Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Gardening, Greenhouse and Composting Project
- Location: Sioux Valley Dakota Nation
- Project Partners: Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation
- Website: http://www.svdngovernance.com/
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Project Description
As part of the Indigenous Waste Management Capacity Building and Collaboration Phase II initiative, the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) formed a partnership with Sioux Valley Dakota Nation (SVDN) to introduce SVDN to sustainable practices and environmental stewardship through innovative waste management or recycling/upcycling projects that yield social and economic benefits. CIER, in partnership with SVDN, identified community gardening, composting, and building a greenhouse as the methods to provide sustainable waste management, social and economical benefits. The project was implemented through hiring a project coordinator, a gardener, and a youth coordinator. The team met with a group of Elders to help guide the direction of activities. There was an immense amount of participation in the gardening project by members of the community. Community members helped along the way with finding land to hold the gardens, preparing the land and tilling the ground, planting and caring for the plants, and harvesting. This project could not have been successful without them. |
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Project Results
- reduce and reuse waste by encouraging and teaching sustainable practices with the composting, greenhouse, and community garden programs
- include the Dakota culture and principles in all activities pertaining to the community gardens, greenhouse, and composting programs
- provide places that were accessible to community members, including young children, youth, and Elders, where relationships and teamwork could be fostered
- land located
- garden tilled
- twelve raised garden beds built
- prepared a space for a medicine garden
- purchased commercial, Indigenous, and medicinal plant seeds and seedlings
- tended to the gardens
- harvested and distributed food
- hosted a community workshop to teach food preservation methods
- educated community members on composting through a community workshop
- purchased and distributed composting 70 household compost bins
- built compost bins
- designated a space for community members to drop off compost
- designated and prepared a space for a greenhouse
- purchased two poly greenhouses
- constructed greenhouse shells
- installed a water tank and plumbing
- created and distributed a Dakota gardening and harvesting guide
- completed an action plan report which both summarizes the project and provides next steps
Resources
| svdn_backyard_composting_presentation.pdf |
| svdn_harvesting___planting_guide.pdf |
| svdn_action_plan.pdf |