Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Target audience for this year (Fall 2012-Summer 2013) were local community organization and gardeners within four major community areas (Kyle, Wanblee, Porcupine, & Oglala, SD) on the Pine Ridge Reservation selected by the community organizations interested in promoting a more successful garden season. Program also worked with other individual organizations (Exp. Earth Tipi, Oyate Techa Project & Waldorf School) and OLC college centers (Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge, Allen, Wanblee, Paha Santé, & etc.) with workshop trainings and garden site visits. Local agriculture producers were a target of the joint annual area Farmer & Rancher Day workshop and range trainings. They were also a target on individual requests for information. Changes/Problems: It has taken time to build up the trust and cooperation between different programing agencies working on improvement of health through gardening on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The last two years the group has come together to plan training activities related to garden food production for residence of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Due to a reduction in OLC Agriculture Extension staff we will not be able to fully address the K-12 educational needs through departmental hands on activities as done in the past. We propose to work with OLC’s Math & Science departmental staff that has a program directed at K-12 schools designed to recruit future scientists into their program. This will be done through the development of training materials geared at grade level educational outcomes related to topics connected to agriculture or natural resources. Past materials will need to be updated to the new common core requirements and the new science core outcomes where possible. The Pine Ridge Reservation Agriculture Technology planning group has not had regular planning meetings since there was a dispute between the FSA and NRCS staff on who was taking the lead in promoting this activity. SDSU took the lead the last few years and the group has not come together. It is OLC’s Ag Extension staff’s that this group assisted them with planning activities in the past and there was less duplication of training activities between programs on the reservation. Attempts will be made to reactivate this planning group to aid OLC Agriculture Extension in meeting the objectives of this project. One of the issues is having an adequate sized meeting place on the Pine Ridge Reservation for hosting agriculture related trainings for community meetings. Many times this is done at community schools or churches and these facilities may cancel a community workshop due to a death in the community and the facilities are needed to handle a wake or funeral. With the construction of an Ag Expo Center at OLC through the Endowment fund this should help to provide a location for community agriculture related training and also a location where college students can share their knowledge and skill with community members. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Project provided the networking for contacts to be selected for the first 2013 Land?Grant Development Tribal Fellows Program training for 1994 Land-Grant colleges & university faculty held in Washington, DC June 2-7, 2013. OLC Agriculture Extension Director was selected and attended this training. Training opportunity began the process for development of a departmental strategic plan related to community extension education on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Two Agriculture Extension Director also completed an Indian Health Service online Food Handlers Training program from the Department of Health and Human Services Albuquerque, NM. This prepared her for the annual workshops held with South Dakota State University’s Food Safety specialist for Pine Ridge Reservations home food preservation workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Technical factsheets have been developed through program funding but not able to report to the larger national audience because of technology issues and skills of OLC Agriculture Extension Staff are demonstrated below. OLC Agriculture Fact Sheets Developed for Pine Ridge Reservation Community: Fruit Tree Fact Sheet: http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation_Fruit_Tree_recommendations.pdf (Access this web page if link does not work in pdf file) Horse Factsheeth1213 : http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/fact_sheet_h1213_2012.pdf (Access this web page if link does not work in pdf file) Native American Three Sisters Curricula: http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Native-American-Science-3sister.pdf(Access this web page if link does not work in pdf file) Information and results were also presented to the general public through workshop trainings utilizing power point presentations. Gardening 101 - a: http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Garden_Planning_101.pdf(Access this web page if link does not work in pdf file) Gardening 101 - b: http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Garden_Planning_101_session2-01.pdf(Access this web page if link does not work in pdf file) Wazi Paha Garden Veggie Rules: http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Garden_Planning_101_session2-01.pdf (Access this web page if link does not work in pdf file) Greenhouse Production What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? OLC Agriculture Extension Department plans to continue to work with the newly developed Pine Ridge Reservation garden training planning team coordinated by National Relief Charities. According to post survey results from the National Relief Charities they had increases the success of gardeners they worked with through the cooperative efforts of the group designed community workshops prior to the opening of the garden season. Plan to try to reactivate the Pine Ridge Agriculture Technology planning group as it has not held a planning meeting for over two years to plan community trainings. There has been duplication of activities between the 1994 Land Grant, SDSU - FRETP extension, Tribal programs, & Federal programs since this planning group has not been active. Continue with community trainings in the area of gardening, food preservation, and land management. Provide other training opportunities when requested by community members or tribal agencies.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Oglala Lakota Colleges Agriculture Extension program provides services to three South Dakota counties (Shannon, Bennett, & Jackson) within the Pine Ridge Reservation and also provides services to surrounding counties [Pennington, Fall River, Dewey and Ziebach Counties (SD) & Sheridan & Cherry Counties (NE)] upon individual community members or organization requests. Area has problems such as poor health, rural isolation, low academic achievement, cultural dissonance, and is classified as a food desert (OLC Administrative Campus is over 80 mile to a super market) on the main service area of the Pine Ridge Reservation. With the increase cost of basic foods and the current USDA recommendations for fresh fruits & vegetables in daily diets there is a need for increased access to both of these on the Reservation and surrounding area. Objective 1: Increase knowledge of and involvement in agriculture and natural resources for 12,400 K-12 students. OLC Agriculture Extension staff provided agriculture & natural resource educational training for the following Pine Ridge Reservation schools: Pine Ridge School Dorm Afterschool Program, Wounded Knee Day School 4th Graders, Little Wound School, Shannon County School Summer Camp at Rocky Ford School, Long Valley Elementary School, Loneman Elementary School, Oelrichs High School, Oglala Sioux Tribal Public Safety Juvenile Detention Center, & Rosebud Sioux Tribal Public Safety Juvenile Detention Center. Fifty adults and 989 youth attended trainings activities from planting fruit trees to food preservation. Training session outcome activities were based on South Dakota State standards for Math/ Science or 4-H Life Skills. Objective 2: Increase knowledge of and interest in agriculture and natural resources of 4,000 community members. National Relief Charities (NRC) working with Pine Ridge Reservation community gardening organizations (as OLC Agriculture Extension Department) had 88 garden tilling application of which they prepared 80 gardens for planting. There were a total of 17 community gardens supported by their program. Gardeners were required to attend at least one preferably two of the training workshops sponsored by the team. Fifty box gardens were delivered that were constructed by the Boy Scouts from the Rapid City, SD area. Eight of the ten community garden session planned were held (two cancelled due to weather). Forty surveys were returned from the 80 sent out to the gardeners who had their gardens tilled by NRC. Thirty-eight of the forty reported back by way of the survey that they had a successful garden. Twenty eight of those surveyed reported that they were experienced gardeners, two this was their 2nd year gardening and five were first year gardeners. Gardeners reported that they would need the following to continue to be successful: fencing, irrigation or drip hose, fertilizer, pest control, stakes for tomato plants and helpers. The cooperative effort of the Pine Ridge Reservation gardening organizations with the coordinated spring training sessions and fall food preservation trainings were considered the key to the successful summer 2013 garden season for NRC. They had tried in the past to promote gardening on the Pine Ridge Reservation with limited success of productive gardens. Continued team work and sharing of resources for future spring 2014 community garden training workshops were requested by NRC. Addition of new organizations to the group for planning was suggested. The need to share limited resources for all organizations, community and individual gardens for continued successful vegetable production. Objective 3: Assist Lakota agricultural producers (266) and landowners to increase their economic yield through technical assistance and workshops. Garden Training Spring 2013: SWOT Analysis by Kyle, SD Gardner’s January 17, 2013 Gardening 101 training was provided to interested Kyle, SD gardeners in cooperation with SDSU, NRC, & Oyate Techa Youth Center. One of the training activities was for each gardener to do a self-assessment of their ability to plant and care for a garden utilizing the SWOT analysis tool. They reported back on what they felt were their Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) after the trainer form OLC Ag Extension presented a workshop presentation on skills needed to garden and explained the process of utilizing a SWOT analysis related to gardening. Figure 1: Kyle, SD Gardeners Self-Reported Strengths http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Kyle-SD-Gardeners-Sp2013-strengths.jpg (Access the above link if Figure 1 does not show in report) Figure 1 demonstrates what Gardening 101 trainees from the Kyle, SD area felt were their individual strengths. Of the 13 returned SWOT analysis’s >35% felt they had time to garden, >45% had the basic tool of a shovel, .20% had access to fertilizer but only 15% had access to water other than rain water. Figure 2: Kyle, SD Gardeners Self-Reported Weaknesses http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Kyle-SD-Gardeners-Sp2013-weakness.jpg (Access the above link if Figure2 does not show in report) Figure 2 of the SWOT analysis of Garden 101 trainees shows that >35% feel they do not have enough time, so time management training could be a tool to address this issue in future garden trainings. Lack of garden or plant knowledge and having no seeds were the next self-reporting weakness. Annual training workshops on gardening will address the first issue to help clients gain knowledge and future fiscal training workshops related to cost of gardening would assist clients in planning budgets for their gardening. Figure 3: Kyle, SD Gardeners Self-Reported Opportunities http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Kyle-SD-Gardeners-Sp2013-opportunities.jpg (Access the above link if Figure3 does not show in report) Opportunities seen by the Kyle, SD area Garden clients through the SWOT analysis was that they could market their produce for sale to other community members and some of the clients stated success stories that they had during the 2012 garden season. The opportunity to try something new and to learn were also expressed (Figure 3). Figure 4: Kyle, SD Gardeners Self-Reported Threats http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Kyle-SD-Gardeners-Sp2013-threats.jpg (Access the above link if Figure4 does not show in report) Major threats (Figure 4) expressed were related to insect damage (mainly grasshoppers) to crops and other animal damage. Weather was also a concern as with drought and how to garden in that harsh condition. In three of the four areas time was an issue. It varied from a threat to strength but was not looked at as an opportunity by this group of gardeners. How these gardeners view their time may be an area that they need to further explore and plan around for future garden seasons. The SWOT analysis of the Kyle Garden 101 workshop trainees was also conducted in three other communities. These results will be used by the group of trainer to plan the 2014 training sessions. Also, this aides OLC Agriculture Extension department in providing stakeholder input into the next application of the 1994 Land Grant Extension grant process. Stakeholder input was one of the weaknesses from the last application process that should improve with this type of input from area community gardeners.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The Oglala Lakota College AG Extension distributed 700 publications made available through fsaAdmin@htis.gov entitled, "Ending Hunger, Improving Nutrition, Combating Obesity to the Oglala Lakota Head start Program (200), Indian Health Services & USDA Commodity Distribution (300), Oglala Lakota College Library (100) and School Districts (100) copies. Lifestyle Changes & Diet for Native Oyate (people), Use of web-sites listed by educators, parents & administrators and use of partnerships that promotes the health & wellness of the Oglala Nation for future generations. An OLC Agriculture Extension staff member registered in November 2011 to become a member of the National Health Issues Network (www.presidentschallenage.org ). JDC O'Kiyuska Tipi 12 staff and 20-40 students per month participated through E-Learning for Families, Communities, Schools and Other Student service providers will benefit from the Presidents Program. Alternative to Health for Everyone, Knowledge on Key Health Related concepts, Tracking System will assist the completion of the program and application by either the school or agencies that received the information. Fall of 2011 contacted Sherie Daniels, Water Resources Manager for the Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District (UNWNRD) Office in Chadron, NE to present on the Oglala Lakota TV Production Channel on the Ground Water Model to be viewed by a large audience (6,000+) of students, parents, community members and educators. Knowledge, Awareness and Conservation of the local Ground WATER RESOURCES is the main objective. Future Implications of water pollution could be destructive to a way of life. Assisted Math & Science department and the OST-Youth fair committee with the youth horse programming for the 2011 Youth Horse Day activities at the Pine Ridge Reservation Oyate Fair held first part of August. Approximately seventy-eight youth attended the event with activities ranging from barrel racing to stick horse contest for the pre-K youth. Community Canning Workshops conducted to 40 participants at the following location across the Pine Ridge Reservation: Manderson, SD at Manderson College Center, Oglala, SD at Oglala College Center, Kyle, SD at PH College Center, Oyate Techa-Youth Center, and the LWS-FACE program, Wanble, SD at Wanble College Center, Pine Ridge, SD at Pine Ridge College Center. Agriculture Extension Department reseeded farmstead grass community erosion control demonstration fall of 2011 from early winter 2010 (November, 2010) planting because of dry conditions at the faculty housing complex. Lack of application of irrigation by the faculty housing attendants and the OLC facilities (at the request of OLC administration) grass seed germination was a slow process as it could rely only on natural rainfall. Grass seed has germinated but has not filled in to look like a city lawn because of lack of irrigation. It will take two to three more years for the grass to naturally fill in with only natural rainfall for water. Biological natural succession is a slow process and in the meantime locally adapted weeds and forbs will take on the role to conserve soil erosion. The grasses will expand with time. PARTICIPANTS: Principle Investigator, Leslie Rae Henry, MS Biology from South Dakota State University main responsibilities are to supervise the grant operations and review developed curricula as to if it meets the learning outcome standards in math, science, & life skills as they relate to South Dakota Educational standards for appropriate grade level. OLC's Agriculture Extension department selected South Dakota Educational standards in the areas of Math & Science at the request of local K-12 faculty from a local summer teacher training comment as to how they could fit outside content into these learning outcomes standards required by No-Child-Left-Behind. OLC Agriculture Coordinator, Julie S. Goings MS main responsibility to this project is to deliver training or develop training curricula for youth, adults, and educators of youth in formal or informal settings. Little Wound School/FACE (Family and Child Education) program, Coordinator/Adult Education - Lana Christensen & Parent Educator - Lynn DuBray training based on life skills for local Native American fruit preservation for parents of kindergarten students who needed added literacy skills. OST Public Safety-Juvenile Detention Center (JDC O'Kiyuska Tipi) organic gardening at the Kyle, SD location provide a classroom and outdoor lab for instruction of youth held at the facility. K-12 schools located within or bordering the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation listed as follows: O'Kiyuska O'Tipi, Wounded Knee District School, Home Sites, Pejuta Haka College Center, American Horse School, Pine Ridge School, Yellow Bear Dam (field trip), American Indian Higher Education Conference, He Sapa College Center, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, Eagle Nest College Center, East Wakapamni College Center, Pine Ridge College Center, North Route Road, No Flesh Community, American Horse Creek Community, Piya Wiconi Campus, JDC Kyle, SD, Gordon Junction Community and OLC Nursing Program. South Dakota State University Extension programing mainly with Small Farmers or Beginning Farmer & Rancher program. Bureau of Indian Affairs & Oglala Sioux Tribal Land Office on agriculture issues within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. TARGET AUDIENCES: Principle Investigator, Leslie Rae Henry, MS Biology from South Dakota State University developed curricula in the form of a Native American Science Lesson Plan to enhance math skills through the use of agricultural science skills needed for seed evaluation titled "Three Sisters Garden - Seed Germination Test". Curricula tested at the Little Wound School FACE Program by 15 parents enrolled in the program for personal development of life skills. Also, the curricula distributed to students and educators of K-12 school systems who attended the annual OLC Math & Science Deepartment. 2012 Spring Science Fair. http://www.olc.edu/~lhenry/ag/Native-American-Science-3sister.pdf . Main responsibilities are to supervise the grant operations and review developed curricula as to if it meets the learning outcome standards in math, science, & life skills as they relate to South Dakota Educational standards for appropriate grade level. OLC's Agriculture Extension department selected South Dakota Educational standards in the areas of Math & Science at the request of local K-12 faculty from a local summer teacher training comment as to how they could fit outside content into these learning outcomes standards required by No-Child-Left-Behind. Local agriculture producers and tribal agencies who work with produces are also targets for training or assistance upon request. Individual credit or farm & ranch management training provided to individuals producers who need it for USDA-Farm Service Agency application upon approval of the agency. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Impact from project was demonstrated by comments from the director of the Oyate Techa Youth Center in Kyle, SD at a public meeting when she shared with the community the knowledge she had gained this last year through cooperative work with OLC's Agriculture Extension Program and SDSU's Cooperative Extension programs on gardening and food preservation. She stated that she had learned more this last year and was sharing her and her staffs gained skills in food preservation with the local Kyle, SD community through the youth centers weekly summer farmer's market. Not only were locally grown and/or preserved foods sold but she also shared her newly gained skills by hosting/conducting food preservation trainings. Locally grown youth center garden foods were also sold at other community farmer markets as a means to gain fiscal resources for youth activities for the winter season. One Bureau of Indian Affairs Land Office employees stated to a community member that they learned more from OLC's Agriculture Extension trainers and that they felt they were one of the best trainers they experienced while attending OLC classes or workshops. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tribal Land Office are in the process of adjusting land leasing contracts based on the Range Units actual forage production and adjusting local stocking rates to better fit the local resource. This change has been coming for twenty year of cooperative training between OLC Agriculture Extension program and SDSU Extension Range specialist presentations. At least three of the current staff in the BIA Land Office was formerly trained through the NIFA (CREES) Equity grant program and the training is beginning to show local land use decision making impact.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
Oglala Lakota College Agriculture Extension Coordinator worked with the Oglala Sioux Tribe's Pine Ridge Agency schools to address 3,555 students/clients on issue related to agriculture & natural resource management within their jurisdiction. Nine-four reported a gain in knowledge from curriculum provided by the coordinator. Educational handouts developed by the coordinator on poisonous plants to horses were distributed to 273 horseback riders at the 3rd annual horse clinic hosted by the White Plume family in Manderson, SD with twelve reporting back a gain in new knowledge. Seventy trainings provided to the Kiyuska O'Tipi (Juvenile Detention Center(JDC)) youth located in Kyle, SD. Fifty-nine youth participated in the following knowledge areas: entomology, plant science, 4-H leadership, Lakota language, life skills, career awareness, & organic gardening. Training provided to 100 community members on job seeking opportunities in South Dakota with a 21% reporting the information helpful in changing their attitude on job hunting. OLC's annual Wazi Paha Festival had over 300 local participat from garden produce to traditional soups competitions. To promote agriculture knowledge and awareness in local area schools eight greenhouses and eleven classroom grow labs were distributed to eleven schools across the Pine Ridge reservation schools with a focused curriculum science-based curriculum, wonder soil, & seeds. A total of 2,322 youth have access to the curriculum through the following schools: Little Wound High, Little Wound Elementary, Pine Ridge High, Pine Ridge Elementary, Eagle Nest College Center, Crazy Horse, Long Valley, American Horse, Shannon County, OST Public Safety-JDC, OLC Lakota Emersion, Wolakota, Wounded Knee District, & Olerichs, SD. Ag coordinator developed a horse heat index informational fact sheet base off of information learned from an online course from Iowa State University for horse owners who attended the horse clinic in Maderson, SD. Between 75-100 local horse owners attended and received the horse heat index fact sheet. This information was needed by the community after a horse died from heat stress on a community cross country race during the summer of 2010. One attendees from Colorado said she (her husband was one of the attending vet's supervising trainees at the clinic) had never been presented this type of information before. Aided local schools with the development of ideas for OLC's Math & Science departments annual Science Fair through the distribution of a 2011 Food Science Poster. There was a 15% increase in food related science fair projects (posters) at the OLC 2011 Science Fair from the year before. Examples of projects and their ratings are as follows: 1st place Maka Waglula (Earthworms in Your Garden), 1st place-How many Apple Seeds, 2nd Where are the Peanuts, 3rd Marigolds Grow Best, 3rd How Does the Molecular Structure of an Egg Shell Affect its Strength, 4th Rock Candy, 5th Can an Egg Crack in Different Liquid Substances, 6th Which Ice Cream Melt-Blue Bonnet, 7th Variable Cookies, 8th Lightening in Your Mouth, & 7th How Temperature Affects Plants. Audience for programming was area youth though elders. PRODUCTS: Project assisted Oyate Teca Project (Kyle Youth Center, Kyle, SD) in the development of a processed food training for use as a fiscal fund raiser from produce grown at their garden site. OUTCOMES: OLC's Agriculture Extension department conducted 159 youth/adult training sessions on topics based on science and agriculture at local schools, JDC, or community centers. A yearly total of 1,841 individuals (youth, teachers, administrators, and community members) were served through workshops, seminars or one-on-one training based on topics related to their interest in agriculture. Trainings were based on the top four life skills identified by the department as follows: 1-Self Responsibility, 2-Learning to Learn, 3-Community Service, and 4-Wise Use of Resources. Behavioral changes and use of life skills were demonstrated by the youth through written comments after training sessions. Two examples of youth comments are as follows: 'I know that humans need oxygen of the plants given off to survive and plants need carbon dioxide that the humans breathe out to survive.' and 'In the movie that I watched I learned that you can always forgive and forget and that traditional tradition is important.' A more formal outcome was the measure of a 15% increase in food science related posters presented at OLC's annual science poster fair. Curricula related to food science research projects were distributed to the local schools through OLC's Agriculture Extension staff DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Community members, teachers, parents, administrators of twelve schools located in ten district on the Pine Ridge Reservation with a student population of approximately 4,000 students received monthly communications through site visits, email, letters, newsletters & KOLC TV cable shows. Community workshops were also held at OLC's college centers upon request by the local community. FUTURE INITIATIVES: Project will be working on the development of an evaluation program based on South Dakota agricultural or science educational standards to aid educators on recording impact of implementation of curricula. Promotion of Wazi Paha Festival participation by local school gardens and other activities related to the festival. Promotion of science through use of agricultural curricula as hands on garden related subject matter.
Impacts
Objective one of the project was to increase knowledge of and involvement in agriculture and natural resources for 2,400 K-12 student. The delivery of an educational portable GreenLab greenhouse (purchased from the National Gardening Association) to Long Valley School district by OLC's Agriculture Extension program had an impact on 33 students as expressed in thank you letters. Ten K-1st graders drew pictures of the greenhouse on construction paper note cards thanking the Ag Coordinator for the greenhouse. Thirteen 2nd through 4th graders wrote a formal letter thanking the Ag Coordinator and expressing their hopes or explaining their rough start with the greenhouse. An example of one of their letters: I am in the forth grade. I want to thank you for the green house. I planted three Morning Glory seeds. We had a rough start when the wind pushed some pots over. I hope the plants will grow. I haven't seen any plants yet but I have my hopes up. Sincerely, Students Name. Sixty percent of the 5th through 8th grade students (total of 10 students) explained in their letters that they liked setting up the greenhouse and that it was a fun activity. Educators at the Long Valley school district utilized the greenhouse program as a means to expand their student's written language and also a way for students to express Lakota values. All though the program delivered the same greenhouse to seven other schools Long Valley (12.5% of schools) were the only one who had their individual students wrote a thank you letter.
Publications
- Goings, J. S. 2011. Horse Heat Stress Index Fact Sheet. Ag Extension. Oglala Lakota College, Piya Wiconi Road PO Box 490, Kyle, SD.
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