Wisdom Gardens is the most cost effective of five projects completed in 2012.
A $1,490 grant from the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District funded purchase of local Native species for
our ethnobotanical and
berry plantings. We tested, prepared, and supplemented the soil
with good nutrients
from Concentrates. We then grew several Three Sisters gardens using heirloom seedlings of blue and red corn, beans, and squash.
Special thanks go to Portland Nursery and Peggy Acott who provided
heirloom vegetable seeds
so we could nurture hundreds of starts for our Native American community.
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Dear Friends and Relatives,
Wisdom formed Wisdom Gardens at Kelly Butte House last spring
to provide gardening education and plots for Portland’s lowest income, our Native American community. Many are not aware that Portland has the ninth largest Native American population in the U.S., with 380 tribes and 40,783 people. According to “An Unsettling Profile,” Native families are among our community’s most vulnerable; vastly over-represented among those with inadequate incomes. Portland’s 2011 poverty rate for Native Americans is 34.4%—the highest of all groups—and triple the 11.7% rate of the white population. (See: The Native American Community in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile, Coalition of Communities of Color and Portland State University, 2011.)
We are developing Wisdom Gardens to provide our community with the opportunity to learn gardening and we plan to share our space with 8 or more Native families from SE Portland this next spring at our 1/3 acre space at Kelly Butte House, and at the organic garden plot at Earl Boyles Garden provided by Portland Parks and Recreation.
I’d especially like to acknowledge our Wisdom Gardens Advisory Council who devoted the spring and summer months assisting us with planning, gardening, and celebrating too!
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Dozens of volunteers during nine work parties included three of Judy Bluehorse Skelton’s PSU Indigenous Gardens and Food Justice Capstone class, a Peace Education service learning group, and PSU’s Anthropology Student Association. Eight members with the National Community Conservation Corps (AmeriCorps) spent 100 hours each over 2 weeks turning our compacted clay into rich loamy soil, putting in five raised organic vegetable beds, making a trench to divert the water runoff from Kelly Butte Natural Area, and installing a wheelchair accessible entry, and pathway through the new garden.
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Joe Tree helps us move the Cedar tree to Wisdom Gardens.
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Family fun at the Wisdom of the Elderberry Syrup Harvest Celebration.
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Wisdom held several open houses and ended the growing season with two harvest events, including our annual Wisdom of the Elderberry Syrup Harvest Celebration.
We most recently installed a talking circle area using cedar rounds turned into seats for future outdoor gatherings. The cedar tree was gifted to us by Ronan to honor her late husband Don. We’re putting a plaque to honor him and will bless it at next spring’s gathering.
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Special thanks to all of our Sustaining Friends of Wisdom. They have joined us as we fulfill our mission: Wisdom is committed to Native American cultural sustainability, multimedia education and race reconciliation, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. (Wisdom) records and preserves the oral history, cultural arts, language concepts, and traditional ecological knowledge of exemplary American Indian historians, cultural leaders and environmentalists in collaboration with arts and cultural organizations, and science and educational institutions. We especially seek to correct misconceptions, end prejudice, bring health and wellness to Native people, and demonstrate how Indian culture has and is continuing to enrich our worlds.
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Judy Bluehorse Skelton and her PSU Capstone students help prepare the soil for Wisdom’s ethnobotanical garden (April 2012). Wisdom’s offices at Kelly Butte House and Kelly Butte Natural Area are in the background.
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Rose High Bear and Gloria Lee (Native Arts and Culture Foundation) discover a Lambs Quarters (Chenopodium album L.) plant in the Three Sisters Garden.
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Feel free to call us at (503) 775-4014 and say hello, or e-mail raven@wisdomoftheelders.org.
Dogidinh ("thank you" in Deg Hit’an Dine)
Rose High Bear (Deg Hit’an Dine)
Executive Director and Executive Producer
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Portland Monthly Magazine’s 2012 "Light A Fire award for Honoring Our Elders" was presented this fall to Wisdom of the Elders as “an organization that serves and celebrates the oldest and wisest people in our community.” Click here to view the video.
The blue corn is busting out of its sheath.
We need your help in this season of sharing. Our organization, Friends of Wisdom, exists because a group of individuals stepped up to support our mission and our projects. We’re moving through a transition from a grassroots founder-driven organization into one run by a professional board. With all the time we have taken completing capacity building, we need our Friends to help drive and complete this transition.
Please join us by becoming a Friend of Wisdom with monthly or one-time contributions. We intend to raise $10,000 by December 31 to support our work and mission.
Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. (Wisdom) is a 501(c)(3) corporation, so your donation is 100% tax-deductible.
The day’s harvest, including spearmint (Mentha spicata) from Wisdom Gardens, sits in the kitchen at Kelly Butte House.
Our new greenhouse wall is being constructed at Kelly Butte House where we will grow heirloom seeding starts in the spring.
The zucchini plant has lots of squash blossoms.
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