Initiatives Promote Farming in American Indian Communities

Though the number of American Indian farmers has soared in recent years, many of them still have difficulty getting access to credit. Despite a growing number of American Indian youth joining their local chapters of Future Farmers of America, few young Natives are enrolling in food and agricultural programs in college. And in spite of food production taking place on many reservations, there is little access to healthy and nutritious food, leaving many American Indian reservations as food deserts.

The Indigenous Food and Agricultural Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law is on a mission to reverse these trends.

The program, the first and only one of its kind in the country, was launched two years ago. The initiative takes a multidisciplinary approach to research, education and service. Law school officials say their goal is to become a resource on issues like health and nutrition, land law and policy and financial markets for American Indian tribes.

Law school officials plan to work closely with tribal governments, colleges and universities near American Indian communities and public agencies to expand the agricultural sector in Native country. They believe a vibrant agricultural industry in American Indian communities could significantly transform the health and economic fortunes of the nation’s indigenous people.

“We see [the initiative] as both a resource for the federal government and also a resource for the tribes,” says Stacy Leeds, dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. “As part of their self-governance, tribes are passing their own laws about how their businesses might function. We are here to help them think through those issues and hopefully mediate when necessary. This space is so large, and there are so many issues.”

Zachary Ducheneaux, a program manager at the Intertribal Agriculture Council, an Eagle Butte, S.D., organization that promotes the use of agricultural resources for the betterment of native peoples, says a strong agricultural sector in Native country could be the solution to the poverty that persists on many reservations.

“The last time we were not impoverished was when we were feeding ourselves,” he says. “Until our folks are in control of that land and are able to fully develop that land and turn over that economy, we will continue to have this poverty.”