Source: indiegogo.com
It’s time for the next economy. That economy is going to be kind and restore our Mother Earth. We are going to build the next economy and we are asking you to support us as we light the eighth fire and build a local hemp economy. Please join us and invest in Winona’s Hemp.
Aaniin Niijii (Greetings Friends),
For most of my life, I have been fighting bad ideas. From power lines to pipelines, I have engaged in processes set up to permit pollution and not protect the public. The time has come to stop being reactive and become proactive. I have made a commitment to grow the future, to grow hope. Omaa Akiing --on the land to which the people belong-- we are doing that. I am so thankful for your support and hope you will join us as we move ahead.
Let me tell you our story.
Last summer, I put a call out for support to help bring my vision of a new economy for my reservation to life. The response was overwhelming, and we far exceeded our fundraising goals. The interest we garnered has inspired us to keep going and keep sharing.
This spring, I have been blessed to be supported in my goals by a number of folks helping to make my field of dreams a reality. We have put our hearts, minds, and bodies to the beauty of bringing life -- seeds and hope. We began cultivating our farm with prayers, tobacco, our hands, horses, and a small tractor. This is just the beginning.
With the power of love and commitment, people have come together to plant our heritage varieties of corn, beans, potatoes, squash, Jerusalem artichokes, and tobacco - asema - as it is called in Anishinaabemowin. Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm is coming alive. Our barn and store are painted and ready, our fields are full of fiber and vegetables, and we are ready to move to the next step- processing our hemp.
Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm also helps to support the Anishinaabe Agricultural Institute (AAI). This project is inspired by my father, who ran an agricultural research station for years. At AAI we are working on many projects, including horse-powered agriculture. Our region has a deep and long relationship with the Horse Nation, which we are working to re-invigorate with our relatives to the west- the Dakotas. For the last four years, we have been riding with the Dakotas to oppose bad ideas proposed by the Enbridge corporation; but now we are riding with the Dakotas to spread horse medicine. Horses are sacred beings and the Dakotas are teaching us their horse songs and how to use the horse medicine. Our hope is to use our herd for healing our communities and our land. We are grateful for these relationships and remembering our long-time relatives.
After growing hemp for the last three years, this year's harvest promises to be the most bountiful. I've spent the last year networking with other hemp growers and have learned a lot. I’ve expanded the varieties I am growing and now have several small pilot plots of CBD and fiber varieties. My main interest is in fiber and fabric, but I know this plant to be a medicine and want to provide this medicine to my community that desperately needs healing. Securing seeds for fabric varieties has been especially difficult. We are not sure if this is a result of the Trump Administration, but we have persevered. In a gift from Gitchi Manidoo, I was granted access to the White Earth tribal field.
This field is where my Tribe, the White Earth Nation, planted several hemp varieties last year. They had great success in growing, and this year, the field re-seeded itself. These “volunteer” plants are now in their second year of adaptation our northern Minnesota climate. Some of that hemp is eight feet tall. We are now harvesting the stalks for fiber and letting some go to seed. We intend to expand these cultivars and anticipate growing wild varieties from Nebraska and Minnesota to strengthen our seed stock. Our goal is to develop quality hemp fiber varieties adapted to our climate.
This is the field of dreams and the growing of hope for our region.
Hemp has a long history on this land, and Minnesota once hosted eleven hemp mills. Those mills are no longer here, but they are remembered by elders in northern Minnesota; elders whose families made rope, or clothing. These memories are memories of a locally grown economy. We remember this story and are working to bring it back. We also recognize the Indigenous leaders who have urged a return to hemp- John Trudell and Alex White Plume. Indeed, Indigenous people have a long history with hemp. The name “Tuscarora” refers to People of the Hemp shirts, I am told.
A generous donation from Project Earth has allowed us to purchase a small industrial decorticator --the machine needed to separate the fiber from the rest of the hemp stalk. We will move this decorticator from farm to farm as we build a local economy, an artisan economy. Once the hemp is decorticated, we need to spin that fiber into thread-- so my new ask is to help me develop my thread mill. I have found a perfect building for my needs- a small industrial building in Callaway, Minnesota. Callaway is on the western edge of the White Earth Reservation, near the Tribal Hemp field and a major North-South railroad line. Callaway is also a perfect place for wind and solar power.
This is my next hope- to purchase the building within which we will house our thread and rope making factory.
The building I want to purchase is $81,000. With your help, we can raise that. We will also need support to buy the thread and rope making equipment. While we still researching where to find this equipment, we know the last hemp rope making operation in the US was here in Minnesota at Stillwater Prison.
I am going to grow a local economy; because that is what we all need to do. I am going to work with my community and grow this mino bimaatisiiwin(the good life) back- local food, local energy, and local hemp; and we are going to share that story, and learn from our success and mistakes equally, so that this story can be re-made and told everywhere.
As I walk through the plants, I look to see which are males, which are females, and learn with the plants. They are indeed generous teachers. The hemp is ready to come back to our economy and Omaa Akiing here on this land. I want to make rope for all of us- whether Sun Dancers, or sailors; and I want to make fabric- because this is the fiber of the past, and the future. I want to be part of the many who will grow hope. That’s what we must do -- grow hope and our future.
Support us:
Our Seven Generations and Seventh Fire prophecies tell us we are in the time when we have a choice between two paths. One path is well worn, scorched and leads to our destruction. The other path is new, green and leads to mino-bimaadiziwin (the good life). We must choose to walk the new path.
It’s time for the next economy. That economy is going to be kind and restore our Mother Earth. This last fall, more than 800 people became supporters and invested in Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm. That’s how we are going to build the next economy and we are asking you to support us as we light the next eighth fire and build the economy.
Please join us and invest in Winona’s Hemp.
Miigwech,
Winona LaDuke
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