{"id":28812,"date":"2019-04-01T09:23:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T13:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=28812"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:10:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:10:50","slug":"horticulture-history-and-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=28812","title":{"rendered":"Horticulture, History, and Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In starting a community garden, the Coharie tribe reclaim their autonomy in agriculture, transforming it into a place for healing and community. UNC senior Sierra Dunne\u00a0records their story, learning about the deep-rooted connections among soil, sorghum syrup, and boundless generosity in the process.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Coharie
Coharie tribe members and local volunteers plant cabbage, broccoli, and kale in the tribe’s six-acre community garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every fall, after stripping the sorghum stalks of their leaves and chopping them down, the Coharie tribe gathers to make syrup. They squeeze the corn-like plants and let the fluid cook for more than five hours, separating out the chlorophyll to leave behind a sweet-smelling caramel-colored liquid. \u201cWhen it gets to the right temperature and consistency, you take the fire away from it and you have a golden brown, beautiful syrup or molasses,\u201d says Greg Jacobs, tribal administrator of the Coharie tribe in Sampson County, North Carolina. \u201cIt goes really good with a biscuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a state steeped with food and agriculture, the Coharie tribe\u2019s sorghum tradition is one of many that makes up North Carolina\u2019 rich history and culture \u2014 but their story is rarely told. UNC senior Sierra Dunne wants to help change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of documentaries and writing on sorghum and its history in America already,\u201d Dunne says. \u201cBut most of it comes from a white perspective, so there\u2019s not really any Native voices included in this story.\u201d An American studies major, Dunne feels that the traditional narrative about the South often excludes Native history and influence. \u201cNative people were here for 12,000 years before white people settled here. From white settlement on is usually the only history we get,\u201d Dunne argues. \u201cEven from that point in time onward, modern Native history is kind of erased. To have a holistic understanding of the South you need to hear everyone\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help expand knowledge about the Coharie tribe and Native traditions in North Carolina, Dunne filmed a documentary focusing on the garden where the tribe comes together to grow the food feeding their community, nourishing both their physical and spiritual health.<\/p>\n

Sorghum\u2019s strength<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dunne first met members of the Coharie tribe while on last year\u2019s\u00a0Food for All<\/a>\u00a0service-learning spring break trip<\/a>, which helped students explore North Carolina\u2019s diverse food systems from the coast to the mountains. They stopped in rural Sampson County, one of the most prominent agricultural counties in the state, where they spent an afternoon helping the tribe prepare potatoes for planting. Jacobs introduced Dunne \u2014 her video camera in hand \u2014 to those gathered there.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe asked permission to have a conversation with some of our elders and other community members who were sitting around cutting the potatoes,\u201d Jacobs says. \u201cOf course, they enjoyed sharing their talents and the information that they had gathered over the years.\u201d Dunne had just received a\u00a0Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship<\/a>\u00a0to study women in agriculture, but after her visit, she decided to completely change the course of her research.<\/p>\n

\"Sierra
Sierra Dunne films community members working in the Coharie tribe garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few weeks later, Dunne reached out to Jacobs and asked to come back and make a documentary with the tribe. Through the film, she strives to show North Carolinians the lessons the Coharie can teach, from caring for nature to caring for neighbors. \u201cIt\u2019s important for people to learn about different cultures, especially the ones in the state that they grew up or reside in,\u201d Dunne says. She hopes her project will not only do this, but, on a larger scale, help people understand the diversity and richness of the South.<\/p>\n

Dunne was especially interested in filming the community garden. It began a few years ago through the\u00a0Healthy Native North Carolinians Network<\/a>, an initiative connecting tribes, the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, and the\u00a0American Indian Center at UNC<\/u>. Beginning as a small garden behind the tribal community center, it has expanded to include a larger space down the road that grows an abundance of squash, turnips, collards, okra, butter beans, peas, cantaloupes, watermelons, and, of course, sorghum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few years we\u2019ve been fortunate to produce enough that people can come and get it free of charge,\u201d Jacobs says. \u201cSo it gives families that would struggle if they weren\u2019t here some security and eases their financial strain.\u201d Tribal members can pick up the produce at the center, and there\u2019s also a distribution network in place to help those without the means or capability to travel.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>We all join together to harvest, we take what we need, and we make sure that the needy and the underprivileged get what they need,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When Dunne visited the tribe again, she made it clear that she wanted to learn as much as she could while giving back in the process. Everything she films comes with the tribe\u2019s permission, and the footage will go to the tribe for its own use. \u201cI want to learn about the sorghum and how it ties into the greater agricultural history of both the Coharie and Sampson County,\u201d Dunne says. \u201cIn return, they want me to document oral history and get stories from elders of the tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"community
Garden volunteers have already planted thousands of crops this year including broccoli, corn, peas, mustard, spinach, beets, and onions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of those stories tell of hardship and oppression. Within the last century, the Coharie\u2019s opportunities were, traditionally, restricted to agriculture, subsisting off Sampson County\u2019s sandy soil while working 10- to 12-hour days on tobacco farms and in hog slaughterhouses. \u201cThere was very little money to spend, so they depended on the soil to give them everything that they needed,\u201d Jacobs says. That soil gave them sorghum, a sweat treat.<\/p>\n

As times changed and opportunities for the tribe expanded, the Coharie have gotten the chance to step back and redefine their relationship with growing food, reclaiming the practice as a method of healing and togetherness. \u201cSince we\u2019re not dependent on it and we\u2019re not forced to it, we see that it\u2019s a beautiful way of life,\u201d Jacobs says. \u201cSo a labor of mandatory necessity in the past has become a labor of love now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sorghum harvest especially strengthens community and intergenerational connection. \u201cThe sorghum seems to have a spirit of its own, a spirit of yesteryear,\u201d Jacobs says. \u201cIt makes people happy, so us to be planting sorghum each year here is another opportunity for all of the generations to get together, be happy, tell stories, and produce an end product that we enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The garden also represents a take-back of control over nutrition and food access issues in an area surrounded by farms but few affordable sources of produce. American Indians are\u00a030 percent more likely<\/a>\u00a0to be obese than white populations, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. \u201cIt is definitely a form of empowerment,\u201d Dunne says. \u201cThey want their community to survive and be healthy. They\u2019re taking this into their own hands to make sure that gets done by providing fresh food.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But, as is the case with all gardening and farming, success depends on forces beyond their control.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Greg
Coharie Tribal Administrator Greg Jacobs jokes with fellow volunteers while planting crops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nature’s power<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Hurricane Florence made landfall in September, it hit Sampson County hard \u2014 and uncovered another vital piece of the Coharie\u2019s story for Dunne. \u201cIn Sampson County and Robeson County, where the Lumbee tribe is, they are in low flood plains. That is not accidental,\u201d she says. \u201cThey were pushed to these areas that other people did not want to live in because they knew it wasn\u2019t safe, so you see, this environmental racism from the past still affects people today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hurricane knocked the power out in tribal homes for several days, putting a strain on its more vulnerable members. Many houses were damaged including a handful that suffered from major flooding.<\/p>\n

The hurricane also destroyed the majority of the sorghum crop, which was only a few weeks away from harvesting. One of the two varieties planted made it through wind and water, though, leaving enough to make syrup. Dunne helped the tribe with the harvest and, in between cutting down stalks with a machete, filmed its members doing the same.<\/p>\n

Future sorghum crops may not fare as well, though. Like much of eastern North Carolina, the low-lying homes where the Coharie live will be subject to more frequent, powerful storms and rising floodwaters due to the changing climate. This combination of factors makes life, let alone agriculture, a little more uncertain.<\/p>\n

The Coharie tribe has already taken action to save their land. In addition to the community garden, the tribe has also started an initiative to clean and\u00a0restore the Coharie River<\/a>, which became clogged with debris in the 1990s, when major hurricanes like Emily, Fran, and Floyd turned it into more of a stagnant swamp than running river. So far, they\u2019ve cleared out 15 miles and plan on another 30 with the support of the American Indian Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs citizens and people of the Coharie River, we\u2019ve taken it on as our responsibility to help our river to be life sustaining again,\u201d Jacobs asserts. \u201cNot only that, just as the sorghum and our community garden is medicine, we realize that that river and the spirit in that river is also medicine.\u201d In addition to reconnecting the Coharie with a treasured part of life, Jacobs believes the initiative helped minimize the flooding from Hurricane Florence by giving the water a place to flow.<\/p>\n

Jacobs appreciates the support for the river initiative as wells as Dunne\u2019s interest in documenting the tribe, which are just a few examples of the resources it has received from UNC over the years. \u201cI would like to hold up the American Indian Center, UNC-Chapel Hill, and it\u2019s community engagement activities that have helped us so much to increase our capacity to help ourselves,\u201d Jacobs says. \u201cI\u2019m just amazed that the day has come where there\u2019s such collaboration and such intermingling with rural North Carolina and with our educational facilities across the states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Generosity\u2019s influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every time Dunne visits Sampson County, Jacobs takes her around the community to help her learn about the tribe\u2019s history, conduct interviews, and, most importantly, get to know its people. \u201cIn the Coharie tribe, home is not just your house or your family,\u201d Dunne says. \u201cHome is everyone in this community. You can go to any person and any house and they will take you in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her time spent with the close-knit tribe, she\u2019s seen countless acts of care and generosity. She recalls one occasion when she was in the sorghum garden with Chris Faircloth, the master gardener, and a woman stopped by to explain how she\u2019d been waiting for someone to come mow her lawn. Faircloth immediately volunteered to do it himself. \u201cEveryone looks out for each other in a way that\u2019s just incredible,\u201d Dunne says.<\/p>\n

Generosity extends to those outside the tribe as well. \u201cWhenever I go, I always come back with a trunk full of food,\u201d Dunne says. \u201cThey\u2019re the most generous people I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the South becomes more inclusive of its inherent diversity, the Coharie community garden represents a place of cultural identity and recognition where both members and non-members of the tribe can learn and interact with its traditions. \u201cWe need to figure out ways for food justice initiatives to incorporate more than just people harvesting food in a garden \u2014 it\u2019s about bringing this sense of belonging, compassion, and cultural celebration to something that modern-day agriculture has lost,\u201d Dunne says.<\/p>\n

Whether harvesting sorghum in the garden or sharing meals with members of the tribe, she learned an important aspect of research that isn\u2019t always captured in data and journal articles: building genuine relationships and trust. \u201cIt\u2019s not just getting what I think is necessary and then leaving,\u201d Dunne says. \u201clf they ask you to stay, you stay and you eat with them. It really doesn\u2019t feel like research. It\u2019s more getting to know a group of people in a way that I can share their story.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did she learn from this story? \u201cFood justice is not just about how many we can feed,\u201d Dunne reveals. \u201cIt\u2019s about interpersonal communication and understanding. In my interactions with anyone I meet while doing this research, it\u2019s clear it\u2019s a nourishment of body, mind, and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Sierra Dunne is a senior majoring in American studies and communications with a minor in social and economic justice within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Last summer she completed a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, provided by the Office of Undergraduate Research.<\/em><\/p>\n

Greg Jacobs is the Coharie tribal administrator.<\/em><\/p>\n

By India Mackinson<\/a>, Endeavors\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In starting a community garden, the Coharie tribe reclaim their autonomy in agriculture, transforming it into a place for healing and community. UNC senior Sierra Dunne records their story, learning about the deep-rooted connections among soil, sorghum syrup, and boundless generosity in the 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