Events

Karena Schmidt, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community ecologist, will lead a guided tour of the tribe's Debweyendan Indigenous Garden (DIG) in L'Anse. This will be a great opportunity to learn about incorporating natives into a landscape that supports plants, people, and the planet. These expansive gardens were developed to help promote food sovereignty: growing and harvesting vegetables and other plants in ways that support healthy living and reverence for the earth. Initially, the five-acre DIG included 20 11-by-30-foot plots cultivated by community members; that number has since grown to 47. Among the vegetables grown are the three sisters�"corn, beans, and squash. The garden also features sunflowers, potatoes, sweetgrass, sacred sage, milkweed, and sacred tobacco (asema). DIG also includes 120 fruit trees such as elderberries, nannyberries, and aronia (chokeberries), plus cane fruits like raspberries and blackberries. A wildlife hedgerow provides habitat for pollinating insects, birds, and wildlife. While DIG provides fresh, healthy food, that's only part of its role in the community. "The whole garden is about deepening our kinship with plants and returning respect to the earth," said Schmidt. For more information on Debweyendan Indigenous Garden, see this story map, "Debweyendan." More information on carpooling and directions to the site will be available later.