Permaculture Design Course at Pine Ridge Reservation with Warren Brush

Read the full article at: http://www.quailsprings.org/PineRidgeArticle_1.htm

 

“We are eight days into a 13-day Permaculture Design Course here at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the home of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.  Students from as far away as Florida and California have joined local tribal members in learning about how to integrate permaculture into their lives, livelihoods and cultural regeneration processes.” 

 

“Our hosts, a native family who runs a 10,000 acre cattle lease on the reservation and are highly respected tribal members, have been gracious and supportive and have opened up the teachings of Permaculture to their entire network on the reservation.  They set up tipis for our course and a large Army tent for our classroom then we have shared the family’s kitchen for all our meals.  During our course, we have had many guests sit in with us and share and we have visited quite a few projects around the “rez” that have integrated sustainable systems into their design. There is one group called, “ Lakota Solar Enterprises” who received initial funding from Winona LaDuke to build passive solar heaters for the thousands of trailers and poorly built HUD homes that dot the landscape in this sometimes harsh climate of extremes.  We met with Avery Red Cloud, who is the son of the founder, Henry Red Cloud, who showed us how they make the passive solar panels and blower system that can lower a families propane dependency during the winter as much as 30% with this simple technology.  The panels are built on-site by local labor where they are provided training and the tools to help them learn how to build the panels and install them professionally.  The entire operation is managed and operated by the Lakota people.  You can learn more about their work at: http://www.treeswaterpeople.org/”

 

“What we began to realize as we went from keypoint to keypoint was truly astounding and totally pragmatic.  The keypoints were also the places of the ancient buffalo wallows.  The buffalo have a keen ability to locate surface water then they would rut the area and often would start springs from the keypoints.  We also observed that many of the old buffalo trails were nearly on contour as they walked along the landscape as their bodies were so heavy that walking on contour would have made sense for then to maintain their energy efficient movement across the landscape.  When these epiphanies settled into us, we started to share with other tribal members the Keyline process by first introducing it through the wisdom and pragmatism of their sacred buffalo.  This is exciting everyone around here who are looking at how they can integrate the past with the present situation they are living within.” 

 

 

Read the full article at: http://www.quailsprings.org/PineRidgeArticle_1.htm