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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales
Wild rice is in decline, so some members of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe in Wisconsin are turning toward another traditional crop for sustenance – flint corn. WXPR’s Erin Gottsacker visited the Golden Eagle farm, where a community corn garden is in the works.
Flint corn, also known as calico corn or Indian corn, has multi-colored kernels of deep purple, red and gold. It’s the type of corn cultivated by American Indian people hundreds of years ago to make hominy. In Lac du Flambeau, the Ojibwe tribe used flint corn to supplement a diet of wild rice and venison. Greg Johnson is a Lac du Flambeau tribal member, cultural teacher, and artist.
“If you went back 150 or 200 years, our people didn’t have pantries, they had birchbark baskets and they had both corn and wild rice.”
He says few tribal members still grow flint corn and make their own hominy.
But with climate change disrupting wild rice growth, he’s trying to bring the staple back.
“We’re all facing the same dilemma when it comes to wild rice. Wild rice is in decline, so I thought back to what my ancestors would have done. Just trying to provide food for our families and replace that wild rice that has always sustained us.”
Johnson and a dozen tribal members planted more than 40 rows of flint corn at the tribe’s Golden Eagle farm. When the corn is harvested in the fall, it’ll be braided and hung up over the winter, then boiled with maple ash in the spring to enrich the corn and turn it into hominy.
It’s a practice that dates back centuries, but one Johnson hopes can help tribal members deal with the more recent challenge of climate change.
Native cast members of the new television series “Dark Winds” say the show is providing an opportunity to showcase more Native talent both on camera and behind the scenes.
The drama follows tribal police on Navajo land in the 1970s, based on books by the late-non-Native author Tony Hillerman.
Zahn McClarnon, lead actor, says Native people adapted this latest TV version of Hillerman’s work from a Native lens and taking control of the narrative.
“We put together a team of Native writers, Native producers, Native directors, and Native crew. And Native consultants. So we were kind of telling Tony Hillerman’s stories from a different perspective…I think it’s a great step towards seeing Natives in their experience as normal allowing the public, the audience to see that Native culture is American culture, it is American history, control of our stories is important.”
Fellow actor Jessica Matten agrees and points to “Reservation Dogs” and “Rutherford Falls,” as other productions with Native representation in the mainstream.
“We’ve kicked down the doors and now I feel there’s this responsibility to make sure that those doors stay open, that this isn’t just a trend in a moment in time, but that we actually through the exposure we’re getting now, we’re able to humanize Native people in a global way. We are still a small population in comparison to other cultures who get more exposure whether that’s in cinema or television or in any other facet.”
The “Dark Winds” production crew included two Navajo cultural consultants, used a Native-owned studio, and filmed on Pueblo lands in New Mexico.
The series premieres on AMC on June 12th and this Friday, Native America Calling devotes the full hour to “Dark Winds”.
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