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TWO ROW TIMES
APRIL 2ND, 2014
Hodinohso:ni heirloom seed & foods workshop By Jen Mt. Pleasant SIX NATIONS – Six Nawas Polytech tions packed full of eager and gardenenthusiastic ers and seed-savers last weekend. Deyohaha:ge, with the help of the Six Nations Legacy Consortium, the Indigenous Studies Program of McMaster University and the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, hosted the annual event which was held last Saturday. This event was for community members and people in the surrounding areas to come and share their seed harvest from last year and also to exchange seeds and knowledge. One woman who brought a wealth of seeds to the workshop was Kahehtohkhtha Janice Brant who is from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. One item stood out in particular and that was strawberry popcorn which is beautiful dark red and looks like a giant strawberry. Brant stated she grows every seed that she had displayed on her table, from blue corn
to tobacco. The strawberry popcorn, which was still on the cob, was given to her by Yvonne Thomas, wife of the late Jake Thomas. Brant has been growing it for about ten years now. Other seeds that Brant had brought to the workshop, had been passed down in her family from generation to generation. The blue corn she had however, was given to her by Iowne Anderson. Brant stated that blue corn is edible and is mostly used as flour and for mush.
Brant also had tobacco seeds that she gave away to interested growers. When asked how she plants her tobacco, Brant stated that although some people like to start their seeds indoors, she usually plants her seeds directly outside, including tobacco. She explained that she ‘broadcasts’ the tobacco seeds, meaning she disperses them out onto the ground in a ‘fanning motion’, without digging any holes. “They are able to grow on top of the soil,” stated Brant, however after she fans them out across the soil, she grabs a handful of dirt and spreads it across and on top of the tobacco seeds. Brant stated that tobacco is also used as a healing plant in that the seeds can be planted in ‘diseased soil,’ and the tobacco will actually cleanse and revitalize the soil. Last Saturday’s event also came with a traditional style meal. The first meal of the day was entitled Breakfast BC (Before Columbus) and included corn mush, maple syrup, berries and fruit and tea.
tre from home. It has long been known among every Ongwehoweh nation across Turtle Island whose parents, grandparents and great grandparents went to residential schools that many children never made it home from these schools. The questions today are how many children perished in these schools and what was their cause of death? Through the Missing Children Project, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is currently trying to get an accurate count of the number of children who died in residential schools, the causes for their deaths and the location where they are buried. The TRC has so far
confirmed about 4,100 deaths, but that number is expected to rise as they have so far only been able to access partial government documents. TRC researchers are also continuing their search through death records, historical records, survivor testimony, photographs and the use of ground penetrating radar. Last Friday the B.C. government handed over 4,900 death records to the TRC. The records include all the deaths of First Nations children between the ages of 4 and 19 between 1870 and 1984. The task of the TRC researchers now is to sift through all the records and find out which ones died in residential schools.
Kahehtohkhtha Janice Brant from Tyendinaga, had at least 10 different types of seeds to give away at her booth at last Saturday's Hodinohso:ni Heirloom Seed & Foods Workshop. PHOTO BY JEN MT. PLEASANT
Next to Blue Corn is a beautiful display of Strawberry Corn, which, according to Kahehtohkhtha Janice Brant, should stay on the cob until ready to plant. PHOTO BY JEN MT. PLEASANT A local catering business owned by Chandra Maracle and Bloss Martin served up a delicious salad of mixed greens, dried cranberries, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seed oil, apple cider vinegar topped with maple syrup; wild rice with celery and peppers; mashed beans; cashew and pumpkin seed gravy with shallots and a mouth-watering carrot, celery and apply beet juice.
included Speakers Steve McComber who is a sculptor from Kahnawake and also a farmer. He discussed the importance of saving Haudenosaunee heirloom seeds. For more information about his talk on Saturday, he can be reached at cornplanter@sympatico. ca. Heirloom seeds are seeds that are still maintained by gardeners and farmers particularly in communities like those
of the Haudenosaunee. Haudenosaunee seeds are those that were grown pre-contact and continue to be grown today. The seeds have been passed down from generation to generation and are not bought in stores. All different kinds of seeds were given away last weekend including: white corn, blue corn, strawberry corn, tobacco, different variations of squash, sunflower, and different kinds of beans.
BC government hands over death records to TRC By Jen Mt. Pleasant In October 1956, Charles Ombash, aged 12, and his brother, Tom, aged 14, left the Pelican Falls Residential School near Sioux Lookout, Ontario. Having planned to canoe back to Cat Lake or alternately, take the train to Savant Lake, a ride to Pickle Lake and then canoe to Cat Lake. Their families have not seen them since. Another heartbreaking incident involved the deaths of four boys, two aged 8 and two aged 9, in early January 1937. After excessive corporal punishment, the boys ran away from a residential school near Vanderhoof, B.C. The four bodies were found huddled and frozen together in ice on the Fraser Lake, barely a kilome-
Last week Alberta also followed suit with handing over 41 DVDs to the TRC, containing around 10,000 death records of First Nations people between 1923 and 1945. The job now is to sift through these records and find out which ones died in the provinces 25 residential schools. Nova Scotia, which was home to one residential school called Shubenacadie also recently turned over around 125 death records from 1922 to 1968. Thirteen of those records were of students who died in the residential school. Ontario has yet to hand over its records and Quebec has ignored repeated requests to hand over its records as well. It is widely known that
A tin marker, likely issued by the Dept. of Indian Affairs, marks the resting place of a student from the St Joseph's Indian residential school in Chapleau, Ont., photographed on Aug. 12, 2012. the number one killer at these schools was disease, mainly tuberculosis as many residential schools did not have good ventilation systems. But it is also known through survivor testimony that many children died unnatural, mysterious and even violent deaths. By getting the gov-
ernment death records of First Nations child deaths in all the provinces, the TRC can then find out which ones died in residential schools and also hopefully find out how they died and where they are buried as many families have waited decades to find closure.