‘It really humbled me, being able to be in the garden’
At the height of South Dakota’s growing season, you can find Siċaŋġu Lak̇ota youth busy at Keya Wakpala Gardens. They feed the chickens and gather eggs. Some harvest lettuce, rhubarb and cilantro. At a workshop, they preserve strawberry jam.
Five high school students are participating in this season’s Next Gen internship of the Siċaŋġu Food Sovereignty Initiative. At a one-acre community farm site just outside of Mission, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, they are learning how to produce and prepare food.
The program aims to benefit their families and community. It is just one facet of the initiative from Siċaŋġu Co., “the economic engine” of the Siċaŋġu Lak̇ota Oyate nation. The tribally chartered non-profit community development corporation seeks to establish an environmentally conscious, self-sustaining economy by transforming the food system on the reservation.
