OJIBWE CULTURAL EDUCATION: HARVESTING, PROCESSING, AND CONSUMING NATURAL RESOURCES SUSTAINABLY

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1016973
• Grant No.: 2018-47002-28651
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $660,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2018-04663
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2018
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2023
• Grant Year: 2021
• Program Code: [NK]- Extension Tribal College Program

Recipient Organization
LAC COURTE OREILLES OJIBWA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
13466 WEST TREPANIA ROAD
HAYWARD,WI 54843

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College (LCOOCC) is submitting this project as a new Extension Capacity proposal through the Tribal College Extension Program (TCEP). This four year proposal for the LCOOCC Extension Department seeks to increase capacity with an overall goal of providing community eduaiton and outreach experiential learning opportunitie sto assist with harvesting, processing, and consuming natural resources in a sustainable way. Extension conducted a community needs assessment in spring 2018, and the top educational needs identified were: Ojibwe cultural activities (70%), exercising treaty rights (68%), continuing education (63%), physical fitness and Ojibwemowin language classes were at (62%), agricultural/ access to healthy foods (58%). This data, along with focus group meetings with youth and Elders is what was used to identify the focus of the Increasing Capacity/ Extension focus for 2018-2022.In the LCOOCC Extension department model, although there is language and culture immersed in all programming; this proposal will seek to increase the language to a community education language immersion program. In years 1 and 2, the objective will be to provide each workshop at least 25% in Ojibwemowin and increasing to 50% in years 3 and 4.Technology will be utilized for braoder reach and participation through a natural resoruces/ cultural index web-based resource platform, and a new LCOOCC Extension app that provides resources for use in the field such as plant identification, harvesting regulations, and photos.

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
136	0120	1060	100%

Knowledge Area
136 - Conservation of Biological Diversity;

Subject Of Investigation
0120 - Land;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems);

Keywords

ojibwlanguage and culture

conservation

experiential learning

internships

sustainable agriculture

Goals / Objectives
This current four year proposal for the LCOOCC Extension Department seeks to increase capacity with an overall goal of providing community education and outreach experiential learning opportunities to assist with harvesting, processing, and consuming natural resources in a sustainable way. Seventy-six percent of respondents in the LCOOC Extension Community Needs Survey of 2018, noted that learning the Ojibwemowin language was important or very important to them. In the LCOOCC Extension Department model, although there is language and culture immersed in all programming; this proposal will seek to increase the language to a community education language immersion program. In years 1 and 2, the objective will be to provide each workshop at least 25% in Ojibwemowin and increasing to 50% in years 3 and 4. This will be accomplished with partnering with fluent speakers within the community, which may be Elders or youth. Lac Courte Oreilles has an Ojibwe language immersion school, Waadookodaading, which serves over 50 youth in grades Pre-K through 6th grade. The students receive all their daily instruction in Ojibwemowin. As LCOOCC Extension already hosts workshops with a multi-generational focus to include youth to Elders, it will not matter the age of the speaker who will be assisting with the language aspect of the workshop. The main workshops where the language immersion will take place will be harvesting and processing wild rice, hunting, winter spearing, sugar bush, spring spearing, and gathering of berries. These workshops will also be videotaped by Extension staff or interns, and published on a new web-based cultural resources platform/ resource library. Other avenues for distribution of the information will be on a new LCOOCC Extension app, social media, and through display booths at the college Extension office.This proposal is based off of community need, focus group meetings, and feedback from the Extension Advisory Council. The LCO Conservation Department has noted a decrease in the white tailed deer population on reservation due to over harvesting and there are now regulations on harvesting birch poles due to past over-harvesting. The college's botanist faculty member has noted a steep decline in the amount of wild leeks on reservation due to overharvest. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission regulates the spearing to monitor the harvest to protect future abundance of resources.The Extension Department will assist by utilizing different forms of technology to provide a basis for video creation, interviews, and social media clips to gain awareness and interest from community members. This will assist the department in telling our success stories while recruiting and educating community members on topics such as sustainable agriculture, living by the seasons, foraging for indigenous foods, creating tools necessary to hunt, gather and harvest, and other necessary traditional life skills. The technology will also assist with increasing programs with the outreach site tribal communities of St. Croix, Bad River, Lac du Flambeau, and Red Cliff. As LCOOCC main campus is centrally located it is a valued hub spot to hold conferences, where topics related to Ojibwe environmental knowledge and practices can occur, while not providing a traveling hardship to community members. Workshops will also be provided for all 5 communities with the goal of 1-2 per month. Challenges to this include basic geographical location; sites are located between 35 and 90 miles from main campus; having available staff in those communities to assist with marketing the workshops; locating instructors in the communities; and funding. Knowing these challenges allows us to prepare and plan programming while overcoming or minimizing the above mentioned challenges. The Extension Department will hire a LCOOCC student intern to assist with marketing in the community, locating instructors, and assisting with workshop delivery and ordering of supplies. Minimizing geographical location we can utilize the college's interactive television/ zoom classroom system to provide certain workshops and trainings.

Project Methods
The mission of LCOOCC Extension services is to empower members of the Lac Courte Oreilles and surrounding communities through embracing the traditional values and language of the Anishinaabe people. The values of our traditions are the fundamental basis of our methods in conducting research and community education. Extension strives to build collaborative partnerships to address various community needs while promoting leadership in all program initiatives. Specific values include personal integrity, veneration of our Elders and youth, respect of past, present, and future generations, honoring the traditions of the Ojibwe, and preserving and caring for natural resources. The LCOOCC Extension mission and vision complement the overall vision of LCOOCC which is to provide Anishinaabe communities with post-secondary and continuing education while advancing the language, culture, and history of the Ojibwa. It is imperative the LCOOCC Extension Department provide support, education, and experiential learning opportunities to students and community members that assist them with learning and advancing the Ojibwemowin language as well as Ojibwe cultural activities centered on living by the seasons. Showcasing the best practices and models through the use of video segments, interviews, and social media channels, community members will have access to educational videos surrounding history, culture, and language to assist with sustainability concepts and knowledge on exercising treaty rights.Continuing education units (CEU's) are provided to participants and the total number of workshop hours that tribal participants participate in are calculated and converted to Indian Student Count or ISC. The Bureau of Indian Education provides funding to the college based on its full-time equivalent ISC; the CEU's generated by the Extension office can match 10% of the total institution ISC. This proposal has the opportunity to have many impacts to the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College and the 5 Tribe's it serves as well as broader participation through the use of technology. Not only will members of the community be able to participate first hand in experiential learning opportunities where they can harvest, process, and consume natural resources (wild rice, venison, fish, berries, leeks, and more); but to do this in a sustainable way in which those resources are preserved for 7 generations to come. The viability of the resources and the protection they need will be provided during the workshops. Ojibwemowin language immersion will be incorporated into the workshops with a goal of 25% immersion for the first 2 years and then 50% immersion for years 3 and 4. This community education language immersion pedagogy could be a best practices model for other 1994 land grants to model. Extension staff will work with partners LCO Conservation and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) to provide updates to regulations and discuss the importance of sustainable harvest methods. A symposium will also highlight student research, and bring together members of the Tribe's along with conservation wardens, to discuss matters related to harvesting.Feedback from the Extension Advisory Council recommended the need for a culturally web-based resource that anyone could go to on many different cultural topics. This web based resource will be available to anyone. An Extension app will also be created for community members to utilize while they are out in the field gathering or harvesting that pertains to plant identification, regulations, photos, recipes, or other educational information. These resources could be utilized by other 1994 land grant institutions.Sign in sheets will be utilized to show the number of students, youth, and community members attending workshops. Workshop participants will complete evaluation plans for each workshop attending. This data and feedback will be utilized for future programming. Hard copy and electronic versions of surveys will be sent to community members annually to assess the Extension Department's successes and challenges. While these will provide some quantitative evaluation measures, a qualitative measure will be the video segments on YouTube and social media and the creation of an Extension app and a web-based cultural based resource library/ index. Interviews can also be conducted with community members on the importance of the natural resources to them, exercising their treaty rights, education they have received, etc. The videos can also be used for recruitment for future workshops and to show best practices to other 1994 land grant institutions. A quantitative measure related to the videos would be the overall number of views or visits to each of the videos. This could assist with determining which activities are more popular or needed among the community members.Overall project data can be reviewed by looking at the total number of community education units collected through workshops and how that equates to adding to the Indian Student Count (ISC) of the tribal college.

Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Elders in residence is a success and has been extended to the K-12 school districts Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The extension and marketing and advancement teams have been working to market the message of the events, workshops

Publications

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

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have extended our Elder in Residence program to two of the K-12 districts (Winter and Hayward) along with having Elders on campus for 12 hours a week for consultation and culture development. The Elder's in residence is also expanding to the otureach centers as well where the elders will be holding a workshop in each of the outreach communities

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, a 1994 land grant institution and through theincreased capacity funding for Extension through NIFA; the target audience for this project and grant funding isthe tribal communities served by the university in northwest Wisconsin. The University serves the Tribe's of Lac Courte Oreilles at the main campus and Red Cliff, Bad River, and Lac du Flambeau through outreach sites. Extension programs are offered and delivered at each of these sites depending on community needs and offered for youth, adults, Elders, and overall community; many programs have a multi-generational context which assists with cultural transferance of knowledge. Some extension programs continue to be delivered via virtual programming to allow for broader participation of tribal members living off reservation. This virtual programs allow them to connect with their culture, family, and create tangible items for their own personal, cultural or ceremonial use. Changes/Problems:Continued barriers from the COVID-19 pandemic prevented some of the activities that were planned from happening and LCOOU Extension requested and was granted a 1 year no cost extension to complete the goals/objectives as outlined in this grant. The major piece being the language immersion aspect of having an Elder or fluent speaker attend the workshops. Due to the pandemic this has not occured. Other areas that will be completed are the creation of an Extension application for the community and more technology uses of sharing the environmental knowledge by the community for the community in a cultural sensitive, good way. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As stated above, LCOOU Extension provided 207 workshops to 1,849 participants from 9/1/21 to 8/31/22. The workshops provide personal enrichment but also include specific training and professional development opportunities. LCOOU hosted a Seven Generation Inter-Tribal Leadership Summit where over 150 participants engaged in a 1.5 day hands-on conference, rich with cultural experiences and presentations highlighting work across Indian Country in 4 key focus areas of health and safety, education, the envrionment, and economic development. Specific workshops and training included multiple sessions of Basic Life Support (BLS) which includes CPR, AED, and first aid certification from the American Heart Association (AHA). Other training allowed participants to learn many types of food preservation and canning techniques. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of the programming is shared with the communities LCOOU serves through multiple social media platforms, newspaper articles, videos, and monthly email updates. The Extension staff share highlights of workshops and programs which increases the broader participation reach and sharing of knowledge. This is also a recruitment instrument to allow for new participants to engage in the tribal extension programs. Program updates are also shared internally with the campus community, faculty, and staff. Larger events are highlighted by the Sawyer County Record reporter, who then does full length articles for web based and print. When staff travel to conferences or meetings; many of the goals/objectives/activities are shared through networking opportunities and presentations. Staff member, Amber Marlow, serves on the First American Land Grant Consortium board as well as the North Central Region Center for Rural Devleopment Board of Directors and often shares specific programs at LCOOU and those of other 1994 land grant institutions. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?LCOOU did request and receive a 1 year no-cost extension due to COVID-19 barriers. In the final year of the program, the focus will be on ties to language immersion with workshop programming and hosting more larger type gathering and symposiums to share and disseminate information that has been gathered through the grant period.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the reporting period of 9/1/2021 to 8/31/2022, LCOOU Extension offered 207 unique workshops with 1,849 participants attending. Workshops are structured to be anywhere from 1-14 hours in length. Participants register through a google form link off the lco.edu website and then are emailed a confirmation. Many programs are offered back in person face-to-face, but many do remain on Zoom at the recommendation and request of the community. The virtual option allows for broader participation. LCOOU Extension staff, limited term staff, etc. provide engaging, culturally relevant curriculum in a hands-on approach. Participants then receive a certificate of completion and CEU's for attending. Workshop topics include: mushroom harvesting and cultivating, sustainable agriculture, medicinal salves and teas, natural history field trips to include gathering medicinal plants in a good way; traditional Ojibwe arts; pow-wow sweat, yoga, and other wellness activities. Living by the seasons and other environmental programs include harvesting wild rice, processing rice, spearing, fishing, gathering berries, and more. The program participants are focused on youth, Elders, and community. It is very rewarding to host and be a part of multi-generational programs that provide such a rich and cultural focus and tranferance of cultural knowledge and experiences.

Publications

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Lac Courte Oreilles OjibweCollege is a 1994 land grant institution which serves approximately 1,400 community members with community/ continuing education units through various workshops on an annual basis. The target audience for this fiscal year is tribal members of the Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, Red Cliff, Bad River, and St. Croix Tribe's. Extension strives to offer a multi-generational workshop design where youth, Elders, and every age in between benefit from learning together. Changes/Problems:During this year COVID-19 has been a challenge for the Extension Department and expending funds through the grant. Although participation in programs has increased, it is a virtual setting and now becomes a staffing capacity issue to schedule, plan, promote, and implement multiple workshops during a week's time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Many of the workshops that were offered through the Extension department could be utilized for professional development or training opportunities related to culture and history of the Anishinaabe. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Extension department has multiple social media platforms to share photos, programs, and educational informations; the mostly highest volume of traffic comes from the YouTube channel and Facebook. Extension also sends emails out the entire student body, faculty, staff, and community members on a monthly basis to share upcoming programs. All registration for workshops is done with google forms and links are provided off the lco.edu webpage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period to accomplish the goals and objectives set forth - the Extension department staff will work with the native american studies division to determine some students that would be able to assist with the Ojibwemowin part of the workshop teachings. The goal by this year would be to have the immersion component at 50% and we have yet to reach 25%. Again, partly due to the capacity of finding speakers able to do it and because of COVID-19 pandemic. Staff will continue to provide workshops that are cultural based and provide hands-on opportunities for tribal members to learn how to harvest, process and consume, natural resources in a sustainable way.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The college transitioned from virtual programming to in person learning during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, but many of Extension's workshops remained virtual. The impact and increase in attendance due to the zoom platform saw many more tribal community members attend programs due to the virtual setting. During 2020-2021 there were a total of 116 workshops offered to 1,657 participants. The workshop topics ranged from harvesting wild rice, seed collecting and preserving, dehydrating produce, to baby moccasins and tobacco pouches. Many of the topics involved Ojibwe Environmental Knowledge (OEK) with topics of Ojibwe hunting, winter tree ID, snowshoes, winter medicinal plants and mushrooms, roasting fiddle head ferns, burdock plants, foraging spring food, a sturgeon talk, and sugarbush. Many of the workshops do have a language component where different key Ojibwemowin words are taught. There has not been an additional instructor for this portion of the workshops.

Publications

Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Lac Courte Oreilles OjibweCollege (LCOOC) is a non-profit Ojibwe tribal college. The Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe, recognizing its responsibilities for the postsecondary education of its tribal members, drafted a Tribal Resolution in August of 1982 establishing the College. The college strives to offer the most efficient blend of the traditional and the modern, preparing our students for today's world while maintaining the cultural integrity of the Ojibwe. LCOOC currently offers 2 baccalaureatedegrees, 12 associate degrees and 5 certificates. The Lac Courte Oreilles Band (LCO) of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation is located in northern Wisconsin amidst mixed forests of deciduous and coniferous trees in Sawyer County. Tribal enrollment totals approximately 8,300 members, of which 60% live on the LCO reservation in 23 different community villages. The tribe occupies approximately 74,000 acres located near the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. LCOOC also serves four neighboring reservations (the Red Cliff reservation, the Bad River reservation, the Lac du Flambeau reservation, and the St. Croix reservation) through outreach sites. The target audience for this project includes the 5 tribal reservation communities in NW Wisconsin; serving all participants from youth to Elders with language and cultural activities being core components of all programming.This project for the LCOOC Extension Department seeks to increase capacity with an overall goal of providing community education and outreach experiential learning opportunities to assist with harvesting, processing, and consuming natural resources in a sustainable way. Changes/Problems:The major challenge during this reporting period was the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioning all workshops to a virtual platform while staff transitioned to working from home. Staff met this challenge and the department saw an increase in participation in workshop attendance. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The opportunities for training and professional development the project has provided includes basic life support (CPR, first aid, and AED); natural history lectures; soil health topics related to the NIFA tribal college research grant program; and intro to audio and video production to assist departments in facilitating program information during the pandemic. There was an Introduction to Land Access for Farmers training that was a collaborative effort with the University of Wisconsin Extension Sawyer County, WI office that focuses on community, natural resources, and economic development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through social media platforms, specifically YouTube and Facebook; other secondary platforms included Instagram. An email distribution list has been created with all participants that have participated in an Extension related workshop in the past, this distribution list is utilized each month to send out the calendar monthly events and other related programming. The calendar is also published on the www.lco.edu website and all events are available for participants to register for right on the website. During the COVID-19 pandemic - our registration process transitioned completely online and we utilized google forms to collect registrations. This assisted with providing seamless transition of virtual programs, collect evaluations, and communicate with participants. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period to accomplish the identified goals and objectives the project will provide more natural resource based workshops in each community or virtually; plan and host a harvesting sustainably symposium, hold an Ojibwemowin language immersion program within the workshop structure; and utilize technology for broader reach and participation through a natural resources/ cultural index web-based platform or application.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic; LCOOC started with remote work and Zoom workshops starting in March of 2020. The Extension department offered all programs in a virtual environment and saw an increase in participation in many of its programs. Staff were able to provide video updates and educational videos on the Extension Department's YouTube channel as well as facilitating support groups and educational workshops. In September, 2019 the Extension Department took 40 high school students out to gather wild rice during 2 school days and also had a community harvesting day. After gathering the rice, staff then went to the Hayward High School and showed the students how to process the rice to ready it to eat. There were 92 different workshops held with 1,715 participants. Topics for workshops included hikes to the blue hills felsenmeer, morgan falls and St. peters dome to discuss natural resources concepts and challenges including overharvest of wild leeks. Other topics included culinary hands-on workshops, foraging and wild edibles, audio production, canning and food preservation (beans, pickles, blueberry jam, etc), Physical fitness programs including crossfit, hikes, and tai chi fitness. Traditional Ojibwe arts workshops included many workshops on regalia making, beading, tan deer hides, crocheting, and beaded pouches.

Publications

Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:The Lac Courte Oreilles Band (LCO) of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation is located in northern Wisconsin. Tribal enrollment totals nearly 7,000 members, of which 60% live on the LCO reservation in 23 different community villages. The tribe occupies approximately 74,000 acres located near the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College also serves four neighboring reservations (the Red Cliff reservation, the Bad River reservation, the Lac du Flambeau reservation, and the St. Croix reservation) through outreach sites. The target audience for programming is all community members from youth to Elders. Outcomes from workshops are best when the programs are multi-generational in scope. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional development and training opportunities provided by this project include: multiple food safety certification programs called ServSafe, and an intro to audio production workshop series. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of the Extension department programming are disseminated via email listservs to all faculty, staff, students and community members; social media platforms to include YouTube, facebook, and instagram. Programming information is provided to various groups within the community via tribal newsletters, Elders newsletter, and specific program participants. At least one time per year the Extension Dept Advisory Council meets to discuss past and future programming, provide recommendations and give input. Stakeholder input is important to the Extension department to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the community. Evaluations are conducted after workshops and community members can always stop in, email, call, or message us on facebook to provide feedback or offer requests. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period the Extension department will: 1. Create an Extension app for educational programming and sustainable lifeways of the Ojibwe 2. Provide additional ways to immerse the Ojibwemowin language into the workshops that Extension conducts 3. Create videos for workshops - that can be utilized for educational purposes as well as recruitment activities

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Extension department at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College held 113 different workshops that served 2,140 particants during this grant reporting period from 9/1/2018 to 8/31/2019. The workshops ranged in focus and included: nutritional cooking classes, straw bale gardening, birck bark classes, sustainable agriculture, youth pre-college programs, food safety certification, regalia, and language tables. Most of the workshops are hands-on and the participants leave the workshop with something tangible they have created. An intern was hired to assist with the language component for more immersion type activities during workshops. Workshops that have had a language component include: language tables, wild rice gathering, regalia workshops, and the youth leadership program. In the next grant cycle, interns will create language kits for community members to use to label things at home such as cabinets, doors, tables, and more. Language podcasts will also be shared, along with other videos on the Extension dept social media platforms. LCOOCC serves 5 total tribes between the main campus and 4 outreach sites. Geographically located between 45 and 90 minutes from main campus a challenge has been offering 1-2 workshops per month at each site. On average there has been 1 workshop per month during the months college classes are in session.

Publications