Native American Outreach Program

The Native American Outreach Program was established in 2005 to help increase network initiatives with farmers, gardeners, nations/tribes and organizations. The program promotes the use of traditional heirloom crop seeds and supports the rich indigenous biological diversity of the culture.

Outreach Projects
Alex Sando, Native American Outreach Program Coordinator, is a member of the Jemez Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. Jemez Pueblo is one of nineteen pueblos that have served as stewards of the seed through centuries-old preservation and farming. Sando is responsible for coordinating outreach projects for Native Seeds/SEARCH and travels to indigenous communities throughout the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. He provides presentations about NS/S programs and its mission, as well as information about traditional agriculture and seed saving. Sando actively engages interested individuals of all ages at workshops and community events, and often meets with tribal leaders, agricultural program directors, senior citizen groups and educational entities.

Examples of Farming and Seed Gathering
Dry farming has been traditionally practiced for centuries where growing of crops is depended upon snow and the precious rain. The Hopi are best known for their skill in this style of farming. To a lesser extent, it also continues among the Pueblos of Acoma, Zia and Zuni, as well as in some areas of the Dine’ (Navajo) Nation and the Tohono O’Odham Nation. Southern Arizona dry farmers rely primarily on the rain, while Acoma, Zia, Zuni and Dine have the advantage of possessing some irrigable farm land. Their waters are diverted from creeks or lakes.

Wild plants are collected either as a food source, for ceremony or as medicine. Each harvest season, Tohono O’Odham families collect fruit from the Saguaro cactus. Families have selected sites where they harvest up to a week collecting the cacti fruit that is used for syrup and other delicious recipes and medicine. The fruit is generally collected early each morning during the season before the birds eat them all.

Seed Policy for Native American Peoples
Native Seeds/SEARCH offers free membership and free seed, in limited quantities, to Native peoples living in the Greater Southwest region. Members of tribal nations within the Southwest Region do not have to be NS/S members to receive free seeds. Our free seed policy allows an individual to get up to 30 regular-price packets. Henceforth, additional seeds can be purchased at half price for $1.50 per packet. Group exceptions may be considered. Native Americans living outside of the greater Southwest region can purchase seeds at half price on up to 30 regular price packets. Additional packets can be purchased at regular price.
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Cultural Memory Bank

The Cultural Memory Bank was designed to combine cultural information regarding how to plant, care for, and utilize traditional crops with basic collections information – species, common name, collection location – in order to better inform the management process of these precious resources.

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Sierra Madre

The Sierre Madre project has been on-going since 1994 and is a community-based effort to build local capacity among Tarahumara communities by utilizing traditional knowledge and skills to preserve the unique biological and cultural divesity found in this region in an environmentally and economically sustainable way.

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