Gardening programs supported by Running Strong for American Indian Youth® are ramping up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and elsewhere in Indian Country with the arrival of spring and the last frost of the season on the reservation.
Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Program
The Slim Buttes Agricultural Development (SBAG) program, founded 40 years ago this year, headed up by longtime executive director Tom Kanatakeniate Cook and field director Milo Yellow Hair are working in anticipation of once again distributing seedlings, tilling gardens, refurbishing raised beds, building planter boxes and educating the community on food preservation and healthy eating.
Year after year, SBAG trains dozens of individuals of various ages in gardening techniques (62 in 2023) and helping families establish their own backyard gardens (85 in 2023), benefiting hundreds of individuals.
Additionally, SBAG has been creating compost piles and teaching gardeners how to build, maintain, and use compost effectively, ensuring long-term soil health and sustainability.
For this growing season, Tom and Milo are working to benefit even more Pine Ridge children, adults and elders by increasing seedling distribution and soil enrichment efforts, adding new educational workshops on composting and traditional farming, strengthening community-based food programs and expanding its greenhouse operations for year-round food production on the reservation located on the Great Plains of South Dakota.
Medicine Root Gardening Program
Also on the Pine Ridge reservation, the Medicine Root Gardening Program began its 12-week training program in February serving more than 50 budding gardeners to ultimately grow their own vegetables and fruits through both in the classroom and through hands-on instruction once it’s warmed up enough to start planting.
In 2024, alone Medicine Root gardeners harvested more than 50,000 pounds of produce and to help ensure none goes to waste starting in July the program offered food preservation classes so families can access the healthy food they’ve grown long into the months of winter and following spring.
Rose Fraser, director of the Oyate Teca Project which oversees the Medicine Root Gardening Program, reported this month that they will soon be offering cooking classes for children in grades third to eighth grade which will continue throughout the summer.
“As our garden starts to produce vegetables, we will use those to show the kids how to cook them,” said Rose.
Another development is that the Medicine Root Garden crew is transforming an old building into a grow house for all its starter plants, although there are several upgrades that are needed.
“The maintenance crew built a large seedling table to make the loading and packing of the cells go a little fast,” she told us. “The guys can fill, plant and water a tray in about five minutes.”
And already this season, Rose said “we have planted approximately 6,524 seedlings,” adding that she would like to increase production of seedlings for the nursery.
And to the supporters of Running Strong for American Indian Youth® who are making all this happen, Rose says, “Thank you again for everything you all do to help us make our program grow.”
Dreamstarter Projects Support Food Sovereignty
In addition, two of our 2025 Dreamstarters are focusing on gardening-related projects.
Gabrielle Pike, an active community member of the Ute Indian Tribe, has a dream, “Nah-Nây; To Grow,” to establish a traditional medicines garden on the Uintah & Ouray Reservation is located in northeastern Utah as pollution from the state’s largest oil field has decimated traditional plants and medicines on the reservation. She also says she will be providing traditional medicines for community members facing imbalance.
And Karli Moore will be conducting gardening symposiums on the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina food ways and consulting with elders on how to grow traditional foods. Through the “Lumbee Food Collective” Karli’s project will help restore Lumbee farming heritage and its rich culinary contributions.
