Harvesting in WISCONSIN

On an Oneida homestead, Ashlea Halpern experiences Native culinary traditions

- Ashlea Halpern

"EVERY TIME AN INDIGENOUS PERSON plants a seed, that is an act of resistance, an assertion of sovereignty, and a reclamation of identity," Rebecca Webster tells me as she shimmies her spoon between rows of kernels in shades of lilac, plum, and bone. When hulled correctly, the corn makes a satisfying pop! pop! pop! sound like Orville Redenbacher's. I'm new to this, though, so my kernels go flying all over her kitchen-to the delight of Rebecca's three rambunctious dogs. Her husband, Steve, is armed with a small metal thresher that strips the cobs in seconds flat. "He's just showing off," she says, rolling her eyes.

The Websters are citizens of the Oneida Nation. They recently transformed their 10-acre homestead on the Oneida Reservation near Green Bay, Wisconsin, into a nonprofit. In addition to growing several varieties of heirloom Haudenosaunee corn, beans, and squash (collectively known as the three sisters), as well as sunflowers, sunchokes, and tobacco, they're on a mission to turn their farm, Ukwakhwa: Tsinu Niyukwayay^thoslu (the name means "Our foods: where we plant things"), into a place where Oneida community members and nontribal people gather to learn the ins and outs of planting, growing, and harvesting Native foods.

The project has been a long time coming. When the Websters acquired this land, in 2017, the soil was in bad shape and littered with plastic barrels and thousands of old tires. Over the next six years, they restored three acres of forest and turned another acre into a pollinator habitat. They built a beautiful house from scratch, reinforcing the basement ceiling so it could handle the weight of the braids of corn above. Most important, they planted seeds.