In 2017, Rowen White, Seed Savers Exchange board chair and founder of the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN), approached Seed Savers Exchange to participate in the ISKN Seed Rematriation program, an initiative of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Seed rematriation addresses the desire for Indigenous communities to actively reclaim their ancestral seeds and traditions. Seed Savers Exchange supports Indigenous communities by rematriating seeds in the collection to their cultures of origin, with which they can practice sustainable, sovereign, environmentally and socially responsible agriculture. In 2020, the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research Education program funded through USDA-NIFA awarded a grant to Seed Savers Exchange to collaborate with three Indigenous farmers -- Jessika Greendeer (Dream of Wild Health), Rebecca Webster (Oneida Nation), and Shelley Buffalo (Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Initiative) -- to rematriate seeds for their communities to grow and share.
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2019-38640-29879 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number ONC20-071. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.