We visit Whirling Thunder Ranch just outside Tomah, Wisconsin, to learn about the Ho-Chunk Nation’s efforts to protect its ecosystems and develop a sustainable food system.
Hinu Smith looks out at her small team harvesting potatoes under a toasty September sun. Just over a year ago, she became the Ho-Chunk Nation’s first-ever Executive Director of the Nation’s newly created Department of Agriculture.
“Whatever the Department of Agriculture does, we want to engage — teach and to learn, teach and learn,” Smith says.
The Department of Agriculture draws from its people's rich ecological knowledge as it builds a resilient food system. Here an elder dries beans.
She’s determined to engage fellow tribal members in developing a sustainable food system. To some, Smith's job would seem daunting. The darkening cloud cast by climate change is just one challenge. Ho-Chunk tribal members are subject health disparities including higher rates of diabetes, and some lack easy access to fresh and nutritious foods.
Smith hopes to make more tribal land available to members who want to farm. Many are scattered throughout the state.
“What we want to do is to be able to eventually be able to fill all of these gaps within our food system. We want to be able to provide all of these foods if we can, whether it’s produce — here we’re focusing on produce. But in coming years, there’s the option of poultry or beef,” Smith says.
She points to a program that came out of the pandemic as evidence that tribal food sovereignty is achievable. It’s called the Tribal Elder Food Box Initiative.
“Creating boxes of food that are more culturally appropriate, healthy and consumable to tribal people. That has been happening for three years, in all the tribal communities of Wisconsin, within all the tribes. And so that’s a really big effort toward tribal sovereignty. And then that also has this collateral impact, right? So wanting to be able to source food for these boxes from tribal people. It’s really difficult to do that if you don’t have all of the infrastructure,” Smith says.
Tricia Gorby is assistant dean and director of UW-Madison Extension’s Natural Resources Institute. It’s one of the partners —bolstered by a three-year USDA grant— committed to work with the Ho-Chunk and other Wisconsin tribes.
“Helping to support food sovereignty initiatives and reduce those barriers Hinu was mentioning … So it’s really building and connecting to the expertise that resides on campus, but bringing that together with the knowledge and the commitment from all of the various tribal partners,” Gorby says.
She says other key partners include the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council, the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition the Great Lakes Indian and Wildlife Commission and the Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute.
Here in this space, the tangible sign of food security is the bounty of potatoes Ho-Chunk Department of Agriculture team member Ryan McClure is harvesting and his enthusiasm for the work.
“I was working in a distribution center before this as a supervisor and Hinu brought it to my attention that there might be positions open. And it’s something I’m looking to be a part of — I’m glad to be part of. And I’ve actually grown passionate since working in here for them,” McClure says.
He loves seeing the community get involved.
“The kids seemed to have liked it a lot more than others, the younger kids we had out here. We had about 20 kids out here; they all loved it. They’re identifying bugs, insects that were out here, tackling the weeds. They actually helped with the tomatoes a lot, I mean, the potatoes where we’re sitting right now,” McClure says.
And then there’s fellow staff member Celina Hall. She graduated from college in Kansas last spring and then drove through the night to start her job here the next day.
“Eventually, I know me and the team have talked about it, is trying to do more off a herbal garden so we can start having more teas and drying more herbs and giving them away. Or having classes for others to learn,” Hall says. “When you take care of these plants, they’re going to take care of you, and you’ll be able to see that in your health, especially with all of these healthy foods.”
Hall has no shortage of ideas but says with a laugh, “You know, actions speak louder than words. If you’re talking, you’re not getting anything done.”
Smith says her team fuels her determination to puzzle out how to connect tribal members with land and equipment they can share to harvest and process what they grow.
“Our department is preparing for a farmer training program and so we’re looking at kicking that off in 2025,” Smith says.
In her words, agriculture can be a catalyst to everything.
