Paper short abstract:

The process of settler colonialism in the Midwestern U.S. separated Native people from their agricultural ways. Gish Hill details this history, noting how these same settlers depended on Native growers for seeds bred to thrive in northern climates and land kept fertile through Indigenous practices.

Paper long abstract:

The historical political processes of settler colonialism in the Midwestern U.S., including land theft, forced removal, establishment of reservations, and forced assimilation, separated Native people from their traditional agricultural practices. Gish Hill details this history, noting how the separation from land and resources through removal, treaty boundaries, and finally reservation, prohibited Native peoples from farming in their traditional patterns. As Native growers struggled to hold on to these practices and continue to grow their traditional seeds, they faced a new threat--forced assimilation. Government agents provided Native people who farmed using Euro-American techniques with more resources. They encouraged men to farm, and as a result, separated women from their traditional agricultural knowledge. Furthermore, with the creation of boarding schools, children were separated from their families. This prevented children from taking the opportunity to learn traditional agricultural practices, as well as to learn traditional knowledge that is passed through the generations as part of growing practices. In these schools, Native children were instead taught Euro-American farming practices. This paper ends by detailing the irony of these efforts to disrupt Native agriculture. Through the appropriation of seeds bred by Native growers to thrive in northern climates and land kept fertile through Indigenous practices, these settlers came to profit off of Native knowledge and labor through their newly established farms.