly natural system looks like. Most people’s ideas of gardens are based on foreign concepts of land that are purely decorative.” 

Beth Tepper, Rdale’s Director of Achievement and Integration and an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, had this to say about the project: “The work we are doing with the medicine garden is teaching us lessons of respect. Our Dakota people use the word Wo’ohoda (respect). We need to have respect for Mother Earth (Ina Maka). When we show respect for each other as relatives, and in turn respect for Ina Maka  our plant relatives will begin to flourish in this environment.”