More Health through Spirit Gardening on Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation

Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota, USA, home to the Oglala Lakota Native Americans, is the second largest Native American reservation in the USA. It is also one of the poorest, with 97 percent of the population of 40,000 living under USA federal poverty levels, with unemployment close to 90 percent and most annual incomes under $5,000 US.
Life expectancy is 44 years for men and 54 for women, at least twenty-five years shorter than the national average. Death from heart disease is twice the national average; from alcoholism, ten times. The predominant diet of commodity foods offered by the US government tends to be high in fats and sugars and is one reason a third of adults have diabetes (when 75 years ago it was unheard of).
Although their cultural heritage was nearly lost during the expansion of the mainstream American culture, many Lakota still anchor their lives in long-standing spiritual traditions. In spite of the desperate poverty and sometimes overwhelming sense of despair, Lakota people on Pine Ridge maintain their strong tiospaye (extended family) connections and look out for each other. They participate in sundances, sweat lodges and pow wows; but now less than 1500 still speak Lakota and most of those are elders.
This Project is supporting home and community gardens for many reasons but primarily to enhance the health of the people. For over twenty-five years, the Project has helped Oglala Lakota families in communities across Pine Ridge Reservation prepare and maintain gardens to augment their diets with affordable fresh produce. Beginning in 1984 with six gardens, in some years there were as many as 500, but recently the number has held steady at about 110 gardens. For the past three years, the gardeners have been transitioning to the more culturally-based focus of Spirit Gardening, with the hope and intention of expanding again.
The Lakota say that plants are our relatives, the supporters of our lives. Every relative has a spirit and influence, which can be given to us and through which we may gain more understanding. If the earth is 'our mother' and all life forms our relatives, then the spirit-gardening model follows local culture. Many traditional ceremonies are in use to help people find and hold onto connections with their spirit helpers. The spirit-gardening model provides a way to appreciate, address, and thank the spirits of the ground and the plants. The ideas are premised on indigenous beliefs that the spirit world is the source of the life force for each spirit being that manifests in the physical world.
Since a spirited garden requires a spirited gardener, we have embarked upon a training program this past year to help more Lakota gardeners use these methods. They are embracing Spirit Gardening, seeing a way to better health through good nutrition involving respectful interaction with the spirits and influences acting upon the plants. Spirit Gardening describes, delineates, and applies to the plants and gardens the influences that act upon them. Through the training, the gardeners realize that caring for and thanking the spirits of the plants produces food that is most healthful for them.
Conditions on Pine Ridge make gardening extremely challenging, with the short growing season, bitterly cold winters and either a lack of rain or floods in the summer. In the face of these obstacles, preparing the young plants in a greenhouse has made a significant difference in the success of the gardens. We are in the process of applying for the donation of another greenhouse to increase the seedling yield, which will also potentially increase the number of gardens. Gardens are currently located in eight of the nine reservation districts, spread among homes and community centers. Even home gardens essentially function as community gardens, for in Lakota culture, anyone who is hungry is always fed.