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3952
From: chatillion, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Seeds of Strength: Native American Seed Sanctuary Sings a Song of Grat
URL: Link
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Cleaning seeds from Buffalo Creek Squash by hand. Seeds of Strength: Native American Seed Sanctuary Sings a Song of Gratitude By Tracy Frisch Mainstream agriculture would have us believe that seeds are just another input — a commodity that farmers have to purchase in order to produce their crops. But there are other ways to think about seeds. For many Native Americans, seeds are cherished relatives with whom one has a reciprocal relationship. As they see it, seeds take care of them and they take care of the seeds. Among the Haudenosaunee (pronounced how duh-noh-soh-nee and meaning “people of the longhouse”), singing seed songs restores the human connection with sacred seed. These songs are powerful enough to stir seeds from their slumber. Rowen White, founder of the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, celebrates the revival of native seeds and the culture they support. “This land is again hearing the songs infused with gratitude,” she proclaimed. But many factors have caused such relationships to fade away across indigenous communities. “Native American communities all over Turtle Island are in the same situation. Within a couple generations of people not planting their culture’s seeds and not singing the seed songs, these seeds can disappear,” White said. White first became fascinated with indigenous crops as an 18-year-old student at Hampshire College from Akwesasne, the Mohawk nation in northern New York State. In the University of Massachusetts library, she found the book, Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation (1912-1915) written by an unconventional ethnographer who sat with women and listened to their stories about food. The book prompted her quest to look for these seeds in indigenous communities, introducing her to what would become her life’s work. This is a story about how one group of people is renewing that special relationship with their ancestral seeds. It concerns the Haudenosaunee, the confederation of six tribes — the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora — that the French called the Iroquois. It reveals some of the things that indigenous people can teach those of us who have lost our instructions for relating to the natural world. The Foundation of a Culture The three sisters — corn, beans and squash — are central to the cultural and spiritual life of the Haudenosaunee, including their traditional song, dance and ceremony. Rowen White puts it succinctly. “Food and seed sovereignty are inextricable from the process of revitalizing our culture.” “All the foods we eat and all the dances we do” revolve around corn and other treasured foods, declared Mary Arquette, a Haudenosaunee environmental activist, cultural educator and co-leader of the Native American Seed Sanctuary. As a long-time Akwesasne leader engaged in restoring traditional culture and food ways, she understands the importance of seed. Arquette lives in Akwesasne (pronounced Ah-kwuh-sahs-nee), the Mohawk tribal territory in northern New York on the Canadian border. The place name, which means “land where the partridge drums,” refers to the region’s abundant wildlife. continued at link (long) |
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3955
From: Eve, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Seeds of Strength: Native American Seed Sanctuary Sings a Song of...
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How dare they...plant seeds!???!!! having a diet that has plant seeds as a foundation of their spirituality!??? oh my... the nerve! And here in America too! Did the war mongering Europeans teach them nothing about a bad diet and killing, how to consume fatty animal and processed fake food and how to kill all the abundant wildlife and devour it for purposes to make a profit off of diseased industrial society? uh oh, now the word is out it's only a matter of a short time they will be encroached upon. Actually as my sojourn began to the Creation diet I had gone through a time I was fascinated with all sort of plant seeds, learned about them and saved them like a treasure still have them, late 90's it was. So much beauty and life in those plant, veggie and fruit seeds as well as seeds of trees... the loveliest mystery of the Creator of the Universe. Seed is a word I notice removed from a book of passages called scriptures I have noticed and few do speak of the true word regarding the good seeds. |
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