UTTC agriculture students connect with Native roots

Cathleena Long, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, handed produce to BisMarket customers from behind a table covered in fresh fruits, veggies and fungi. A whiteboard next to the table read “UTTC SAGE CLUB. Zucchini – $1 sm $2 lg,” and went on to list the rest of this week’s fare.

“No one had tomatoes but us, and we sold out, just like that,” she said as she snapped her fingers.

The UTTC SAGE Club — Sustainable Agriculture, Gathering and Eating — grows produce on campus, less than four miles from the market. They’ve been selling their produce at BisMarket for four years, attending three-to-four markets per summer. Their proceeds go back into the club, funding additional educational opportunities.

From planting seeds to harvesting to selling, UTTC students do it all.

Long, a first-year sustainable agriculture and food systems (SAFS) student, said after the time and care put into growing the produce, she loves seeing all her hard work pay off at the farmers market.

But she didn’t start her college career with agriculture in mind. While pursuing a welding degree, Long attended a food tasting event on campus where instructors introduced her to the agriculture program. Learning about the program made her remember playing outside in the dirt and trying to grow flowers as a child. She switched degrees soon after.

“I wish I would’ve come sooner,” she said.

Whitney Lone Eagle, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, graduated from the SAFS program last year but stayed on for the summer to help the SAGE Club. She said growing produce yourself or buying local is a healthier alternative to buying mass-produced food pumped with growth hormones or sprayed with chemical pesticides.

It’s also a way to connect to her ancestors.

“There are farmers in my family, but they’re, I wanna say, like four generations ago,” she said. “It was lost to my family, and I’m kinda bringing it back and showing my nieces, my nephews, my kids as well, that you can live off the land.”

Scott Grandi-Hill, a UTTC agroecology extension educator, encouraged the SAGE Club to sell their produce at the BisMarket in 2021. He said it’s important for students to learn not only about how to grow food but also how to use that food to make a living.

“What do you charge for a cucumber?” are some of the questions Grandi-Hill asks his students, he said. “If someone comes up and says, ‘What is this?’ You have to be able to explain what it is. How do you eat it? What do you do with it?”

The farmers market is a tool for students to learn and for them to teach the community about food sovereignty, or as Grandi-Hill described it, “being in control of what you choose to put in your body.”

Tribal communities administer programs such as Food Distribution Programs on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to improve their access to affordable healthy foods, but food insecurity among tribes, especially rural ones, is a problem.

Grandi-Hill said SAGE Clubs students who are learning how to grow their own healthy food can use that knowledge to promote food sovereignty in their communities.

Long said she plans to use her knowledge to educate others in her community.

“Learning how to live off the land and eat what we grow,” she said, “I want to be able to teach my kids that too.”