TRIBAL LOCAL FOODS FRTEP PROJECT, OGLALA SIOUX TRIBE, PINE RIDGE RESERVATION

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: ACTIVE
• Funding Source: 3D GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1029088
• Grant No.: 2022-41580-37936
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $304,325.00
• Proposal No.: 2022-03201
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2022
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2025
• Grant Year: 2024
• Program Code: [LP]- EIRP Indian Reservation Program

Recipient Organization
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
PO BOX 2275A
BROOKINGS,SD 57007

Performing Department
Cooperative Extension

Non Technical Summary
For FRTEP to be successful and sustainable to expand Extension outreach on Pine Ridge and create a replicable outreach model for other tribal areas, 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 also must address these issues in a way that builds tribal capacity. Central tenants of our approach are: 1) Tribal Local Foods and AgrAbility as a Beginning Regenerative Farmer Program for tribal members, Farm to School (F2S) students, and community members; 2) Land-access and capacity building to promote sustainability after the grant period ends; 3) Prevention of secondary injuries; and 4) Participant success in the program - starting to focusing to graduating. A key element in this work will be local tribal schools, as they are the single largest market available to local tribal producers.Lakota people have for years sought a culturally appropriate and acceptable form of agriculture. Agroecology and regenerative agriculture have a triple bottom line for Lakota people, in which People and Planet come before (economic) Profit. They do not want, nor can they afford, to use chemical inputs and large machines. They do not seek to replicate the large agricultural range units and commodity farms that non-natives operate. Lakota producers 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 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.We are focusing on farm to school (F2S) programs. The majority of youth on Pine Ridge receive at least two of their meals each day from schools. Thus these schools represent the biggest local market for tribal farmers. A variety of programs and resources exist for schools and farmers on Pine Ridge to tap into to develop both farming and F2S on Pine Ridge.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 and implementation activities to /improve 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. Thus exposure to ACEs can often create 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 need to teach them how to build these systems with free or low-cost, locally available materials such as tires and rammed earth building techniques. This approach allows for design flexibility 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, third 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
131	0199	1070	10%
607	6010	3010	10%
608	6010	3010	10%
723	6010	3080	15%
801	6010	3010	20%
802	6010	3080	20%
803	6010	3080	15%

Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities; 608 - Community Resource Planning and Development; 801 - Individual and Family Resource Management; 607 - Consumer Economics; 723 - Hazards to Human Health and Safety; 131 - Alternative Uses of Land; 802 - Human Development and Family Well-Being;

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

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 3010 - Economics; 3080 - Sociology;

Keywords

beginning farmer

frtep

local foods

pine ridge reservation

south dakota

tribal

Goals / Objectives
The intent and mission of the Federally Recognized Tribal Extension Program (FRTEP) is to establish an Extension presence to promote equity in access to Extension outreach and to provide resources to address long-standing needs among Federally Recognized Tribes. We're proposing to expand our Extension presence and outreach on the Pine Ridge Reservation to address the needs of its marginalized communities and help provide increased access to badly needed and hard-to-find resources of the reservation. This will be accomplished through six types of activities.1) Our Beginning Regenerative Farmer Training and Education Program will assist tribal members who are new to farming, as well as existing producers who need to adjust their operation due to a disabling condition. This will include hands-on production training and education (either in-person or remotely) for up to 40 new tribal farmers. In addition, we will utilize an updated edition of "The 2020 Tribal Small Farmers Resource Guide for Pine Ridge (TSFRG)," developed via our current USDA-NIFA AgrAbility grant, as one of our main resources to train these new farmers on how to pursue resources to start, develop, and expand their operations. Working with Dr. Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots Environmental Youth program and Rebel Earth Farm's Incubator, our team has also developed a Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Regenerative Windbreak Guide. Regenerative windbreak orchards are a culturally appropriate form of rain-garden/wind-break that produce food for people and animals, create wildlife habitat, and establish wildlife corridors on the borders of farms, schools, and/or communities for wildlife to pass through. They also reduce crop loss due to wildlife damage, by providing habitat and food on the outskirts of the property.2) Farm to School (F2S) development efforts have involved hiring a dedicated, part-time F2S program assistant and creating several F2S champions to work in their own local communities, schools, and local farmers/gardeners to develop a vibrant F2S program. Our goal in this project is to add the F2S program to four tribal schools, starting with the Little Wound School (LWS) in Kyle, SD. The Extension School at LWS works with a total of approximately 120 students, including 20 in-person students.3) Expanding Youth Outreach beyond just schools is a partnership with the National Indian Youth Leadership Project's (NIYLP) Project Venture program and with Jane Goodall's RS Environmental Youth program at the Rebel Earth Farm Incubator. These programs already work with tribal schools and existing tribal farmers to address environmental and wildlife conflict events. These programs will participate in our F2S efforts, but will also work with tribal communities and farmers to utilize more TLK and environmental approaches to agriculture and the natural environment. Currently the NIYLP and RS programs work with five tribal schools and care for four gardens that are restoring culturally significant plants to the Lakota people.4) Increased Access will occur through our partnerships with the Rebel Earth Farm Incubator (60 acres) and Re-Member Feather Two Farms Incubator (160 acres). These incubators provide free access to land and equipment to landless, enrolled tribal members. Both sites have high-tunnels, compost, use drip-irrigation, and have access to trained staff experienced in high-tunnel production in South Dakota. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these two incubators hosted over fifty tribal members who came to learn about high-tunnel production.5) Workforce Development Efforts will continue to expand with increasing tribal member access to technology and Wi-Fi through our partnership with Goodwill of the Great Plains' (GWGP) and their new Mobile Career Lab (MCL). GWGP is working to create digital upskilling, career enhancement services, and job seeker support that are accessible to rural and urban community members via the MCL.In addition, our team will work with local Lakota beginning farmers and laborers, training them on regenerative farming practices and principles.6) Economic Development Efforts will continue to increase market access through increased participation in area farmers markets, potential market access via partners such as Lakota Made, LLC, and through developing markets with schools via our F2S program.Central tenants of our approach are: 1) Tribal Local Foods and AgrAbility as a Beginning Regenerative Farmer Program for tribal members, Farm to School (F2S) students, and community members; 2) Land-access and capacity building to promote sustainability after the grant period ends; 3) Prevention of secondary injuries; and 4) Participant success in the program - starting to focusing to graduating. For programs to be successful, our experience has taught us that we need to first work with farmers in marginalized communities from a survival focus. Then we can assist them in transitioning to subsistence farming and self-sufficiency. The final stages are abundance of harvest, and eventually scaling up to small-scale commercial agriculture. Lakota people have long sought a culturally appropriate and acceptable form of agriculture. Within these broader goals we have the following four measureable objectives:Objective 1: To provide training and educational support to 40 tribal regenerative farmers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to help them adopt regenerative farming practices.Objective 2: To provide 4 tribal schools with Farm to School (F2S) community champions, and 40 tribal farmers with training and educational support to establish active F2S programming in both their schools and communities.Objective 3: To directly support non-governmental organizations, such as non-profits, in implementing Farm to School programming and support regenerative farming practices.Objective 4: To directly support workforce development efforts on the Pine Ridge Reservation that target a trained regenerative farm and ranch labor force.

Project Methods
Central tenants of our approach are: 1) Tribal Local Foods and AgrAbility as a Beginning Regenerative Farmer Program for tribal members, Farm to School (F2S) students, and community members; 2) Land-access and capacity building to promote sustainability after the grant period ends; 3) Prevention of secondary injuries; and 4) Participant success in the program - starting with focusing, moving to graduating. For programs to be successful, our experience has taught us that we need to first work with farmers in marginalized communities from a survival focus. Then we can assist them in transitioning to subsistence farming and self-sufficiency. The final stages are abundance of harvest, and eventually scaling up to small-scale commercial agriculture. Lakota people have long 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. In this proposal we will continue to work with two tribal, small-farm incubators, utilizing them as demonstration sites for regenerative agriculture TLK training. Training will be based around the TLK of the Lakota people, as well as on the ecology of the Northern Great Plains as a growing region.Evaluation: Our third party, Native American evaluator will participate in some of these sessions, developing process evaluation reports. She will use indigenous methodologies, explained in the evaluation section of this proposal.Objective 1: To provide training and educational support to 40 tribal regenerative farmers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to help them adopt regenerative farming practices.Workshops will be structured using the Lakota cultural approach of learning that involves farmer-to-farmer problem solving and group brainstorming. We will also discuss the sensitivity or relevance of the training to the culture, allowing our program and our evaluator to assess changes we need to make in real time. As each site and each client are unique, the training and support approaches will vary. However, they will focus on regenerative farming topics such as drip irrigation, building hoop houses utilizing re-purposed materials, using mulch and systems such as hugelkultur (raised) beds, vermicomposting, composting, using composted manure, etc. Training sessions will be repeated over consecutive years. Our combined 50 years of experience on Pine Ridge has taught our team that repeating offerings allow individuals to retake the training, thereby enhancing knowledge and memory retention.In years 2-4, individual producer training will expand to developing regenerative farm plans, including strategies and systems for their unique operations. Participants may also receive more in-depth, individualized training from our internal team or from instructor-mentors as needed. This may include visits to other small regenerative tribal farms and participation in hands-on production activities. This approach is firmly rooted in Lakota cultural models of passing on knowledge. It is also based on the highly successful agro-ecological Farmer-to-Farmer Field School studies and research findings of the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that works with small-scale indigenous farmers all over the world. Many of these trainings will take place on client farm sites, but others will take place at partnering tribal small farm incubators.Objective 2: To provide 4 tribal schools with Farm to School (F2S) community champions, and 40 tribal farmers with training and educational support to establish active F2S programming in both their schools and communities.Community champion roles will depend upon what a given school wants to accomplish, but could vary from recruiting community participation in F2S activities to helping plant and care for a school garden to helping in F2S classroom activities, etc. Champions will be recruited from amongst the community via recommendations from the school and NGO partners. They will be paid with a stipend. We will work to provide support and any training these champions will need in their given role.When working with schools, community champions, and tribal farmers to establish F2S programming, the approach will be unique to each school's policies and programs, and to how each farmer wants to interact with the school. We will start by recruiting 4 schools and developing F2S plans with them, utilizing SDSU, USDA, and other NGO F2S program guides as our starting point. Once a school has developed its policies and program, we will help the school recruit local farmers and ranchers to participate in the F2S program. Once recruited, the farmers will receive support and training from SDSU to scale up their operations or add any necessary elements to their operation, such as Good Handling Practices (GAP) for food safety, etc.Objective 3: To directly support non-governmental organizations, such as non-profits, in implementing Farm to School programming and support regenerative farming practices.Our program will focus mostly on indigenous serving NGOs, or NGOs involved in regenerative agricultural practices. Our primary role will be to facilitate connecting these NGOs and their services with local tribal schools and the farmers. This could range from facilitating meetings, trainings, installing practices, etc.Objective 4: To directly support workforce development efforts on the Pine Ridge Reservation that target a trained regenerative farm and ranch labor force.This will involve linking existing workforce development programs on the reservation with ag producers and F2S programs to establish a listing of needed skill sets, both at the farm level and within F2S programs. SDSU Tribal Local Foods will provide the training in regenerative farm and ranch practices to workforce development programs' recruited workers. As most of these workforce development programs focus only on connecting workers to organizations needing work, it's up to the host, in this case, SDSU to train these workers on the skills needed. Another aspect of objective will be to collaborate with the Good Will of the Great Plains and their Mobile Career Lab (MCL) that will be traveling to Pine Ridge every summer. This MCL provides trained staff and access to computers to provide both hands-on and on-line training and skill development. Another workforce training program is the Lakota Funds Community Development Fund Initiative (CDFI). Lakota Funds provides tribal members with training such as home budgeting, business development and planning, agricultural loan development, etc.

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

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes socially-disadvantaged, limited-resource, Native American youth in tribal schools as well as adult tribal new farmers (including veterans) living with disabilities who are either brand new (no experience) or just beginning (1-10 years of 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 and Lakota students K-12 as well as Oglala Lakota College students. 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. Changes/Problems:In this reporting period, the only major change is that through working with an additional funder, CoBank, as well as with the South Dakota Board of Regents (SDBOR), Extension leadership and SDSU Human Resources, we were able to address the situation of failed searches for the two part-time F2S position we originally tried to offer via the FRTEP award (as originally written) and the CoBank award. When we had two failed searches in 2023 for part-time positions, we worked with the above entities to merge the two part-time positions into one full-time position dedicated 100% time to F2S outreach and development. This newly created full-time position has allowed us to increase the position's wage range and benefits and we're starting to get applicants for the position. We've assembled a hiring committee comprised entirely of local Lakota SDSU Extension team members and a hiring manager, the PD, Jason Schoch. This team will begin interviewing qualified candidates in early June. Once hired and on boarded we expect this full-time position to help us get caught up on all grant objectives related to tribal school outreach and F2S champion recruitment. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this reporting period, the Project Director (PD) attended the 2023 AgrAbility National Training Workshop put on by NAP and USDA-NIFA in Atlanta, GA. The PD and the entire TLF FRTEP team also attended the FRTEP and Falcon Training Conference in Shakopee, MN. All team members participated in Micro-Master Gardener training to increase their horticultural knowledge. Staff also attend the 2023 South Dakota Local Foods Conference, and the South Dakota State University Extension's annual conference in Brookings, SD. The entire team also participated in a workshop presented by TNC and OLC on Healthy Stream Restoration hosted at the Pine Ridge SDSU Extension office. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations in this reporting period were made to the directors of Ag& Natural Resources for the land grant universities in the North Central Region and to a group of stakeholders visiting the Feather Two Farms site as part of a multi-state High-Tunnel Workshop. We don't utilize social media at this time, as the sensitive nature of many of our disabled tribal F2s farmer clients requires us not to show photos of them or their sites, and local schools have to have parental permission for the use of images of their children. However, with the regenerative farming demonstration site finished at the SDSU Extension's office, we began documenting its features and providing tours of the site. Photos and videos will be available on our SDSU Pine Ridge Facebook page and will be utilized by our evaluator in publications. To date, 74 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 36 youth from LWS F2S program, 87 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farm incubators, and 70 stakeholders/partners have toured the site this year and provided insight to our team. Our 3rd party evaluator visited the site, spoke with our fabrication team and clients, and will guide our team on the development of both online, printed and pdf materials that are culturally appropriate. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1: Provide training and educational support to 40 tribal regenerative farmers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to help them adopt regenerative farming practices: We will continue to refine and tailor our direct educational training and support to the 41 tribal regenerative farmers interested in F2S 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. The cooperative of F2S producers will also receive additional support and materials via the non-federal CoBank grant. In 2024, ReMember has offered volunteers to assist on all 41 tribal farm sites, as needed, to help with infrastructure, clean-up or prep, planting, and weeding this summer, and once hired, the SDSU F2S coordinator and F2S champions will also begin working with the TLF FRTEP and AgrAbility farmer cohort. Objective 2: Provide 4 tribal schools with Farm to School (F2S) direct support and with F2s community champions, and 40 tribal farmers with training and educational support to establish active F2S programming in both their schools and communities: We will continue to work with LWS and recruit additional tribal schools to develop their school's F2S plan. The newly created full-time F2S Coordinator position will coordinate with the schools and recruit F2S community champions and to develop or expand their F2S plans. Once schools have developed their plan and we've hired staff and recruited these champions, we will work with the tribal farmers and tribal schools and champions on executing each school's plan. We will continue to interact with the South Dakota Farm to School Task Force, including helping tribal farmers, schools, and students as well as our team's staff members and champions attend meetings and trainings provided by the Task Force and SDSU. Objective 3: Directly support non-governmental organizations, such as non-profits, in implementing Farm to School programming and support regenerative farming practices: We will continue to work with all of the partners mentioned above on developing and implementing F2S and regenerative farming practices both on their sites and at our demonstration site. We will expand our partnerships via both on-the-ground projects and attending meetings and trainings. We encouraged the South Dakota Farm to School Task Force and the SDSU Local Foods Strategic Planning Committee to strongly consider hosting a F2S conference in South Dakota annually. We will assist these NGO partners in reaching out to schools participating in F2S and they will assist us in reaching out to schools that they work with so that we can introduce those schools to F2S. New partners TNC and OLC have committed to working with our team and recruited schools and tribal farmers in 2024. Objective 4: Directly support workforce development efforts on the Pine Ridge Reservation that target a trained regenerative farm and ranch labor force: primarily we will focus in this next reporting period on coordinating our partnering incubator-hub sites, OLC, and other partners, as well as with the newly hired NRCS Tribal Liaison for Pine Ridge, to provide access to outreach and training opportunities. We will continue to link current and prospective agricultural workers to work opportunities and training at area schools as well as at partner sites and disabled farmer's home sites.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Provide training and educational support to 40 tribal regenerative farmers: 50% Accomplished: 41 participants developed Individualized AgrAbility Plans (IAP) and received one-on-one regenerative agricultural production training, unique to their abilities and situations, each with a particular eye towards eventually scaling up their operations, as they are ready, to provide through aggregation produce for the local F2S market. All 41 are subsistence farming at the time of reporting and five have started an informal cooperative to develop a joint production plan to sell to local tribal schools and farmers' markets/wholesale partners, such as Lakota Made, LLC. We utilized an updated edition of our "The 2020 Tribal Small Farmers Resource Guide for Pine Ridge (TSFRG)," as one of our main resources to train these new farmers on how to pursue resources to start, develop, and expand their operations. This guide will be updated in 2024. Objective 2: Provide 4 tribal schools with Farm to School (F2S) direct support and with F2S community champions, and 40 tribal farmers with training and educational support: 25% Accomplished: Our F2S initial pilot school, LWS, requested an extension to their USDA-FNS Farm to School grant. 119 students are involved in the F2S program as of this report. We utilized what we learned from working with LWS into a better-informed outreach plan for other tribal schools. After two failed searches to create two part-time F2S positions for our Tribal Local Foods (TLF) team, we leveraged FRTEP and CoBank funding into a single joint full-time position. In 2022, tribal schools on Pine Ridge Reservation requested that we wait to start doing direct planning with them until the mid-to-late summer of 2023 to allow them to wrap up the school year and then reconvene in the summer to start planning. While searching for F2S candidates and working with farmers, we honored that request. We did continue outreach to: Pine Ridge Girls, Porcupine, Our Lady of Lourdes, Lone-man, and Crazy Horse schools. With a full-time position (and increased hourly wages) created, we are advertising the full-time position and have one candidate to be interviewed in early June. Our team will be utilizing the same micro-scale regenerative farming system we use with our AgrAbility program's tribal farmer clients at these prospective new F2S sites. Schools will receive a small hoop house built from locally sourced materials along with disability sensitive raised beds, drip irrigation and either a grow station for doing their own plant starts or plants from the FRTEP program produced at our office. Several potential F2S champions have been identified. Objective 3: Directly support non-governmental organizations in implementing Farm to School programming and support regenerative farming practices: 50% Accomplished: In this reporting period, new partnerships were developed with: Oglala Lakota College and the Nature Conservancy to add to the National Indian Youth Leadership Project's (NIYLP) Project Venture (PV) program, and Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots (RS) Environmental Youth program. These programs work with tribal schools and existing tribal farmers to address environmental and wildlife conflict events and now participate in our F2S efforts. Together we work with tribal communities and farmers to utilize more TLK and environmental approaches to agriculture and the natural environment. Many tribal schools and farmers do not like to use nor can afford dangerous and costly chemical pesticides. Another tribal partner, Can Wigmunke, the Rainbow Tree, partnered with our project to establish native plant nurseries, botanical areas, and restoration projects in areas on or near tribal schools, communities, and farms. Interest in cultivating traditionally gathered wild plants of cultural significance to the Lakota culture is growing. LWS is already cultivating some of these plants and the Rebel Earth Farms hub site has begun to develop these into new specialty crops. Objective 4: Directly support workforce development efforts: 40% Accomplished: Increased access for landless tribal farmers and a developing agricultural workforce continues through partnerships with the Rebel Earth Farm Incubator (60 acres) and Re-Member's Feather Two Farms Incubator (160 acres). These incubators provide free access to land and equipment to landless, enrolled tribal members. Both sites have high-tunnels, compost, use drip irrigation, and have access to trained staff experienced in high-tunnel production in South Dakota. These two incubators hosted over 56 tribal members who came to learn about high-tunnel production. Workforce development efforts continued to expand period with an additional partner, Re-Member purchasing two additional high-tunnels to be built in summer 2024 on-site, for a total of four. They've also hired a full-time seasonal Lakota garden coordinator. Rebel Earth Farms hired 12 regenerative farming day laborers for their site. Workers and volunteers at both sites learn everything from starting plants from seed, planting inside a high tunnel, installing drip irrigation, fencing, building a small hoop house, etc. Participants in this workforce development effort, partnered with SDSU Extension's FRTEP program in 2022 to help disabled tribal farmers, either seasonally (planting and harvesting), or year-round on their micro-farms. In this reporting period, we've also started working directly with OLC to provide tribal high school and college students with opportunities to get hands-on experience in both locations.

Publications

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

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes socially-disadvantaged, limited-resource, Native American youth in tribal schools as well as adult new and existing tribal new farmers (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 and Lakota students K-12. 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. 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, WA. The Project Director also attended the National FRTEP day at IAC in Las Vegas, NV 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?Presentations on our project at the annual Lakota Food Summit and South Dakota Local Foods Conference; National Training Workshop by National AgrAbility Project (Purdue University), and USDA-NIFA in and at FRTEP Annual Workshop and FRTEP Day at the Inter-Tribal Ag Council's 2022 conference. We however do not utilize social media at this time, as the sensitive nature of many of our disabled tribal clients requires us not to show photos of them or their sites. However, now that the regenerative farming demonstration site is finished at the SDSU Extension's Pine Ridge office, we will being documenting its use, features, and tours of the site. These photos and videos will be available on our SDSU Pine Ridge Facebook page and will be utilized by our evaluator in publications. To date, 36 enrolled tribal members from the general public, 17 Lakota youth from LWS F2S program, 32 non-native volunteers with Feather Two and Rebel Earth Farm incubators, and 24 stakeholders/partners have toured the site this year and provided insight to our team. Our 3rd party evaluator will be visiting the site in June of 2023 to review it, speak with our fabrication team and clients, and guide our team on the development of both online, printed, and pdf materials. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1: Provide training and educational support to 40 tribal regenerative farmers on the Pine Ridge Reservation to help them adopt regenerative farming practices. 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: Provide 4 tribal schools with Farm to School (F2S) direct support and with F2s community champions, and 40 tribal farmers with training and educational support to establish active F2S programming in both their schools and communities. We will work with LWS and between 3-4 additional tribal schools to develop their school's F2S plan and will hire either a 50/50 F2S/SNAP-Ed staff member or a 100% F2S focused staff member funded 50/50 by FRTEP and CoBank. We will also recruit between 1-4 F2S community champions as soon as the four schools have developed their F2S plans. Once schools have developed their plan and we've hired staff and recruited these champions, we will work with the above mentioned tribal farmers and tribal schools and champions on executing each school's plan. We will continue to interact with the South Dakota Farm to School Task Force, including helping tribal farmers, schools, and students as well as our team's staff members and champions attend meetings and trainings provided by the Task Force and SDSU. Objective 3: Directly support non-governmental organizations, such as non-profits, in implementing Farm to School programming and support regenerative farming practices. We will continue to work with partners mentioned above on developing and implementing F2S and regenerative farming practices both on their sites and at our demonstration site. We will expand our partnerships via both on the ground projects and attending meetings and trainings. Recently we encouraged the South Dakota Farm to School Task Force to strongly consider hosting a F2S conference in South Dakota annually. We will assist these NGO partners in reaching out to schools participating in F2S and they will assist us in reaching out to schools that they work with so that we can introduce those schools to F2S. Objective 4: Directly support workforce development efforts on the Pine Ridge Reservation that target a trained regenerative farm and ranch labor force. Primarily we will focus in this next reporting period on coordinating with GWGP and Re-Member on their mobile units to provide outreach and training opportunities to tribal members across the Pine Ridge Reservation and will continue to link current and prospective agricultural workers to work opportunities and trainings at area schools as well as at partner sites and disabled farmer's home sites.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Provide training and educational support to 40 tribal regenerative farmers: 25% Accomplished: 42 participants developed Individualized AgrAbility Plans (IAP) and received one-on-one regenerative agricultural production training, unique to their abilities and situations, each with a particular eye towards eventually scaling up their operations, as they are ready, to provide through aggregation produce for the local F2S market. All participants this year started subsistence farming at the time of reporting but five of these have expressed an interest in forming a cooperative to start selling to the local tribal schools and start selling at local farmers markets or to wholesale partners, such as Lakota Made, LLC. We utilized an updated edition of our "The 2020 Tribal Small Farmers Resource Guide for Pine Ridge (TSFRG)," as one of our main resources to train these new farmers on how to pursue resources to start, develop, and expand their operations. Objective 2: Provide 4 tribal schools with Farm to School (F2S) direct support and with F2S community champions, and 40 tribal farmers with training and educational support: 10% Accomplished: We recruited LWS as our F2S initial pilot school, assisted them in acquiring a USDA-FNS Farm to School grant, applying to USDA-NRCS's EQIP program and get a high-tunnel built on site. 119 students participated in the F2S program in 2022. We are utilizing what we learned from working with LWS into a better informed outreach plan other tribal schools. We have not yet hired the dedicated, part-time F2S program assistant as in working with South Dakota State University's Director of Extension, we identified two potential opportunities to create a joint full-time position with 50% being dedicated to Farm to School development and support and the remaining 50% being dedicated to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) programming. The second opportunity is leveraging the FRTEP grant to acquire additional funding from CoBank in 2023 to create a full-time 100% F2S focused-position. CoBank reached out to PD Schoch to request a proposal from SDSU. We are exploring both of these opportunities with South Dakota State University Extension to see which opportunity best meets the organization's mission and goals on Pine Ridge Reservation, long-term. If we go the CoBank route, other things we're considering is expanding the number, hours or level of stipend paid to the grant's F2S champions. In addition, the tribal schools we reached out to on Pine Ridge Reservation requested that we wait to start doing direct planning with them until mid-to-late summer of 2023 to allow them to wrap up the 2022 school year and then reconvene in the summer to start planning. In addition to LWS's existing Farm to School program, schools identified that we'll be meeting with this summer are: Pine Ridge Girls, Porcupine, Our Lady of Lourdes, Lone-man, and Crazy Horse schools. Our team will be utilizing the same micro-scale regenerative farming system we use with our AgrAbility program's tribal farmer clients at these prospective new F2S sites. Schools will receive a small hoop house built from locally sourced materials along with disability sensitive raised beds, drip irrigation and either a grow station for doing their own plant starts or plants from the FRTEP program produced at our office. Several F2S champions will be hired to work in their own communities, schools, and local farmers/gardeners to develop a vibrant F2S program. Hiring will take place in 2024 after each school develops their F2S plan this summer. Objective 3: Directly support non-governmental organizations in implementing Farm to School programming and support regenerative farming practices: 35% Accomplished: Partnerships developed with the National Indian Youth Leadership Project's (NIYLP) Project Venture (PV) program and with Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots (RS) Environmental Youth program on the Rebel Earth Farms Incubator. These programs work with tribal schools and existing tribal farmers to address environmental and wildlife conflict events and now participate in our F2S efforts. Together we work with tribal communities and farmers to utilize more TLK and environmental approaches to agriculture and the natural environment. Currently the NIYLP and RS programs work with five tribal schools and care for four gardens that are restoring culturally significant plants to the Lakota people. Working with Dr. Jane Goodall's RS program on Pine Ridge and with NIYLP, our team developed a "Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Regenerative Windbreak Guide." Regenerative windbreak orchards are a culturally appropriate form of rain-garden/wind-break that produce food for people and animals, create wildlife habitat, and establish wildlife corridors on the borders of farms, schools, and/or communities for wildlife to pass through. They reduce crop loss due to wildlife damage, by providing habitat and food on the outskirts of the property. Additional new regenerative farming NGO partnerships include: the Black Hills Raptor Center which provides the program with Kestrel Nesting and Owl Nesting boxes to be installed near schools, tribal farms, and hub sites. These raptors reduce grasshopper and rodent pest populations and represent a form of natural pest control more culturally-appropriate and relevant. Many tribal schools and farmers do not like to use nor can afford dangerous and costly chemical pesticides. This information can be accessed by the schools and farmers. Another tribal partner, Can Wigmunke, the Rainbow Tree, partnered with our project to establish native plant nurseries, botanical areas and restoration projects in areas on or near tribal schools, communities and farms. Interest in cultivating traditionally gathered wild plants of cultural-significance to the Lakota culture is growing. LWS is already cultivating some of these plants and Rebel Earth Farms hub site has begun to develop these into new specialty crops. Objective 4: Directly support workforce development efforts: 25% Accomplished: Increased access for landless tribal farmers and a developing agricultural workforce is underway through our partnerships with the Rebel Earth Farm Incubator (60 acres) and Re-Member's Feather Two Farms Incubator (160 acres). These incubators provide free access to land and equipment to landless, enrolled tribal members. Both sites have high-tunnels, compost, use drip-irrigation, and have access to trained staff experienced in high-tunnel production in South Dakota. These two incubators hosted over 73 tribal members who came to learn about high-tunnel production. Workforce development efforts continued to expand in this reporting period with increasing tribal member access to technology and Wi-Fi through our other main partnership with Goodwill of the Great Plains' (GWGP) and their new Mobile Career Lab (MCL). Partner, Re-Member is nearing completion of their fundraising efforts to purchase a "Veggie Wagon" which will transport produce grown on their hub site, to sites across Pine Ridge Reservation and the current plan is to have this Veggie Wagon mobile farmers market (but free produce) accompany GWGP's mobile career lab. Rebel Earth Farms hired 25 temporary and/or day laborers to come to their hub site, learn everything from starting plants from seed, planting inside a high-tunnel, installing drip-irrigation, fencing, building a small hoop house, etc. Participants in this workforce development effort, partnered with SDSU Extension's FRTEP program in 2022 to provide disabled tribal farmers with help, either seasonally (planting and harvesting) or year round (as needed) on their micro-farms. Additional employment opportunities have opened up with partnering organization, Re-Member on their Feather Two Farms. AgrAbility clients have hired some of these workers on an as-needed basis.

Publications