Source: SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
TRIBAL LOCAL FOODS AGRABILITY PROJECT
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
3D GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1028812
Grant No.
2022-41590-38123
Cumulative Award Amt.
$551,520.00
Proposal No.
2022-02410
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2022
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2025
Grant Year
2024
Program Code
[LQ]- AgrAbility
Project Director
Schoch, J.
Recipient Organization
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
PO BOX 2275A
BROOKINGS,SD 57007
Performing Department
Cooperative Extension
Non Technical Summary
For AgrAbility to be successful and sustainable, three things must be addressed: 1) trauma, 2) persistent poverty, and 3) food insecurity. These issues impact almost every home on the reservation, leading to the poor health and disability epidemics that often keep people from investing in their futures. We have to address them in a way that also builds tribal capacity. Central tenants of our approach are: AgrAbility as a Beginning Farmer Program for tribal members, capacity building (to promote sustainability after the grant period ends), and the prevention of secondary injuries.Lakota people have for years sought a culturally appropriate and acceptable form of agriculture. Agroecology and regenerative agriculture have a triple bottom line. In the Lakota triple bottom line, People and Planet come before (economic) Profit. They do not want, nor can they afford, to use chemical inputs and large machines. The large agricultural range units and commodity farms that non-natives operate aren't their goal. They want to grow food to feed their own people, building up both social and ecological resilience. In our current AgrAbility project, we've worked to develop a scalable, sustainable, and flexible program. A program that takes into account each individual's abilities and limitations, and the dreams that are bigger than those limits.Numerous studies indicate a relationship between the impacts of persistent poverty, food insecurity, and poor nutrition on health and well-being, including many disabilities. Poor mental health, diabetes, asthma, behavioral and emotional problems also have been linked to food insecurity. Food insecurity is high on the Pine Ridge Reservation, with one in four households consistently classified as food insecure. Overall, chronic disease decreases quality of life, has a negative economic impact, and increases the need for services. Geographic isolation results in much of the population traveling great distances (over 50 miles one way) to see a health care provider. We are focusing on American Indians because they are disproportionately affected by chronic disease and related risk factors compared to whites in SD.Food insecurity can only be sustainably addressed by the creation of small local farmers on the Pine Ridge Reservation. To address these challenges and meet the needs, we need more tribal farmers producing food in our tribal communities. Yet to get more farmers, we need to address the enormous challenges they face in starting farming. Our project aims to help 40 disabled tribal farmers start farming, to support two reservation-based farm incubators expand their efforts, and to recruit additional resource providing partners.For many Lakota with disabilities, especially those with mobility issues, the undeveloped state of the Reservation's communities and state of disrepair of many homes and buildings are tremendous barriers. This is especially true during periods of inclement weather and for those living far out in the country. Isolated by two-track dirt roads that are often impassable, they can't access outside services upon which they depend. They can be stuck inside for months. Our project will use assistive-technology and universal design to assist our AgrAbility clients with planning/improving their small farm/home built environments. The CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) landmark study, states that having six or more ACEs can reduce the life expectancy of a person by 20 years or more. ACEs may predict social, emotional, and cognitive impairment, adoption of health-risk behaviors, disease, disability, and social problems prior to an early death, which ultimately creates a self-perpetuating cycle. Many ACEs are linked to persistent poverty, food insecurity, and trauma. Emerging evidence suggests that intervention is necessary to break this cycle. AgrAbility provides a framework to help address the impact of ACEs and improve the quality of life for the People of the Pine Ridge Reservation.Most of our new producers lack any farming infrastructure (barns, barn yards, farm buildings) and have little or no equipment (such as tractors). One of AgrAbility's stated purposes is to reduce secondary injuries to those already living with a disability. We designed our system to teach them to safely design and build their own infrastructure with a preventative eye towards reducing the risk of secondary injuries where they are most likely to occur. Persistent poverty means that we have to teach them how to build these systems with free or low-cost, locally available materials such as tires and rammed earth building techniques that allow for the flexibility of design to accommodate not just an individual's disabilities, but their individual plan for success at farming (i.e., their IAP). AgrAbility provides us with the tools to teach this system. Small scale regenerative farming represents one of the single most powerful ways to impact food insecurity and persistent poverty, while also developing a local economy and empowering tribal members with disabilities to build a new future. AgrAbility helps us direct training, technical, and financial assistance to them. Our program evaluation will be conducted by an impartial, 3rd party, Native American evaluator using indigenous methodologies developed for working in tribal communities, ensuring that the work we do and the dissemination of results are both done in culturally appropriate ways that will resonate with tribal communities across the Northern Great Plains.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1310199107010%
6076010301010%
6086010301010%
7236010308015%
8016010301020%
8026010308020%
8036010308015%
Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities; 608 - Community Resource Planning and Development; 607 - Consumer Economics; 801 - Individual and Family Resource Management; 723 - Hazards to Human Health and Safety; 131 - Alternative Uses of Land; 802 - Human Development and Family Well-Being;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general; 6010 - Individuals;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 3010 - Economics; 3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
The main goals of our Tribal Local Foods AgrAbility Project are to: 1) address major barriers to new farmers with disabilities on Pine Ridge, especially those with trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and those struggling with inter-generational poverty, 2) decrease the level of food-insecurity on Pine Ridge among disabled Lakota through the creation of 40 micro-to-small tribal farms and 2 partnering tribal small farmer incubators, and 3) Increase awareness of and (where applicable) participation in state, tribal and veteran vocational-rehabilitation programs, as well as in USDA programs designed to assist them in starting and expanding their farming operations.Tribal members on the Pine Ridge Reservation face many barriers to becoming farmers. Foremost among these are poverty, trauma/disability, and the lack of access to knowledge of resources. Programs that do exist weren't designed with tribal people and cultures in mind, nor were they designed to operate in areas where the poverty is persistent. We need to adapt these materials and work with existing resource providers to make these programs more effective for tribal people. We also need to design an approach to farming that fits the culture and the realities these new farmers face.Most people on the Pine Ridge Reservation don't know what AgrAbility or assistive-technology (AT) are. Most resource providers of AT in South Dakota also aren't aware of what AgrAbility is and haven't spent a lot of time developing AT for farmers. We need to address these limitations by increasing awareness of AgrAbility/AT for new tribal farmers and by assisting our partners in developing culturally appropriate AT materials and outreach strategies. Towards this end, our program has two teams, an AT team and a cultural team. The AT team focuses primarily on the development of AT and the cultural team focuses on ensuring that all outreach and materials are developed and delivered in ways that are acceptable to tribal people. Due to high rates of disabilities on Pine Ridge, we have to develop a capacity building program alongside prevention/safety and knowledge building programs. The very things that stand in the way of tribal members becoming new farmers are the same things that impact everyday life in all other areas of their lives. Levels of stress have become toxic and generational poverty has left the majority of the population without access to or knowledge of resources and programs available to help them. The programs that do exist struggle to relate with tribal people and this reduces the effectiveness of these programs.Main project objectives include:Objective 1. Increase understanding and awareness of the AgrAbility program, assistive-technology, and small acreage Agroecology and regenerative-agriculture production systems among 40 socially-disadvantaged, limited-resource, disabled Native American new farmers on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (SD). Objective 2. Increase awareness of state, tribal and veteran's affair's vocational-rehabilitation programs and their use by 40 new/beginning, disabled Lakota on the Reservation. Objective 3. Expansion of programming and resources at two partnering tribal new farmer incubator-hubs on the Pine Ridge Reservation through increased partnerships. Objective 4. Expansion of a Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive-Technology Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation through the development of culturally appropriate and relevant AgrAbility assistive-technology on-site (hands-on), online and printed resources, including cultural mental health materials. Objective 5. Creation of culturally-sensitive and appropriate AgrAbility and assistive technology resource materials for the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) and other direct service partners, specific for outreach to tribal communities struggling with persistent poverty, including materials that could be replicable with adaptations to other marginalized communities struggling with persistent poverty.Objective 6. Establish a cultural think-tank on mental health and crises management amongst tribal new and established farmers and ranchers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to address these subjects in culturally appropriate and relevant ways that will be directly applicable to the majority of tribal members becoming food producers.
Project Methods
Objective 1: To overcome the many barriers that tribal members with disabilities face in starting farming, our program will take a very personalized approach to training and support. Everyone's abilities, site, and situations are different. Our program will focus on hands-on, one-on-one training and education that is customized to each client's abilities, and the unique challenges and opportunities presented on their sites. In contrast to formal classroom instruction, this approach will allow our team to develop assistive-technology fabrications, trainings, and support programs that fit the client's needs.In the final year of our current Tatanka Ki Owetu (the Renewal AgrAbility Project) we're working with 30 disabled, tribal, new farmers. In that grant, our primary focus was on the prevention of secondary-injuries. Not a single current client's site was deemed safe by our team. In this new AgrAbility project (Tribal Local Foods AgrAbility Project) our goal is to recruit 10 additional new tribal farmers to bring the total farmers to 40. We expect that these 10 new sites will also require a significant amount of effort to make their sites safe. On the existing 30 client sites, our focus will transition to the fabrication of individualized assistive-technology to make their farms more efficient and sustainable, while maintaining a safety-first approach.Objective 2:In our current AgrAbility project, several of our clients struggle to work with state and tribal voc-rehab (VR) programs, mostly due to challenges in understanding the complex qualification and application processes. Those that did apply for and receive VR support, found the program's bureaucracy difficult to navigate. In this new AgrAbility project our plan is to continue to work with VR programs and clients to navigate the bureaucracy, challenges of cultural miscommunications, and to assist VR programs in better understanding agriculture and regenerative agricultural systems. We still feel strongly that VR programs can be of great benefit to new tribal farmers who qualify. We simply have to sit down with our clients and the VR programs to develop a better understanding of their specific situations and needs in light of VR programs and resources. Doing this significantly reduces the risk of individuals being kicked out of badly needed support programs, while simultaneously aiding them in maximizing the support they can receive.Objective 3: In our current AgrAbility project, we had a goal of helping to establish 3 tribal new farmer incubator-hubs. Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, we were only able to establish 2 partnering incubators. However, this turned out to be beneficial as these sites - Rebel Earth Farms Incubator and Feather Two Farms Incubator - both already had some established farming infrastructure. Due to Covid-19 and rising inflationary costs (in particular to lumber, steel, aluminum, fuel, etc), these two partners weren't able to fully get their plans off the ground. However, these challenges resulted in reassessment of their plans, leading to more efficient operations at both incubators.In this new AgrAbility project we plan to continue to support both incubators in outreach to new tribal farmers, to identify new resource-providing partners, and to make better use of the USDA and NAP programs we recommend to clients. This will allow our AgrAbility clients to see these programs working on these two incubator sites, and may enhance our ability to recruit new clients. Many tribal members lack easy access to land. These two partnering incubators provide that.Objective 4: In our current AgrAbility project, we were able to establish an AT Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It's currently located at the site of our SDSU Pine Ridge Extension office, located on the Feather Two Farms Incubator site. Here we have trained 8 tribal members in fabricating AT for tribal clients, that is not only locally-sourced, but also poverty sensitive and culturally appropriate. These 8 team members have been trained in everything from AgrAbility to VR, and have also worked with tribal clients to design and fabricate AT specific to their abilities and needs. They've also been trained in regenerative agriculture on small acreages, including building hoop houses, high-tunnels, drip-irrigation systems, prairie strips, etc.This core team will receive additional training in this new AgrAbility project, including training in the use of tools, the NAP online toolkit, occupational therapy (provided by a Colorado based occupational therapy program), and disability programs (provided by our full-service disability partner, Goodwill of the Great Plains). AT assessment and fabrication is currently being done directly on client sites in our AgrAbility program. However, in this new project we plan to move most AT fabrication to the AT Center to streamline the process, then transport it to client sites to install and adjust. Our staff will continue to be trained in low-cost, simple AT to develop practical solutions in the field. When existing AT materials or support programs run into a cultural roadblock, our team will assess. The two incubator hubs also serve as AT assessment sites.Objective 5:As mentioned above, our team of 8 trained Lakota AT fabricators, working with our Native American evaluator and the proposed cultural think tank on mental health and crises management, are part of our program's efforts to develop culturally sensitive and relevant AT for our AgrAbility program. We plan to meet monthly via phone or zoom, as well as several times in person throughout the year if the Covid-19 situation allows. Our 3rd party, Native American evaluator will check in with all 40 tribal AgrAbility clients, our 8 team members, and partners to develop a running evaluation. This evaluation will use indigenous methodologies to guide our efforts. Our team will review existing AgrAbility materials in print and on-line, as well as partner materials, evaluating them with an eye towards cultural-appropriateness. Participant feedback will be sought through indigenous methodologies such as talking circles and individual/ team meetings until an appropriate format is developed.Objective 6:In the current AgrAbility project, we piloted the Mental Health First Aid USA (MHFA) program with clients, our Native American evaluator, and tribal partners. The consensus upon completing this training was that although the program had some good information on different mental illnesses, it lacked cultural sensitivities and relevance. For example, in the discussions about signs of mental illness, the program's language on visions (both visual and audible) was offensive to tribal people. Our team decided to end the use of MHFA and have been searching for a replacement program to no avail. We have come to the conclusion that what is most needed is to pull together a think tank of cultural experts and mental health advocates from tribal communities and organizations to develop a best practices document to discuss mental health, as well as to develop a resource on crises management. It is our plan to eventually add regenerative agriculture production into the discussion, as well as data pertinent to mental health amongst farmers and ranchers. However, under the guidance of our evaluator, we feel that creating a baseline of cultural language and some structure around discussion of mental health and crises management will best serve us before our team delves into the particulars of how such things are impacted by agriculture.

Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes socially disadvantaged, limited-resource, Native Americans (including veterans) living with disabilities who are either brand new (no experience) or just beginning (1-10 years experience) at farming on small acreages on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. We expect that 100% of our participants will be from the NAP's identified "special populations" of underserved, minority (Native American), new and beginning or veteran farmers with disabilities and/or existing disabled Lakota ranchers. The primary geographic focus area for the education, direct assistance, and awareness-building efforts will be the Pine Ridge Reservation. According to the 2016 US Census Bureau, the Pine Ridge Reservation is 85.2% Native American, with an additional 5.7% reporting being Native American and another race (two or more races). Our proposed SRAP will provide direct assistance, education, networking, and marketing outreach to the Pine Ridge Reservation. In particular, we will recruit new and beginning disabled Lakota farmers and veterans. Recruitment will start among those new and beginning farmers who participated in our previous AgrAbility program. Then, working with our partners, we will expand this outreach to identify more individuals. Specific targeted participant trainees will include: 1) 40 participants who will develop Individualized AgrAbility Plans (IAP), and 2) 40 participants will receive one-on-one regenerative agricultural production training, unique to their abilities and situations. All participants per year will start farming, and we anticipate that the majority of this will be subsistence farming. Of the 40 participants that start subsistence farming, we estimate that between 3-5 will start selling some of their produce at Farmers Markets, to tribal schools as part of a Farm-to-School program, or to wholesale partners, such as Lakota Made, LLC. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this reporting period, the project director attended the 2023 National Training Workshop put on by NAP and USDA-NIFA in Atlanta, GA. The entire team also attended the FRTEP and Falcon Training Conference in Shakopee, MN. All team members will once again be participating this summer 2024 in a two-day Micro-Master Gardener training to increase their horticultural knowledge and to test a pilot of the program for all 42 tribal AgrAbility client farmers. Staff also attend the 2023 South Dakota Local Foods Conference, and South Dakota State University Extension's annual conference in Brookings, SD. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Due to the sensitive nature of our client's situations, we protect their identities. However, some have permitted us to bring outsiders to their sites for tours as well as to photograph their sites for use in presentations. We do not utilize social media at this time due to the sensitive nature of the client's situation and their expressed wish to remain anonymous. However, now that the demonstration site is finished at the AT Center, we have begun documenting its use and features and will be highlighting them via social media. Tours of the site and these photos and videos will be available on our SDSU Pine Ridge Facebook page and will be utilized by our evaluator in publications designed to be used by NAP. To date, 36 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 119 Lakota youth from LWS Farm to School program, 32 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farms, and 24 stakeholders/partners have toured the site this year and provided insight to our team and will soon to our evaluator. Our evaluator will be speaking with our fabrication team and clients, and guide our team on the development of both online, printed, and pdf materials for NAP and other partners. We have recruited the National Indian Youth Leadership Project (NIYLP) and the Little Wound School (LWS) into the think tank on mental health and will be utilizing their networks to expand this think tank more broadly. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1. Increase understanding and awareness of the AgrAbility program, assistive technology, and small acreage Agroecology and regenerative-agriculture production systems among 40 socially-disadvantaged, limited-resource, disabled Native American new farmers. In the next reporting period we plan to continue the course, working with the current 41 clients we have enrolled. We have a waiting list of potential clients that continues to grow and we've been discussing with campus ways to get additional resources added to our program. To get to these additional potential clients, however, we have to get all 41 of our current and remaining clients' sites finished first. Each client site is unique, but in 2024 we will be working on new sites for enrolled clients. This will allow more clients to start producing on their site. With approval from the SDSU campus now in hand, we created a full-time Farm to School position to work with both schools and tribal farmers on Farm to School development. We have the position posted and people are starting to apply. We have also created another full-time position, 50% of whose time will be as a program assistant to both AgrAbility and FRTEP. This allows us to have more team members out, across the reservation, working with clients and partners on their sites. We will be adding between 3-4 additional tribal schools to our Farm to School outreach program via our NIFA-FRTEP grant in the next year. We also recently started to work with Oglala Lakota College on getting tribal college students involved in our project on the various sites. Our AgrAbility farmers will continue to receive training on Farm to School via that grant program alongside hands-on education and AT support from our team. Objective 2. Increase awareness of state, tribal, and veteran's affair's vocational-rehabilitation programs and their use by 40 new/beginning, disabled Lakota on the Reservation. In the next reporting period we will continue to work with SD State, Tribal, and VA VR programs to better support our producers, primarily focusing on the 5 producers who've expressed an interest in scaling up their production to meet the Farm to School efforts demand for fresh locally produced foods, as well as growing interest from other potential wholesalers such as General Mills, Lakota Made LLC., and herbal tea companies. Objective 3. Expansion of programming and resources at two partnering tribal new farmer incubator-hubs on the Pine Ridge Reservation through increased partnerships: In the next reporting period, we plan to expand open to the public as well as one-on-one experiences with enrolled clients in hands-on demonstrations of both AT and regenerative farming on both sites. In making these sites more open to the general tribal public, and through offering programs such as a modified Master Gardener program at our SDSU office site we believe that we'll make progress on this objective in the coming year. The addition of two more high-tunnels on the Feather Two Farm site means that production can ramp up and more tribal community members and AgrAbility clients can come to the site and see both a commercial-scale high-tunnel and our AgrAbility program's smaller, poverty-sensitive hoop house program working on the same site. Objective 4. Expansion of a Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive-Technology Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation through the development of culturally appropriate and relevant AgrAbility assistive technology on-site (hands-on), online and printed resources, including cultural mental health materials. In this next reporting period, in addition to the above-mentioned modified Master Gardening Program once again being offered at the AT Center inside the SDSU offices, we plan to continue to provide information to stakeholders and the general public via presentations at the annual AgrAbility NTW and FRTEP training workshops, local foods conferences, etc. as well as through our new partnership with Oglala Lakota College. We also are in talks with local K-12 tribal schools to tour the site. Objective 5. Creation of culturally sensitive and appropriate AgrAbility and assistive technology resource materials for the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) and other direct service partners, specific for outreach to tribal communities struggling with persistent poverty, including materials that could be replicable with adaptations to other marginalized communities struggling with persistent poverty. Our evaluator continues to help us get feedback and our own team's observations of our system and begin to design fact sheets, brochures, pdf, etc. These products will to be sent to NAP to be evaluated on being added to their online tool kit website, as well as to identify areas of the program that are likely replicable for other tribal cultures and provide guidance as to how other AgrAbility programs, Extension professionals, and land-grant universities and the USDA itself can better reach Tribal communities and producers living and working with disabilities. The expansion of our teams means that we'll have staff members who can dedicate more office hours to accomplishing this objective than our current, mostly field-based team has had time to in the first two years. Objective 6. Establish a cultural think-tank on mental health and crisis management amongst tribal new and established farmers and ranchers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to address these subjects in culturally appropriate and relevant ways that will be directly applicable to the majority of tribal members becoming food producers. We continue our commitment to this goal, despite many frustrating hurdles and challenges. We plan to continue to grow our tribal mental health best practices think tank, even one individual at a time, while still working with IHS to participate.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. Increase understanding and awareness of the AgrAbility program, assistive technology, and small acreage regenerative-agriculture production systems: 50% accomplished. Maintaining the successful course from last year, 42 individual tribal farmers received additional one-on-one small-acreage regenerative agriculture production training unique to their abilities, and location. Three public training events were held on AgrAbility and Regenerative Agriculture at the SDSU Pine Ridge Office and demonstration site on Feather Two Farms and at the Rebel Earth Farms Incubator Hub in 2023. The first was a two-day training by SDSU Extension's Master Gardener Horticulture team. This allowed the SDSU Team to hear direct feedback from tribal producers as to how the Master Gardener program could be adapted to be more culturally appropriate and relevant and poverty/limited-resource sensitive. The second was a hands-on training on plant starts (Covering both Native and Non-Native plants). The third was about Farm to School as a market and how ArgrAbility clients could scale up their operations and work cooperatively to meet the market. The general public now has access to the regenerative farming system we've developed for AgrAbility clients on both the micro and macro scale sites. A total of 33 participants attended these three public trainings on top of the 42 enrolled program participants above. Objective 2. Increase awareness of state, tribal and veteran's affair's vocational-rehabilitation programs and their use by 40 new/beginning, disabled Lakota on the Reservation. 50% accomplished. Forty-two individual tribal farmers were once again provided information and encouragement to apply for help from South Dakota State and Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) programs. Lakota veterans have spoken with VA-VR but chose not to apply. In this reporting period, several of our clients have worked with State VR and NRCS programs to receive support in setting up high tunnels. They have now wrapped up their NRCS contracts and are producing crops inside them. Many choose not to participate due to how these programs impact their ability to qualify and receive support from needed social support programs that they utilize regularly to provide food to their families year-round. All of our farmer clients are subsistence farmers. In this reporting period, the five farmers who had begun to form a farming cooperative to sell at farmers markets and to local tribal schools via the Farm to School program continued to work with our team and the FRTEP program on coordinating production, aggregating their surpluses and other struggles and needs that they have. Objective 3. Expansion of programming and resources at two partnering tribal new farmer incubator-hubs on the Pine Ridge Reservation through increased partnerships. 50% accomplished. The Feather Two Farms incubator-hub site serves as the Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive Technology Center. It now has an entire model of our micro-regenerative farm system built next to the SDSU office. In this reporting period, several new season extension methods were added: cold frames, raised beds covered with PVC pipes (mini-hoop houses), and planting fast-growing willows from cuttings to create a relatively fast-growing windbreak for their structures. They also recently purchased two more high-tunnels, bringing the total to four to double their production on-site. The Rebel Earth Farms hub site continues to work on refining its biochar production and solar-powered irrigation and cold storage to operations. New partners from this reporting period are: The Black Hills Fly Fishers, Oglala Lakota College, and the Nature Conservancy. To date, 69 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 119 Lakota youth from the LWS Farm to School program, 32 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farms, and 28 stakeholders/partners have toured one or both of these sites. Objective 4. Expansion of a Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive-Technology Center through the development of culturally appropriate and relevant AgrAbility assistive-technology on-site, online, and printed resources: 65% accomplished. The hands-on model of our micro-regenerative farm system built on site, next to the SDSU office continues to serve as the Pine Ridge AT Center and recently hosted a group of Oglala Lakota College students, stakeholders, and community members. In this reporting period, phase two of a native plant's botanical garden showcasing culturally significant plants to the Lakota culture began on site. Several thousand plant starts are growing in grow stations inside the office or outside the hoop house. This showcasing of culturally significant plants used historically by Lakota people is more than just a botanical garden. In concert with our demonstration site, it showcases which of these cultural plants can be put under production both inside high-tunnels and outside and that could be developed into specialty crops for tribal farmers. Our 3rd party Native American evaluator has found that the focus on these culturally significant plants has had a positive impact on the cooperative farmers we're working with, allowing them to not only produce foods towards eventually selling to schools but also allowing them to have a hands-on role in returning these important cultural plants to their people. Through cultivation, these plants are now available to disabled Lakota people who were not able to go out and gather them. Objective 5. Creation of culturally sensitive and appropriate AgrAbility and assistive technology resource materials for the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) for outreach to tribal communities struggling with persistent poverty. 35% accomplished. Our evaluator continues to review the site, speak with our team and clients and will guide our team on the development of both online, printed, and pdf materials for NAP and other partners. Unfortunately, our evaluator has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment at this time and this has her behind on her recommendations to our team for adapting NAP materials and best cultural practices for adapting our original materials for a broader NAP audience. Our program is in communication with her and we're exploring ways to use our expanding Tribal Local Foods team to assist her while she's going through treatment. We have several positions open currently, funded through hard dollars at SDSU as well as through leveraging funds from a CoBank grant that will allow the expansion of our team by two full-time staff: a Farm to School Coordinator and a Senior Secretary/Program Assistant (for both FRTEP and AgrAbility). Objective 6. Establish a cultural think-tank on mental health and crisis management amongst tribal new and established farmers and ranchers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to address these subjects in culturally appropriate and relevant ways: 25% accomplished. Staff from the National Indian Youth Leadership Project (NIYLP) and the Little Wound School (LWS) have joined our think tank. We continue to struggle with Indian Health Services (IHS) to provide representation. Our 3rd party Native American evaluator will also evaluate the mental health benefits our clients are currently receiving from participation in our program. NIYLP and LWS will also be working with her to evaluate our program's impacts on tribal youth in our Farm to School program. We are currently still working with 119 students enrolled at LWS. As laid out above, our Evaluator's struggle with cancer and treatment has her a bit behind, but we have a plan in place to bring more staff time and other partners in to assist.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Our target audience includes socially-disadvantaged, limited-resource, Native Americans (including veterans) living with disabilities who are either brand new (no experience) or just beginning (1-10 years experience) at farming on small acreages on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. We expect that 100% of our participants will be from the NAP's identified "special populations" of underserved, minority (Native American), new and beginning or veteran farmers with disabilities and/or existing disabled Lakota ranchers. The primary geographic focus area for the education, direct assistance, and awareness building efforts will be the Pine Ridge Reservation. According to the 2016 US Census Bureau, the Pine Ridge Reservation is 85.2% Native American, with an additional 5.7% reporting being Native American and another race (two or more races). Our proposed SRAP will provide direct assistance, education, networking, and marketing outreach to the Pine Ridge Reservation. In particular, we will recruit new and beginning disabled Lakota farmers and veterans. Recruitment will start among those new and beginning farmers who participated in our previous AgrAbility program. Then, working with our partners, we will expand this outreach to identify more individuals. Specific targeted participant trainees will include: 1) 40 participants who will develop Individualized AgrAbility Plans (IAP), and 2) 40 participants will receive one-on-one regenerative agricultural production training, unique to their abilities and situations. All participants per year will start farming, and we anticipate that the majority of this will be subsistence farming. Of the 40 participants that start subsistence farming, we estimate that between 3-5 will start selling some of their produce at Farmers Markets, to tribal schools as part of a farm to school program, or to wholesale partners, such as Lakota Made, LLC. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this reporting period, the project director and program manager attended the 2022 National Training Workshop put on by NAP and USDA-NIFA in Spokane Washington. The Project Director also attended the National FRTEP day at IAC in Las Vegas and the FRTEP and Falcon Training Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. All team members will be participating this June of 2023 in a two-day Micro-Master Gardener training to increase their horticultural knowledge and to test a pilot of the program for all 42 tribal AgrAbility client farmers. Staff also attend the 2022 South Dakota Local Foods Conference, 2022 Lakota Annual Food Summit and South Dakota State University Extension's annual conference in Brookings, SD. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Due to the sensitive nature of our client's situations we protect their identities. However, some have given us permission to bring outsiders to their sites for tours as well as to photograph their sites for use in presentations on our project at the Lakota Food Summit, South Dakota Local Foods Conference, and the 2022 National Training Workshop by NAP and USDA-NIFA and at FRTEP 2022. We however do not utilize social media at this time. However, now that the demonstration site is finished at the AT Center, we will begin documenting its use and features. Tours of the site and these photos and videos will be available on our SDSU Pine Ridge Facebook page and will be utilized by our evaluator in publications designed to be used by NAP. To date, 36 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 17 Lakota youth from LWS Farm to School program, 32 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farms, and 24 stakeholders/partners have toured the site this year and provided insight to our team and will soon to our evaluator. The AT Center and our evaluator will be visiting the site in June of 2023 to review the site, speak with our fabrication team and clients, and guide our team on the development of both online, printed, and pdf materials for NAP and other partners. We have recruited the National Indian Youth Leadership Project (NIYLP) and the Little Wound School (LWS) into the think tank on mental health and will be utilizing their networks to expand this think tank more broadly. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1. Increase understanding and awareness of the AgrAbility program, assistive-technology, and small acreage Agroecology and regenerative-agriculture production systems among 40 socially-disadvantaged, limited- resource, disabled Native American new farmers. In the next reporting period we plan to continue to work with the current 42 clients we have enrolled. Our original goal was 40 and we've already exceeded this goal and have a waiting list of potential clients. To get to these additional potential clients, however, we have to get all 42 of our current clients' sites finished. We plan to have our 3rd party Native American evaluator connect with each of the existing clients to start providing us with feedback on both the program, our team, and our AT fabrications so that we can continue to refine our program to be as culturally appropriate and relevant as possible. We will be adding between 3-4 additional tribal schools to our Farm to School outreach program via our NIFA-FRTEP grant in the next year. Our Tribal AgrAbility farmers will receive training on farm to school via that grant program while continuing to receive hands-on education and AT support from our AgrAbility team. We will continue to refine our individual direct support to tribal regenerative farmers on their home site and will provide these producers with access, both online, in print and in-person, to the Master Gardener curriculum as taught by SDSU's Master Gardener Program. Objective 2. Increase awareness of state, tribal and veteran's affair's vocational-rehabilitation programs and their use by 40 new/beginning, disabled Lakota on the Reservation. In the next reporting period we will continue to work with SD State, Tribal, and VA VR programs to better support our producers, primarily focusing on the 5 producers who've expressed an interest in scaling up their production to meet the Farm to School efforts demand for fresh locally produced foods, as well as growing interest from other potential wholesalers such as General Mills, Lakota Made LLC., and herbal tea companies. Objective 3. Expansion of programming and resources at two partnering tribal new farmer incubator-hubs on the Pine Ridge Reservation through increased partnerships: In the next reporting period we plan to begin hands-on demonstrations of both AT and regenerative farming on both sites and to make these sites more open to the general tribal public, through offering programs such as a modified Master Gardener program at our SDSU office site. Objective 4. Expansion of a Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive-Technology Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation through the development of culturally appropriate and relevant AgrAbility assistive-technology on-site (hands-on), online and printed resources, including cultural mental health materials. In this next reporting period, in addition to the above-mentioned modified Master Gardening Program being offered at the AT Center inside the SDSU offices, we plan to continue to provide information to stakeholders and the general public via presentations at the annual AgrAbility NTW and FRTEP training workshops, local foods conferences, etc. Objective 5. Creation of culturally-sensitive and appropriate AgrAbility and assistive technology resource materials for the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) and other direct service partners, specific for outreach to tribal communities struggling with persistent poverty, including materials that could be replicable with adaptations to other marginalized communities struggling with persistent poverty. We will have our evaluator help us take this feedback and our own team's observations of our system and begin to design fact sheets, brochures, pdf, etc. These products will to be sent to NAP to be evaluated on being added to their online tool kit website, as well as to identify areas of the program that are likely replicable for other tribal cultures and provide guidance as to how other AgrAbility programs, Extension professionals, and land-grant universities and the USDA itself can better reach Tribal communities and producers living and working with disabilities. Objective 6. Establish a cultural think-tank on mental health and crises management amongst tribal new and established farmers and ranchers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to address these subjects in culturally appropriate and relevant ways that will be directly applicable to the majority of tribal members becoming food producers. We plan to continue to grow our tribal mental health best practices think tank through expanding our recruitment via NIYLP and LWS, and will continue to push IHS into participating directly.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. Increase understanding and awareness of the AgrAbility program, assistive-technology, and small acreage Agroecology and regenerative-agriculture production systems among disabled Native American new farmers on Pine Ridge. 25% accomplished. Forty-two individual tribal farmers (beginning or existing) received one-on-one small-acreage regenerative-agriculture production training unique to their abilities, site, and developed early-stage Individual AgrAbility Plans (IAP) with our Tribal Local Foods AgrAbility Team. These IAPs include addressing assistive technology (AT) needs in their farm plan/goals. Two public training events were held on AgrAbility and Regenerative Agriculture at the SDSU Pine Ridge Office and demonstration site and at the Rebel Earth Farms Incubator Hub in 2022. Both were attended by the same 12 tribal farmers so that they could see the regenerative farming system we've developed for clients on both the micro-scale at the office hub site and on Rebel Earth Farms on a larger, more commercial scale site. Objective 2. Increase awareness of state, tribal and veteran's affair's vocational-rehabilitation programs and their use by 40 new/beginning, disabled Lakota on the Reservation. 25% accomplished. Forty-Two individual tribal farmers were provided information, guidance, and encouragement to reach out to both the South Dakota State and Oglala Sioux Tribe's Vocational Rehabilitation programs. Two Lakota veterans were also encouraged to reach out to Veteran's Affairs about their vocational rehabilitation programs and how these programs can assist them in starting up the commercial aspects of their farming operations. Under our previous AgrAbility grant, several clients did work with the State VR program to receive support in acquiring funds to set up a high tunnel. These same clients applied to USDA-NRCS' EQIP program and received support, however, no clients did so in this reporting period due to how these programs impacted their ability to qualify and receive support from needed social support programs that they utilize regularly to provide food to their families year-round. All 42 of our current tribal farmers are subsistence farmers, but in this reporting period, five have begun to form a cooperative with the end goal of selling together at Farmers Markets and to local tribal schools via the farm to school program. Others in our cohort are also interested in learning to scale up their operations to sell to their local tribal schools. Objective 3. Expansion of programming and resources at two partnering tribal new farmer incubator-hubs on the Pine Ridge Reservation through increased partnerships. 25% accomplished. The Feather Two Farms incubator-hub site, also called the "office site" which serves as the Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive-Technology Center, now has an entire model of our micro-regenerative farm system build on site, next to the SDSU office. The Rebel Earth Farms hub site, has introduced biochar production, culinary mushroom production, and solar power to their operation. New partners from this reporting period are: The Black Hills Raptor Center (provides grasshopper eating American Kestrel nesting boxes to sites). Existing partner, Farm from a Box, is looking to expand their operations on Pine Ridge through getting a second unit established on Feather Two Farms. To date, 36 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 17 Lakota youth from LWS Farm to School program, 32 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farms, and 24 stakeholders/partners have toured the site this year. Objective 4. Expansion of a Pine Ridge Lakota Assistive-Technology Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation through the development of culturally appropriate and relevant AgrAbility assistive-technology on-site (hands-on), online and printed resources, including cultural mental health materials. 50% accomplished. The Pine Ridge AT Center now has an entire hands-on model of our micro-regenerative farm system built on site, next to the SDSU office. In this reporting period, phase one of a native plants botanical garden and nature trail showcasing culturally significant plants to the Lakota culture was established on site, showcasing plants used historically by Lakota people that can be put under production both inside high-tunnels and outside and that could be developed into specialty crops for tribal farmers. Our 3rd party Native American evaluation will be on site in June of 2023 to access the site for cultural appropriateness and relevancy and to provide feedback. To date, 36 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 17 Lakota youth from LWS Farm to School program, 32 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farms, and 24 stakeholders/partners have toured the site this year. Objective 5. Creation of culturally-sensitive and appropriate AgrAbility and assistive technology resource materials for the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) and other direct service partners, specific for outreach to tribal communities struggling with persistent poverty. 25% accomplished. Now that the demonstration site has been built at the AT Center, our evaluator will be visiting the site in June of 2023 to review the site, speak with our fabrication team and clients, and will guide our team on the development of both online, printed, and pdf materials for NAP and other partners. Objective 6. Establish a cultural think-tank on mental health and crises management amongst tribal new and established farmers and ranchers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to address these subjects in culturally appropriate and relevant ways that will be directly applicable to the majority of tribal members becoming food producers. 10% accomplished. We have recruited the National Indian Youth Leadership Project (NIYLP) and the Little Wound School (LWS) into the think tank, but have struggled to get Indian Health Services to provide representation. However, NIYLP is recognized as the national leader at suicide prevention amongst tribal youth in both the United States and Canada and will be working with our team and our 3rd party Native American evaluator (who utilizes indigenous methodologies in her evaluation), to help us develop a baseline of best practices. Our 3rd party Native American evaluator will also evaluate the mental health benefits our clients are currently receiving from participation in our program, and NIYLP and LWS will also be working with her to evaluate our program's impacts on tribal youth in our Farm to School program. We are currently working with 119 students enrolled at Little Wound School. Summer and fall of 2023 we'll be approaching 4 additional tribal schools.

    Publications