Intro by Jessica Tinholt. Interview and transcription conducted by Jessica Tinholt.
The driveway had been repaired since our last visit, and our ascent was smooth. Perched atop a grassy knoll, Api’soomaahka’s (William Singer III) home is one of many on Kainai Nation. Rolling hills and prairie stretch out toward Chief Mountain, dappled with varying hues of green from the patches of native grass crawling over the landscape. Api’soomaahka came to greet us as blackbirds swooped overhead.
“Oki!” he said, the Blackfoot greeting meaning ‘hello’ or ‘welcome’.
Chatting with him, we climbed into his white Nissan truck outfitted with a 300 gallon water tank and pump. It was a short drive down to the first spot for our objective of the day: watering the willows. Approximately 700 shrubs had been planted on Api’soomaahka’s land a month prior, and the weeks of hot weather meant that the young plants needed some tender love and care to take root. Api’soomaahka had been watering them three times a week, and we were there to help him. It was quick work, and we were told stories of the land and its history as the willows were drenched with a garden hose. The lake next to the first planting area was teeming with life. Ducks, geese, and sandpipers were just some of the birds inhabiting the land, and they watched closely as we watered. They dipped and bobbed their heads for a meal of unsuspecting water-bugs. A herd of horses galloped in from afar for a drink, running along the fence line, and they paid no mind to the two strangers who had joined Api’soomaahka that afternoon.
After watering two more sites, all the water in the tank had been given back to the ground. The willows were happier for it. We ended in the shade of Api’soomaahka’s house at an old picnic table. Just as we sat down, Api’soomaahka came bounding down the front steps with two bags of homemade cornbread muffins full of wild saskatoon berries he had gathered from the land. With a delicious snack in hand and a breeze cooling the back of our necks, it was time for an interview.
1. How did you get started with Naapi’s Garden?
Basically, it started roughly 10 years ago, and this is due to the fact that we are losing our sweetgrass. Our community members started telling me, and I also knew because I harvest a lot of sweetgrass. When I started taking a look at different areas on the reserve and noticing a lot of the sweetgrass had disappeared and something had to be done. A lot of different ideas were developed and none of them worked. What happened was knowing we would have to learn a lot of agriculture methods that we were accustomed to and were taught, we would have to do it in a Blackfoot Ecological way. When we realized the sweetgrass was disappearing, we had to figure out something right away, so we started looking for areas where there were seeds. But that led to other plants we had to address. So it became a community of plants we had to save. So basically by working to save our sweetgrass, it turned into working with all our different plants and shrubs, and all of them are at different levels in decline. So that's how Naapi’s Garden was created, and we didn't know we would have to do a lot more research work with our plants, but at first it was just a place to grow sweetgrass.
We realized we had the means and the power to help with people like yourselves and do a lot more, and we can expand. It turned into a garden and a seed bank. The seed bank was something we can use whenever we have to. If it comes to the point where we rely on greenhouses, then the future generations, we’ll have seeds for them. All of these things with Naapi’s Garden are new. At that time I didn't really think about seeds until I started asking the elders and Rosalyn LaPier. I took in one of her workshops, and she is very knowledgeable, and she's Blackfeet. Even with OWC, the information, literature, and videos that you have put together in previous years really help because they are informative. Those are things that the education part is a big part of Naapi’s Garden. We finished watering around 700 willows and shrubs today. You look at the magnitude of that, and once it was just a garden bed, but now it's going to be a huge operation to the point where a lot will be researched, and individuals will be out here doing work. But Naapi’s Garden, now that it's been established, is a place to teach, learn, and to make our community aware of our green space, our environment, our land, and our water. You may see it one day, but the next it may not be there. With the work that we all do, and the work that's being done on the land really helps to change that and wake people up.
A big part of Naapi’s Garden is educating our community, because a lot of them have questions like “Why are you doing this? How come you don't have horses or cattle?” But this is a lot better way; they're easier to manage and they don’t take off. But you know, this is a farm in itself. I told my grandkids, one time they came out here and they were talking about a farm, and I said well this is similar to that out here. We have wild chickens, you know; we have prairie chickens out here, and there’s deer, and they’re like farm animals. But we don't have to take care of them; they take care of themselves. Naapi’s Garden connects us to the animals and connects us to everything. We're using this place to provide an awareness and an awakening to this because it has never been done before.
2. Have you noticed the impact of restorative work, like willow planting, on the land?
Yeah I’ve seen some of the work OWC has done, and other organizations, and I’ve been to some of the sites. That was something that I wanted to learn as well, and through OWC I learned how to do that, and when I saw that, we wanted to do that too because willows are in serious decline here. We’re talking about 4 to 5 different willow species, and that's what I'm working on with the City of Lethbridge. They’re working with willows and they were given a series of names of willows, and some I've never heard before. The willows that are here, I need to properly identify which species they are, but all of them are going to the greater good.
3. What is the long-term goal of cultivating additional types of native grass?
The thing about that is, the benefit out of that, is that with the results we get from here, there's a possibility that cultivated areas on the reserve can be turned back to grassland. The focus right now is that we're going to grow these grasses and start seeding these areas where the buffalo are on the north end. We’re going to see how long it takes them to repair that land and how we seed it. We’re going to do that work out here with them, and it's already started, and we did that in May or June.
So here it took about 10 years for where we are sitting to turn back to grassland. It was all cultivated, and it was mostly weeds, and most of it I burnt it. So knowing it takes about 10 years, that gives the BTLM [Blood Tribe Land Management] a timeline of how to get things done, and how to get things done within that particular time period. That's our focus. A lot of it, the grassland out here will be geared for the buffalo; it will be their food. So when Naapi’s Garden was established, it was part of the team that brought them here, so automatically it’s all connected. What I saw immediately before that was that I knew Naapi’s Garden could help by growing their food. When I proposed that to the group, it made KEPA this huge group now. A lot of the work out here, around 50% is for the buffalo.
4. Have you adapted the way you work to accommodate extreme and unexpected climate events?
Yeah and I think even with the watering we did today, I just concentrate on the plant itself. Water out here is very precious and valuable. You can't just waste it. So if I don't drink the rest of my water, that will go to a plant; I don’t spill it out, it doesn't go down the drain. So one of the things I had to really think about was the lake drying out, and originally that's what I wanted to use to water the shrubs, but then I realized how small it was getting and how many animals and birds are down there. I don't want to take that away from them. I chose to haul water and find easier methods and low cost ways to do it without leaving a footprint. One of the other things though in the plan is to stop the travel with the truck and install large watering tank out here, and to just fill them up to cut down the footprint a little bit - that's something I think about a lot. You know when I go to shop I bring my own bags. That's something that I am really conscious of, about the footprint. I don't want to make a huge footprint where they are. I want to try and make it so a vehicle isn't going through there all the time.
At the same time you have to give the land time to regenerate and heal. Even with having no rain it's really hard, finding different ways and finding different plants to grow. The ones that grow are the ones that are hardy; those are the ones I have growing in my garden boxes here. So there's a lot of different things; water is the main thing with climate change. I worry about that where I get my water is having it run out. There has been times where it happened. For me that's what makes everything go is water, so it's really important.
5. Restoring a traditional diet is a very fascinating concept -- what does that mean in your day-to-day life?
It's a big part of my life. A lot of my diet is dried food. You may have tried some of it, the apples and the fruit. All the meat I eat is dried. Everything is all dried. I'll buy food in town; I don't really buy vegetables, because I collect them out on the land, but it's something that when you eat these plants you get this taste. They taste like an onion, or something you buy in the store. But what it gives you is this power. All these foods have power. They can give you energy, they can put you to sleep, they can give you diarrhea, they can make you throw up. But that's the power of them. Knowing how to handle that. Someone can eat a bowl of cherries, but you can't do that with saskatoon berries or chokecherries, not even a whole bowl, even a cup is too much. And then your body starts to react. So you start having these issues, but these are natural processes of your body, and what I realized is when you start eating not traditional foods your body remembers them and it starts to want it more. When that happens, it starts to decolonize the way you eat.
There's the process in how to prepare these foods, and that's something different in itself. You know if you want fresh onions and wild carrots, where we were watering we would look for some there. That's what would be for your supper. We would make that into a soup. Those are the things that they are there, and I like to say you'll never starve out here as long as you know your environment. There is always something out here even though it may not look like much. Even the sage, it can nourish you. Even the sweetgrass too, if you eat some it’ll give you energy. So even the silverberry seeds, you can eat those too. The rosehips, pretty well as long as you know what to look for each season you can survive. What I did this year was I went out early in the year and tried to identify plants as they were coming up, and I was able to do that. You have to learn a lot more, and it's so much to learn and it never ends.
6. Can you tell us more about bison returning to the area?
That was something that I was a part of the subgroup. With them returning, there were a lot of things in place for them, and one was Naapi’s Garden. A lot of things have been developed for them as opposed to when they were introduced in 1993. One of our chiefs introduced buffalo to the reserve and it wasn't very good. There was a bunch of trouble and there was a blockade and the tribe got divided, and it's still divided because of that. That was something that we had talked about. We have to do it right. At that time there was nothing prepared for them. There was nothing; they just showed up. But here everything was done for them, right to the point of growing their grass seed. But with that, I realized that it connected a lot of things. Bison are really important, and we are going to utilize them to feed our community. And eventually they are going to grow, and at some point they'll be out here too. So we're going go to be using them to graze, and we'll be using goats to graze but also bison. So they are a big part of what we're doing.
I just realized a few months ago how connected I am with them even though I don't see them a lot. But I am really thankful that I'm helping them. As opposed to when they did come. The way they came home this year is the way they should come home. They go hand in hand because in our stories, plants were here before us, and thousands of years later is when buffalo were introduced. And when they were introduced and everything that came after was when we became the Siksikaitsitapi [Blackfoot name for Blackfoot]. But we’re still known as Niitsitapi [the real people or original people]. When the bison came, that's what really gave us our identity. That's where Balckfoot came from because of the moccasin. They were covered in soot. It was a time when one of our individuals were given the power of fire; they were firekeepers, so they would do the prescribed burns. One of them was done and a family of Blackfoot walked through there and blackened their moccasins. Other tribes saw that, and even early explorers and settlers saw that, so we just started calling ourselves that. Originally we were known as the Niitsitapi. Piikani and we were always known as the Kainai or the Many Chiefs. So when you work with the plants it connects you. You can't tell their story without starting at the heavens because that's where they come from. That's why I do this work.
When I tell people how old these plants are, they are older than us, we should be doing something for them. Look how far they've brought us and look what we’re bringing them, droughts, fires; they are disappearing. We have to do something. For myself I'm really happy doing this because not only is it helping the plants, but it's connecting the bison, and it's connecting the people, and it's going to make a really great meal. And that's the goal. Once we have them, the other programs we’ll have out here will be having traditional meals. Imagine coming out here to eat bison and having that with wild turnips, wild onions, wild carrots, and saskatoon berry soup. Imagine how good your body will feel after that.
7. How does growing food like this positively affect the health of the watershed?
A lot of the plants and water, they can't live without each other. They go together, and a lot of them live in water. A lot of our plants, especially grass, hold a lot of carbon. There's a lot of energy they hold. And a lot of people don't know that. When you pull them out or dig them up, you’ve destroyed some of that energy. For me that's how I see everything. We don't have a Blackfoot word for energy, but all this stuff we’re working with, this is a hard question to answer, but all this stuff we're working with is a form of power. We have it. We can't live without the elements; here water is really important. I go as far as winter, I collect snow in bins and use that when its melted. Water is really precious. Watching this lake get lower and lower, I know it'll come back, but the thing is plants really help our landscape and they're there for a reason, and when you remove them it creates a domino effect and other plants will disappear. And I know that because here when I started working with sweetgrass, when I realized sweetgrass wasn't in that particular area, the following year what disappeared was sage, and then the following year, wild onion started to disappear, wild bergamot, and wild mint. So sweetgrass is kind of like a keystone species of the plants that we use. When you look at what’s happened, all these plants get affected; it’s not just one. That's a steep learning curve for myself, for getting a handle on what we’re going to do, and the bottom line to everything here is water. Every day I’m thinking about it.
When I get up I’m thinking about it. Especially when I’m going to water, I think about if I have to go away. Things like that like that connection, they're like my family. And they are. They're actually - a friend of mine mentioned that they’re nations of plants. And we work with them. Water is really important because it’s part of our stories, and water changed this landscape a long time ago, and that was a result of Naapi. So the work that we’re doing today, and all these changes that we’re helping to stop or were created because of Naapi a long time ago, and those are lessons we learned from Naapi a long time ago. Naapi and water is a big part of Naapi’s Garden. And Katoyiss is after Naapi passed on, he was turned into a pine tree and up until the ‘50s or ‘60s you could still see the tree near High River; up in that area he was turned into a tree. A few years went by after Naapi passed on, and the changes that he made with the plants, animals, and land formations had an effect on the people. It became a place that wasn't really safe for anyone. If you were to walk across, some strange person or animal will get you and kill you. That was a result of Naapi.
I don't know how many hundreds of years later then another person was put in his place and his name was Katoyiss. Katoyiss means blood clot in the Blackfoot language. And when he grew up, he grew up to be a man all in one night, and from a blood clot he became a man. The people that raised him were a couple of elders, and they were being mistreated by their son in law not feeding them. And when he grew to a man, Katoyiss noticed his parents were really thin and didn't look well, and it ended up that the chief of that particular tribe were mistreating those people and he was hoarding all the buffalo and he wouldn't share. So Katoyiss straightened it out and killed out the whole family, and the family was either, I'm not too sure if they were a bear or a snake family. There’s rock carvings and drawings on winter counts of strange monsters and beings that our warriors are fighting, and those were rampant. So whatever they were, Katoyiss got rid of. Katoyiss went through this whole territory and started straightening everything out that wasn't right. He started fixing a lot of Naapi’s work, and that's what we just did today, the work of Katoyiss. We’re keeping this land going by water because water is really important. Katoyiss is our Blackfoot hero, and that's the reason why I named this Naapi’s Garden and Katoyiss seed bank, is the story I told you. There's a lot more to it, and I didn’t know what to call it at first until I realized: Naapi’s Garden, its origins come from Naapi, and we’re doing this because of Naapi and the work of Katoyiss to keep things going.
For me it's really rooted into our history, and water is important because right from the start I wanted a well, and I got it, but it dried up, but it didn't stop me. You just have to take that step and do it. For myself I just did it and created a job. What gets me by is grants, and I do a lot of artwork. For me it's a full time job, and I'm going to do it until I can't do it anymore for the rest of my life. And that's what I chose. It's really going to help our people, and when I started this work I didn't get paid a dime and I didn’t ask for money. But the grants started to come in and that's what got a lot of this work to the point where it is today, but water is really important.
8. Can these concepts be applied outside of Naapi’s Garden, say, in a personal garden?
Yeah, we all do different gardening, a lot of people have different ways to do it and different methods like fertilizing, but here it's basically just water and buffalo dung, and worm castings or casings. Other than that I don't use really anything else. Anyone that has got a plant from here, I give them buffalo dung because I want to keep this organic, but in the old days that was how our gardening was: we used manure. Buffalo dung is the best type of manure you can use, and that is what I tell people. But the thing is that it depends on your preference. If you want organic, you can't use fertilizers and pesticides. It's more work, you have to pull the bugs and the weeds, but gardening is in everyone’s nature; it just depends on how they want to do it. And if you want to make a difference and have a different type of garden, you don't use pesticides; you use our indigenous plants because they are really hearty. You don't have to really water them; you can go a week without watering them, and that's the thing about our plants. I ask a lot of our community members to grow those plants, so it's just the beginning right now. We're at the early stages.
The work that I've been doing on the side is helping other gardens, Coalhurst this September, and the City of Lethbridge. These plants are going to be going all over southern Alberta, but that's the purpose. A lot of the plants, especially the sweetgrass, is off the reserve and is in other gardens, and the wild grasses, the mint, they're out there and that's the purpose.
9. Are there any innovations in restoring the land that you are particularly proud of?
One of the things is restoration and reclamation. Seeing some of the work we’ve done last year is actually working, and the sweetgrass that we transplanted has actually spread in a lot of these areas, and seeing that and others that have had success is what I look at. This is really not about me; it's about a lot of other individuals such as yourselves as well, and it's a lot of teamwork to help keep this going. The other thing that we're working with is the leafy spurge. Down here would normally be all yellow, but it's not because of the drought. The first round was with the goats. At some point we're going to control it, and that's where I'll be able to say good, we’ve accomplished something, because I actually haven't done it other than just propagating plants and having others survive. But the leafy spurge is my enemy. Once we can figure out how to control it, then I know we've done our job and we can move on to start using those methods in different parts of the reserve and southern Alberta.
10. Where would you like to see Naapi’s Garden in 5 years?
One of the things that's already beginning to happen is it will be a place of learning. There's a possibility it will be an institute and we are already tied in with Kainai High School and off the reserve with Opokaa’sin and some of the other schools. It all tells a story about our survival, Naapi’s Garden. There's a lot of different ways to look at survival, and in this case what's being done out here connects everything together, and our language is connected to our plants, and that's being affected right now. Some of our plants have lost their Blackfoot names and that's something we have to address. When that happens, then we've lost that knowledge. Those are the things we are working to save ourselves. We're working to save our bodies and our states of minds and our health and wellness. A big part of that work is to help individuals to come through trauma but to also learn how to help the land, how to work with it and what you can do, how rewarding it is. It may not seem like much to you. When I talk to some people they may think, “Why?” But when you go beyond what you see as work, you will see it in a different way. I don't see it as work; I see it as a way of life. I always get this question, “How goes the struggle?” For me it's a way of life. In our Blackfoot worldview they often say we really struggled up until today, but that was our way of life. I don't look at this as work; I look at it as an opportunity, something that I'm helping myself. Before I even think of that I think of the people, this is for my people, and when i see it I feel good, knowing that this is really going to benefit our people. So in 5 years time I see a series of buildings, activity out here, students, other researchers, other organizations like OWC, BTLM. It's a place to learn and it's a place to hear the story because this story is a new story; it's being written every day, even today was a part of that. It's not only just a garden, but it's a way of life.
For yourselves you can see my way of life, and to have others realize that, that you're a part of this and you can make a difference, they just need a place to do it. And I decided that Naapi’s Garden would be that place to have everyone come out and learn, and who knows how big it'll get? Over a month ago, all I had here was the 6 garden beds; today we watered over 700 shrubs. So it's always growing. It's going to benefit everyone. There's that saying with the button it says we are all affected. That was with the Public Service Alliance and it's true, we are all affected. Even though I’m doing this work on the reserve, it affects people off the reserve. Like yourselves, you've come to help and you realize that there's this need, and that's the things about this work here. I totally look at it different; my brother sees it as work, but I don't. And I told him, I have to see it that way, because when I start to look at it as work, it becomes work, and work is this whole other state of mind. That struggle I talk about is our people’s way of life. It may have seemed a struggle to us thinking of what they went through, but to them it was normal. That's how I like to see this that way. It may be a tourist destination, who knows? But it's here for the people, and there will always be something for someone to do out here. No one will come here and look around, but there will always be something for someone to do, and they’ll be happy to do it. And you create that. You start to really change your mind. It will help our people in a lot of different ways, especially with the trauma. That’s something you can never get away from. Anyone you talk to, it comes out. With that trauma a lot of it is these former [residential] students and they don't talk about it. I don't know if you want to be hearing horror stories, but a lot of the times there is no one to listen to them.
A lot of it is we don't know how to handle it. So a lot of us see it as ‘you just want attention, I don't see anything wrong with you’ and that's what we need to change. When that happens it doesn't take much longer and that person may commit sucide or overdose, and that's something Naapi’s Garden is doing: It'll change the way we think and be more of a positive frame of mind. Right now that fear and guilt keep playing, and it turns into anger. People are carrying that, and for me, by doing this work I’m able to get rid of it and get it out of my mind. It extends even to the company you keep. That’s something I’ve realized too. You get really in tune when you start working and get in tune with nature. I don't like to leave; I like to just stay home. That's how much I enjoy. For me it's a way of life, and Naapi’s Garden is here and for everyone. It's for people to learn and it's a story that needs to be told, and you guys are hearing part of it today. It's a story I never thought I'd be a part of and would never happen. It was just sweetgrass that started it all.
That was something, for me will always be that, anything to sort of encapsulate this whole image, it would be a blade of sweetgrass. And that's what got all of this going. And I can say yeah, I got you guys growing here, and I am going to get you growing somewhere else too. And that's the thing, I look at it and I talk to my plants, and a lot of people do, but for me that’s something I’m proud of, and it was through a team too. That was a combination through Deb Gregorash, Leroy Little Bear and his wife Amethyst, and the wild sweetgrass I collected, and that’s been spreading throughout Lethbridge and on the reserve. For me that would be it; I never thought I’d be growing sweetgrass. That's really valuable to me, and I felt really bad when they got injured during the hail, but they came back. They're a bit shorter, but they came back; they're hanging in there. This work, for me everything is action, and action results in things like this, so for me it's always action. I use this term a lot, action. If you don't take action, nothing will ever happen. My relative came to visit me two weeks ago, and this was a few days after we got all those willows and they were still sitting here, and he was wondering, “What's going on out here? You have no water; why are you trying to plant trees?” and I told him the story. And he said, “I never would have ever thought of doing this.” He didn't know that this was going on with our plants, and he learned really quickly what he had to do, where he could help out, and once he realized that, all of this and that water may be something hard, but - action. He is a society member, and his comments were that he was happy this was being done. During the society meetings they talk to each other about the community, and they talk about our plant life. He's going to report to them and let them know that this is going on with our willows and our sweetgrass and all of our other plants. That's something that our society members have asked for, and they're getting it all within a year's time. I thought it would take 2 or 3 years, and the willows are here. I enjoy this work, and I live and breathe plants.
Watch Api’ Soomaahka’s episode of OWC:Eats!
This was produced by the OWC as part of the "Uniting Rural Producers and Urban Consumers" program, which was made possible by the support of Canadian Agricultural Partnership program, the Government of Alberta, and the Government of Canada.
Thank you to Api’ Soomaakha for his contributions to this project and to bettering the watershed for all those who live, work, and play here.
