To begin with, this summer has kicked off with planting our sacred Ponca corn. This included: red corn, blue corn, and sweet corn! The Ponca Tribe Agriculture Department was part of the cowboy and Indian alliance. This alliance was made to ensure the community and the land to be saved from the Keystone pipeline. Farmers from across Nebraska joined together and strive to keep the Nebraska aquifer clean. The Ponca Tribe has selected Amos Hinton to be keeper of our sacred Ponca corn. Amos is our director of the Ponca Tribe Agriculture Department. Amos did research of our sacred corn. Amos first began the Agriculture department several years back, and one of the main goals Amos had was to find out what happened to our sacred corn when the Ponca’s were removed from the homelands in Nebraska and relocated to Indian territory in Oklahoma, back in the late 1880’s. Amos discovered our corn was left behind, as my people took the journey to Oklahoma, and leaving behind their corn to find a hotter climate. The Ponca people had no choice but to leave, as ordered by the United States government. Amos found a man who returned our corn. During this past month we travelled to our old homelands located in Nebraska. We joined the alliance, and one particular farmer named Art donated four acres for the Ponca Tribe Agriculture to plant our sacred corn, with a corn ceremony and water ceremony. We conducted our sacred ceremonies and replanted our corn, and revived a tradition lost so many years back, and we got support from many Nations across the way. Northern Ponca’s sent tobacco, Ojibwa’s sent over tobacco, Omaha’s sent over tobacco, and the land was blessed, the corn was blessed, the people were blessed, and the water was blessed, and many prayers were done for a good harvest. Now that we conducted an old ceremony and revived our corn ceremony, we hope our religious ways keep the pipeline from going through our sacred corn. In addition, I will be returning to Nebraska in the fall to harvest our sacred corn. I will also be working with honey bees. Next week I will be getting my bee suit and training. Last week we worked with the children of the community by setting up our petting zoo, and we did a fundraiser selling corn soup and bread. In conclusion, this summer will be nothing but fun. My fun is planting, weeding, learning, training, and harvesting.
