Cultivating Health and Heritage: The Community & Family Gardens of Wakpamni

Reviving Food Traditions, One Garden at a Time

For generations, the land of Wakpamni has sustained the Oglala Lakota people—not only physically, but spiritually. Today, the Community & Family Gardens Project continues this tradition by reconnecting families with the earth, restoring food sovereignty, and addressing the nutritional and health disparities that have impacted Indigenous communities for decades.

Community Gardens: Growing Together Across the Land

The Community Gardens Project supplements the ongoing agricultural work within Powwow Park and the GeoGreen Kitchen, extending the reach of locally grown food into neighborhoods, housing areas, and shared outdoor spaces across Wakpamni Lake.

These gardens are more than food plots—they’re a way to:

• Strengthen community bonds through shared labor and harvests
• Reintroduce indigenous plants and traditional medicines into everyday life
• Convert underutilized spaces into productive garden beds with hay bale and raised bed methods
• Partner with nearby farms and gardeners through shared harvest agreements

From colorful vegetable beds to stands of sacred sage, these gardens are a source of both nourishment and cultural pride.

Family Gardens: Empowering Households with Tools and Seeds

The Family Gardens Project ensures that every household—regardless of age or ability—has the opportunity to grow fresh, healthy food right outside their door. Through this initiative, Wakpamni provides:

• Tilling services to prepare home garden spaces
• Vegetable starts and heirloom seeds for planting
• Gardening education and support for beginners and experienced growers alike

These gardens serve as intergenerational learning spaces, where grandparents teach youth the rhythms of planting and harvest, and children learn the satisfaction of growing their own food.

Raised Beds for Elders: Respecting Experience and Mobility

As part of our efforts to support the health and dignity of our elders, the Family Gardens initiative is integrated with Wakpamni’s Elderly Ramps & Decks Project. For senior residents, this means more than just accessibility—it means restoration of independence and participation.

On each newly built deck, elders receive waist-high raised garden beds filled with nutrient-rich soil and starter plants. These gardens are customized to reduce bending and strain while allowing our elders to grow vegetables, herbs, and sacred plants from the comfort of their homes.

This program also honors their role as cultural stewards, passing on generations of agricultural knowledge to the community.

Healing Through Food: Lessons from the Pandemic

While the Community & Family Gardens Project began before COVID-19, the pandemic exposed serious vulnerabilities in global and regional food systems. Supply chain breakdowns, grocery shortages, and rising food costs reminded us all of the value of self-sufficiency.

More critically, the pandemic magnified health disparities in Native communities, where higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and nutritional deficiencies correlate with limited access to fresh, affordable food.

By expanding gardening initiatives across the reservation, Wakpamni is actively fighting back—plant by plant, meal by meal—against these systemic inequities.

Indigenous Plants and Medicinal Knowledge

A key component of the garden projects is the reintroduction of traditional Lakota plants. Community gardens and elder beds include sacred herbs and healing plants such as:

• Ceyaka (wild mint)
• Timpsila (wild prairie turnip)
• Psíŋ (wild onions)
• Sage, sweetgrass, and cedar for ceremonial use

Incorporating these plants restores more than biodiversity—it reinforces ancestral knowledge systems and strengthens the cultural and spiritual health of the people.

Community Impact and Future Growth

The success of the gardens is measured not just in pounds of produce, but in community involvement, youth engagement, and improved health outcomes. Dozens of families now grow their own tomatoes, corn, squash, and beans. Elders proudly display their herbs and greens. Children bring home hand-picked vegetables to their families.

Looking ahead, Wakpamni plans to:

• Expand garden plots to more neighborhoods and community buildings
• Build out a seed saving program to preserve tribal varieties
• Develop curriculum-based youth garden programs connected to local schools
• Launch community harvest celebrations to share produce and culture

Partners and Collaboration

The Community & Family Gardens Project is supported by partnerships with regional farms, food sovereignty groups, and USDA programs. These collaborations provide training, materials, and shared crops—ensuring that Wakpamni’s gardens are part of a larger movement for Indigenous food justice.

Additional support comes through the Wakaga Economic Development Group, which helps fund and scale agricultural initiatives across the reservation.

Conclusion: A Growing Legacy

Gardening is more than growing food—it is reclaiming autonomy, reconnecting with the land, and replanting the roots of tradition. The Community & Family Gardens of Wakpamni are doing just that: restoring a way of life where every seed planted tells a story of survival, healing, and hope.

In the soil of our ancestors, the future of the Wakpamni people is growing strong.