Indigenous gardens build on tribal self-reliance in times of moral hazard

Yes, we built an A-frame greenhouse here at the ranch, too. It's made of 2" salvage galvanized pipe from our windmill repair, eleven sheets of polycarbonate, shade cloth and an old screen door. We got some EarthBox containers and two rusted out steel horse tanks from Neighbor Arlen for raised beds. There are radishes, cilantro, basil and carrots in the tanks and ten cannabis starts in big pots so far. The containers will grow lettuces and other greens that would otherwise burn up in the garden. Squash, asparagus, tomatoes and melons do well in the New Mexico sun if the garden plot doesn't get rained out in a gully washer like it did last year.

As the Trump Virus is driving more banks into moral hazard and white farmers into dumping milk and plowing crops under while herding city dwellers into food lines tribal nations trapped in South Dakota and pueblos in New Mexico are growing bigger community gardens to boost self-reliance.

There was wagmu (squash), tinpsilazizi (carrots), phangi sasa (beets) and mastincatawote (lettuce). Along with strengthening connections to culture and community, the garden is helping solve another issue on the reservation – addressing health challenges. Master Gardeners and university extension experts have volunteered their time and advice, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides support and funding through soil health programs. The garden is tended with organic methods, using fish emulsion and compost for fertilizer. It also brings youth and elders together, sharing a positive outlook while producing something for the whole community. It connects people with land and community, giving them knowledge to pass along wherever they go. [Garden brings community back to its roots]

From the confluence of the Cheyenne and Missouri Rivers to the White River and Rio Grande Indigenous people will plant for their health.

Milo Yellow Hair, who lives in Wounded Knee, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Reservation, is hard at work preparing 8,000 seedlings of local varieties of squash and corn — hearty crops with a short growing time — to plant in people’s yards. [How Native Americans Are Fighting a Food Crisis]

A New Mexico Farm to Foodbank program compensates growers to produce.

Organizers of the Ancestral Lands program at Acoma Pueblo, for example, requested seeds, and they’ve promised to then provide a portion of the crops to the pueblo’s senior center. Sonya Warwick, communications director for Roadrunner Food Bank, said although Roadrunner is struggling more to find nonperishable goods in bulk rather than produce, the efforts of Farm to Foodbank are greatly appreciated. [From farms to food banks: New initiative seeks to benefit food growers as well as the hungry]

Although the term “socialist” wasn’t widely used until the nineteenth century it's of little consequence as it has existed in its purest form for nearly all of human history. Indigenous cultures lived in collectivist economies long before migrating to this hemisphere.