Reviving the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation with permaculture and sustainable design

Reviving the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation with permaculture and sustainable design

June 16, 2010

From: Marcie, Victoria

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2010/06/16/reviving-the-pine-ridge-lakota-reservation-with-permaculture-and-sustainable-design/



Apprentices and volunteers are needed for a sustainability project at Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in South Dakota this summer. The Oglala-Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative and Permaculture Guild (from Tampa Bay) are engaged in a series of projects to create resiliency and self-sufficiency on the reservation, using permaculture design (a sustainable design science) and indigenous tradition . This is an opportunity to learn specific sustainable skills like gardening, food forestry, wind power, straw bale building, alternative economics, and ecosystem regeneration.

Currently, Pine Ridge is one of the most economically depressed areas of the country. The statistics are truly depressing.

But OLCERI brings do-it-yourself hope and change. Located on an 8,000 acre cattle ranch made up of tribal lands in the heart of the reservation, the project is engaged in creating a totally self-sufficient, sustainable demonstration site and sustainability school that can continue to educate tribal members and others onpractical sustainable living techniques.

Volunteers will live in tipis or tents and will interact with reservation life and life with an extended family tribe (tiospaye) on the ranch.

We're looking for apprentices/volunteers for several major projects ongoing at the site.:

Range management/ecological rehabilitation to help create broad scale water catchment systems and holistic range management techniques to bring back the fertile and stable prairie systems the Lakota enjoyed 150 years ago. These systems capture as much carbon as mature forests.

Straw bale building to help build a classroom/workshop on the ranch that will allow us to expand our educational programs

Food forests and kitchen gardens to help create natural windbreaks, gardens, greenhouses for abundant food supply

Microlending/cooperative beginning farm and ranch program to help achieve economic stability and independence through ethical, sustainable livelihoods.

Water catchment, greywater, wind power, high efficiency stoves, and much more.

Why go to Pine Ridge to learn these techniques? Because of its unique cultural environment and because your help will make a huge difference in an area that really needs it. But if you choose to remain in Tampa Bay, there are many opportunities to learn more about permaculture techniques as well, via meetings, events, field trips, and projects. Check out the Permaculture Site meetup (meetup.com/naturalbuilding-38), createclearwater.com, and our Urban Permaculture Design Course and apprenticeships that will be delivered this fall/winter.

Contact cory@permacultureguild.us for more info on how you can help or go to permacultureguild.us for full description.

Image via nativeprogress.org


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