The Connection Between Seeds, Identity, and Resiliency
Sustaining Hopi Culture Through Seeds
Lilian was born and raised on the Hopi Indian reservation and is Pipwung'wa, or Tobacco clan. A farmer, mother, and seed steward, she lives in northeastern Arizona in Kykotsmovi Village along with her husband and four children.
“In the Hopi culture creation stories,” Lilian explained, “Hopi people were gifted a bag of seeds, a gourd of water, and a planting stick by our spiritual relatives.” One of Lilian’s earliest distinct memories is placing her hands in a basket of seeds, sifting through them, and feeling how smooth and abundant they were. “Caring for, planting, harvesting, and sharing seeds reminds us of who we are as Hopi people,” Lilian added.
For the Hopi, seeds – particularly corn – are their Mother. “To see Corn as our Mother means to recognize her ability to care for us and love us and teach us to reciprocate that,” Lilian said. The responsibility of caring for seeds is the women’s role in Hopi culture. Both men and women farm and plant seeds, but their stewardship is appointed to women. Through the careful selecting, storing, planting, and harvesting of seeds, Lilian is bound in a reciprocal relationship with seeds. The Hopi people sustain the corn seeds, and the corn seeds sustain Hopi culture.
Seeds also serve as teachers for the Hopi, although as Lilian described, it comes in a more “subtle, spiritual” way. “Seeds carry memory. They carry the DNA and the teachings of our ancestors and all of the experiences that the seeds went through during their lives,” Lilian said. “As seeds begin to grow in the world within soil and minerals and absorb the atmospheric nitrogen, the plant then needs humans to nurture them and help them thrive. The care that is given to them during this process transfers to the seeds and those who consume them also become part of that experience.”
Seeds are recordkeepers of a plant-human relationship, according to Hopi tradition. “We have the ability to be influenced and inspired by what is carried in seeds,” she shared. Seeds are bundles of cultural memory and wise teachers of sacred life cycles.
Seed Sovereignty is Food Sovereignty
Lilian’s intimate relationship with seeds has led her to advocate for Indigenous self-determination and food sovereignty for more than 20 years. In 2004, Lilian founded the Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute, a community organization dedicated to revitalizing Hopi culture and traditions through engagement with the Hopi community and youth. She is also a recipient of the Castanea Fellowship, a program that supports food systems leaders working to create a racially just food system.
“In order to have true food sovereignty, you must have seed sovereignty,” Lilian explained. “Having access to ancestral seeds and being able to practice the responsibility to take care and maintain seeds ultimately determines what our food system looks like. This is why I am engaged in policies to protect seeds and to be able to use them in accordance with our cultural values and protocols.”
Consolidation of seeds under few, large companies threaten the diversity of availability of seeds sources. In 2020, the top four corporations, Bayer (formerly Monsanto), Corteva (formerly DuPont), Syngenta (part of ChemChina), and Limagrain controlled 50% of the global seed market.
In order for meaningful change and reconciliation to occur, Lilian emphasized the need for a shift in power structures and the need for people to indigenize their thinking. “It is hard to live in a world that is predominately operating from a place of control and commodifying life. It is hard to exist as an Indigenous person in a capitalist world. Ultimately, there has to be a shared sense of power—the power dynamics need to shift, and that doesn’t always happen.”
As Indigenous communities across the United States work to revitalize their traditional food systems, there is a critical need for the restoration of their traditional seeds. In many communities, the supply of ancestral seeds has been reduced to handfuls or small containers of seeds that have been carefully selected over thousands of years as regionally adapted and culturally relevant foods. While working with the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA) and Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, Lilian collaborated with Mohawk and Acoma Seedkeepers, Rowen White, and Aaron Lowden to host Indigenous Seed Sovereignty Assessment Trainings, traveling to different tribal communities to learn more about seed resilience in Indigenous communities.
Creating a Resilient Food Web
In addition to strengthening Indigenous seed-sovereignty, Lilian stresses the need to rebuild Indigenous food and seed trade routes. “The majority of food is coming from outside our communities,” she said. “We need to map out our seed and food webs in order to build long term resilience and use our land and water in a wise way. In precolonial times, we partnered with relatives beyond our own families, clans, and tribal communities and this formed collective food and seed sovereignty. We must restore these traditional food routes to create a resilient web of seed sovereignty.”
As a seed steward, Lilian has been working to re-establish regional seed systems and Indigenous trade routes. While serving as Executive Director of NAFSA, Lilian supported the program Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN) whose mission is to nourish and help expand the Seed Sovereignty Movement across Turtle Island (North America). In addition to engaging with Indigenous farmers and seed keepers, Lilian also provided advocacy support on seed policy issues, such as guiding tribal communities on protecting their seeds from patenting and bio-piracy.
Planting Hope for Future Generations
Seed work is a powerful form of healing intergenerational historical trauma. As more Indigenous people restore their relationship to seeds, Lilian believes it can become part of the medicine to heal. Within her work, Lilian stresses the importance of holding space for the youth that she sees wanting to reconnect with themselves, their ancestry, and their land. “Within my processes of building my home or planting seeds, I always engage young people – whether that is in my own home, in my fields, or in community spaces. Creating opportunities for young people to be engaged and inspired is important and a lifelong commitment.”
Despite the many challenges she faces in her work, Lilian said she can’t give up because she is a mother, and hopefully one day a grandmother. As she sees the Earth going through changes, she returns to Hopi prophecies that explain how the Earth needs to go through a cleansing and purification process and not to fear this. Rather, accept and welcome that part of purification as it builds resilience and helps the next generation.
Ultimately, she hopes that seeds will help future generations remember their connections to themselves, their communities of origin, and their source of Indigenous resiliency.