For thousands of years, agriculture has been a central part of our culture and heritage. Our ancestors utilized the waters of the river to cultivate foods well-adapted to our environment, and we were self-sufficient. In the past century and a half, however, forces beyond our control have negatively impacted our ability to grow our own foods which has had a direct and negative impact on our health and overall well-being. The Community Garden strives to restore physical and cultural health by restoring knowledge of our agricultural heritage with the ultimate goal of reestablishing food sovereignty and self-sufficiency.

Community and Demonstration Garden

The 3.5 acre Community and Demonstration garden serves several principal purposes:

• The Community Garden provides small plots of land for SRPMIC programs serving the Community. These gardens are completely maintained by the group assigned to the plot. They are not maintained by the Community Garden staff.
• The Community Garden demonstrates a variety of cultivation methods using integrated traditional and contemporary technologies. Tribal members who visit the garden are able to see how these methods function and determine which may be most suitable for their own home gardens.
• The seasonal grow outs in the Community Garden provide an ongoing source of seeds for the seed bank.
• Native, heirloom and wild plant species used by our ancestors as food, medicine and other utilitarian purposes are cultivated, harvested and distributed for Community and program use.

Seed Bank

The Community Garden Program acquires, propagates and preserves a diverse collection of seeds to:

• Support the continued survival of native and traditional plant varieties. Many of these seed are now rare and many are in danger of extinction without deliberate planning and conservation efforts.  
• Seeds are made available to Community members who want to establish their own home gardens and personal seed banks.

Education and Outreach

• Our primary education tool is maintaining the Community Garden. Information can be shared in a variety of ways, but demonstrating firsthand in the garden is our most effective tool.
• The Community Garden staff develops presentations, classes and reference materials for Community members and SRPMIC programs on a variety of topics related to farming and traditional plant use.

Home Garden Assistance

• The Community Garden staff supports Community members with establishing home gardens. This includes assistance such as determining appropriate site selection and preparing the soil. We do not provide any maintenance services. This service is subject to availability and limitations do apply.
• The Community Garden staff serves as an information resource for Community members interested in starting and maintaining home gardens. Feel free to contact our staff with any gardening questions or issues and they will do their best to assist.

If you’d like to schedule a visit to the Community Garden, please call (480) 362-6325 to schedule a date and time.