Dive deep into agroecology and the Native plant wisdom of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Keeper and medical herbalist Sage LaPena (Noptipom Wintu). This episode is unique in that it is based on a public lecture and hands-on teachings of Sage LaPena earlier this year. We learn about the sacred Oak and Peppernut trees of the North Coast landscape along with many of the cultural foods, medicines and craft plants native to the woodlands, grasslands, and riparian ecosystems of Coast Miwok territory. Sage eloquently shares ethnobotanical knowledge about trees, shrubs, grasses, and underground rooted plant parts such as mahogany, manzanita, elderberry, soap root, and Calechortus, among others. Sage reveals the life cycles and unique characteristics of these beautiful Native plant relatives, along with the high-TEK tools used to gather with, such as digging sticks and baskets. Additionally, we learn about traditional fire management and cultural burning and California Indian tribes historical and contemporary use of fire as a land-care practice. Sage’s teachings demonstrate the power of applied Indigenous environmental education, the importance of Native peoples as agroecologists and biocultural restorationists, and the spiritual ecology of relationships between human, plant, and planetary health.

For this episode we sit down with California Native chefs and educators Vincent Medina (Chochenyo Ohlone) and Louis Trevino (Rumsen Ohlone), to talk about their journey revitalizing Ohlone languages and foods in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area community and across the globe. Tucked into the quiet corner of a busy Berkeley bookstore we joined Vince and Louis at the site of their new “permanent pop-up” restaurant, Café Ohlone. This unique Native California Indian food gathering place is the first of its kind as it focuses on the traditional Ohlone foods of the East Bay and creates a safe space for community to gather and share food and stories. From the delicious menu featuring seasonal foods like acorn bread and quail eggs to their recent work sharing these foods at the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto gathering in Turin, Italy, they talk about reconnecting with the values, respect and love their ancestors shared with the land, plants and foods of their traditional homelands.

We feature husband-wife team and Traditional Knowledge Holders Dave and Wendy Bray from the Seneca Nation in Western New York. Dave Bray is a traditional corn farmer and teacher and Wendy Bray a professional educator, cook, and keeper of Oneo-gen, Seneca white corn. Together, and with their daughter, Kaylena Bray (who worked with The Cultural Conservancy for 5 years as the Native Foodways coordinator), they brought the gift of Oneo-gen to us in 2013. In this conversation, Dave and Wendy return to the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden in Novato, California, where TCC has been growing their beautiful corn for six seasons. After many years, they return to TCC’s corn fields, observe the changes and health of the corn, and teach Green Corn harvesting and cooking methods. Standing in the Three Sisters Milpa Garden on a hot August day, they talk about the process of sharing their heirloom Native white corn with The Cultural Conservancy and the urban, intertribal community of Northern California, and share teachings about the many associated traditions of the Haudenosaunee Nation. The history and science of corn, green corn traditional dishes and cooking methods, the Longhouse seasonal ceremonial cycle, and the gift of the Life Sustainers are all discussed with wisdom, humility, and humor

In this intimate dialogue, Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer explores the beauty and sophistication of seed germination and how plants use their inherent intelligence to locate their regeneration niches to thrive in place. Robin shares her vast botanical knowledge and insight to discuss the generosity of berries, ant farmers that embed trillium seeds, and amazing pin cherry seeds that have built-in spectrophotometers to read light. Using Indigenous and Western sciences and Anishinaabe language and philosophy, Robin and host Melissa Nelson explore topics such as reciprocity, the sovereignty of being, the Rights of Nature, bio-cultural restoration, and collective remembering. They reveal a poetic and rooted understanding of belonging and kinship so needed in our fragmented society today, reflecting their own kinship as Anishinaabeg relatives.

Update: We want to acknowledge that since this episode's airdate, it has come to light that Elizabeth Hoover has misrepresented her identity as an Indigenous person.

As a result of this new information, The Cultural Conservancy has chosen to end our professional ties with Hoover. We also acknowledge the harm this news has caused throughout the Indigenous communities and people we mutually know and operate within.

Our priority as an organization is to continue to be in good relationship with our partners and the communities we live in, work with, and serve.

With respect and gratitude,
The Cultural Conservancy

In the quiet corner of an urban hotel after the seed sisters’ panel presentation, “Seed Sovereignty Stories from North American, Latin America and Oceania,” at at the 2018 Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual Conference in Los Angeles, Native Seed Pod host Melissa Nelson and producer Sara Moncada catch up with Kaylena Bray, Mariaelena Huambachano, and Elizabeth Hoover. They discuss how seeds cross cultures and continents, creating networks of physical and spiritual resilience, and are at the forefront of environmental justice, food security and biodiversity.

On the New Moon in March, host Melissa Nelson traveled to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada to participate in the 2018 Think Indigenous Education Conference and spoke with Blackfoot Knowledge Holder Dr. Leroy Little Bear about his leadership in the ground-breaking Buffalo Treaty. Leroy was a keynote speaker at the conference, where he spoke about Land as a Source of Identity and Identity as a Sacred Responsibility. The Buffalo Treaty is an historic international treaty, signed by dozens of sovereign First Nations, dedicated to cooperation, renewal, and restoration. It was signed in 2014 and continues to lead to many landmark events and collaborations. Special guest, Tuscorora educator Rose Imai of The Native American Academy also joins this conversation as she connected Melissa and Leroy over a decade ago and has been an advocate of the Buffalo Treaty since its inception. Tune in to listen to Elder Leroy tell the unfolding story and significance of the Buffalo Treaty.

Host Melissa Nelson visits with Mohawk Seed Keeper Rowen White at her family’s Sierra Seeds farm in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the Yuba watershed in Northern California. Rowen shares her journey to grow and restore ancestral seeds and build a special seed kiva. In this session Rowen takes us through her unique holistic, indigenous permaculture approach to seed stewardship which honors the many layers of seed culture that are rooted in an indigenous ecology of interconnected relations. Learn about the beautiful seed legacy of the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island and the work being done today for seed sovereignty and sacred earth stewardship.