View Research Topics | View Complete Article List | Visit the Library
The Happy Gardeners
2007-11-04
Story & photo by Dawn Charging
In the fall of 1997, a young group of Fort Berthold Reservation 4-H members formed a garden club and applied for a National Youth Garden Grant. When they were awarded the grant to purchase tools, seed, fertilizer and other educational materials, their adult leader, Polly Cummings Case, asked the group, ages 6 to 14, Indian and non-Indian, what they would like to call themselves. They quickly choose the name “The Happy Gardeners.”
The first garden was a success and has continued to grow with each new season. The Happy Gardeners research, develop, nurture and harvest vegetables and produce to eat and sell at their annual Farmers’ Market.
The Happy Gardeners have sowed a variety of seeds – historically old seeds to new experimental crops. The youth especially enjoy raising traditional vegetables that once sustained life to some of their ancestors, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Tribes, known today as the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
Visit Three Affiliated Tribes at: http://www.threetribes.com
