Trout Creek Farm celebrated the completion of its elder healing garden with a grand opening and community feast. The farm is planned as a learning center and food producer for Wind River Reservation communities.
Published by WyoFile
When the Wind River Food Sovereignty Project purchased this 30-acre farm near Fort Washakie, the land mainly grew hay. Machinery and tools stood in the yards. Fences were aging.
Fast forward two years, and a transformation is taking root. Old equipment has been cleared out, and a fenced vegetable garden is thick with vines of squash and melons. A large high tunnel has been erected; inside tidy rows of raised beds sit ready to receive soil and seeds. Native plants like chokecherry bushes have been transplanted near the creek, and some may even survive the deer onslaught. Near the farm entrance, circular paths wind around a garden, where benches, flowers and a shaded area have been designed to welcome tribal elders for rest and reflection.
“This garden is a sanctuary,” Wind River Food Sovereignty Project Co-director Kelly Pingree told a crowd gathered for a grand opening celebration Saturday. “A place for healing, peace and connection with nature.”
Once the ribbon was cut, tribal members and others from the community filed through an ornate gate and into the brand-new elder garden, forming a circle around drummers. After a song and a prayer, it was time to eat.
Marking the occasion with bowls of buffalo stew and fry bread dipped in chokecherry gravy felt appropriate given that the nonprofit is aimed at restoring food production and traditions in Wind River Reservation communities.
“As Native people, we always give thanks to Mother Earth for what she provides us,” Pingree told the crowd. “And when we connect with our food, it reconnects us to the land, our ancestral knowledge, our spirituality, our prayer.”
The progress at Trout Creek Farm marks the early stages of a multi-year vision to bolster local production, access to healthy foods, tribal education and more. But it also signifies the fruits of a $36 million federal redevelopment grant that several facets of the reservation stand to benefit from.