First Corn Shoot

First corn shoot of the year, emerging from the ground! I think it’s so beautiful how they unfurl, almost like a little green scroll. Once they emerge, it’s amazing how fast they will grow… (And also plenty of weeds coming up around that, but those are inevitable…)

Chokecherry flowers

Seen on a plant walk for the Culture Day at Selfridge Public Schools. I led walks around the school grounds for groups of students from different grade levels. Although they all knew how to identify a chokecherry plant from the presence of ripe cherries, few of them could identify it based on the leaf or

Wóžupi — Planting Time

The danger of the last frost of winter has hopefully passed here in North Dakota! Putting some Mandan Bride Corn, a gorgeous heirloom variety from north of here, into the ground this weekend. I got these seeds from Luke and Linda Black Elk at the first Standing Rock Seed Exchange.

2018 SBC Mobridge Standing Rock Seed Exchange

After the success of our first Standing Rock Seed Exchange in Fort Yates, ND, in Spring of 2018, we started hearing that people on the south side of the reservation wanted a seed exchange, too. So, the first Mobridge Seed Exchange was born. We met on a Saturday afternoon at the Sitting Bull College Mobridge

Hokší Čhekpá Waĥčá — Prairie Crocus

The first prairie flower of the spring! Anemone patents in Latin, prairie pasqueflower or prairie crocus in English, and Hokší Čhekpá Waĥčá (Child’s Navel Flower) in Lakota. Pics from mid-April, North and South Dakota sides of the reservation.

Yapízapi Iyéčheča — Dandelions

I picked them for the root, which I’ll dry for tea, and the greens, which are a great fresh salad and can also be cooked. The second one, I found a cute baby dandelion flower bud wile I was cleaning the root.

Pšíŋ Hinápȟe: Onions Emerging, over 5 days

Pšiŋ. Onions. There is an indigenous wild onion, pšiŋ šičámna, but this post is about domestic onions. These are a special North-Dakota-adapted variety bred by Dr. Frank Kutka at NDSU extension in Dickinson. He gave me the seeds at a seed exchange at the Indigenous Farming Conference hosted by the White Earth Land Recovery Project

Wažúšteča – Wild Strawberry Leaves in April

On an early spring walk along the Moreau River, when the ice was still melting away and the first leaves of our local plants were just beginning to show themselves, I saw this wild strawberry plant. It was very close to the ground, disguised so it would be easy to miss. Not even a hint

Kȟáŋta Twig Tea

Kȟaŋta. Prunus Americana. Wild Plum. While this shrub is most famous for its small but delicious fruits, the spring is a good time to harvest the stem tips, which are another kind of medicine, You can make a tea from the twig tips that treats asthma or other breathing difficulties. This is what the tips

Čhaŋpȟá Čhíŋkpa — Chokecherry Buds

Just a picture of the first chokecherry leaf and flower buds of the season. Taken in late April.