Indigenous ingenuity for modern survival

Kotutwa Johnson Michael ENR2-lhk_04.jpg

— Tucson, AZ —

Modern agriculture needs Indigenous wisdom, says Michael Kotutwa Johnson, Ph.D., assistant specialist at the University of Arizona School of Natural Resources & the Environment.

1. Do more with less.
Pare down the inputs required for our agricultural practices and modify our dietary habits to address inequality and natural resource scarcity. Learn from generations that, for example, have raised their crops without manmade irrigation in landscapes receiving only six to ten inches of rain per year (i.e., Hopi tribes).

2. Adapt to the land.
Ask how we can adapt our practices to fit our places. “We force the land to adapt to us instead of adapting to the land,” says Kotutwa Johnson, “and the land has suffered.”

3. Restore the narrative.
Change our definitions of innovation and ownership. “Tribes in the Southwest have been domesticating crops for thousands of years,” says Kotutwa Johnson, “but it’s corporations that profit. They steal, manipulate, and patent genetic material from those seeds. Indigenous communities need to be recognized and benefit along with everyone else.”

4. Challenge the paradigm
De-emphasize resource-intensive farming practices, survival seed vaults, and land and seed manipulation. Instead, focus on increasing crop and genetic biodiversity. “Seeds are like our children. They need to grow alongside us, getting the nurture they need to keep up with the changing environment.”

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: IndigiSEED

Kotutwa Johnson is growing indigenous seeds at three locations: on UArizona land in Tucson, at Arcosanti in Yavapai County, and on his relatives’ clan land on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. These three different soils, elevations and temperatures enable him to test how these environmental factors affect the crops’ nutritional density. His aim is to help Indigenous communities determine whether they will continue to grow these crops.

Kotutwa Johnson inherited this photograph of his grandparents, father, and aunts at their farm on the Hopi reservation land circa 1950. The same farm is one of the three environments Kotutwa Johnson is studying for receiptivity to native seeds.

RESEARCH FUNDING

• “Arizona Partnership for Climate Smart Food”, funded at $4.7M by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. MKJ is a co- principal investigator.
• “Climate Resilience Through Indigenous Co-Design at the Food, Energy and Water Nexus”, funded at $2M by the Waverly Street Foundation. MKJ is a co-principal investigator.
• “Revitalization of American Indian Food Systems: Enhancing Indigenous Climate-Smart Seed Biodiversity, Native Food Ways Preservation, and Indigenous Data Governance,” fund-ed at $500,000 by the Rockefeller Foundation. MKJ is the principal investigator.
• “The Revitalization of Indigenous Crops in the Southwest”, funded at $450,000 by The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. MKJ is the principal investigator.

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