Hemp Education Community Longhouse

Many indigenous people have lost access to traditional foods, independence from living off the land, connection to their culture, and their health due to environmental devastation. About 600,000 live within 6 miles of abandoned mines, which the DOJ calls "one of the most severe environmental justice problems in Indian Country."

Hemp can remove toxins from the environment, prevent water contamination, filter air (much faster and more effectively than trees), restore soil fertility, prevent soil erosion, and replace trees as a paper source. It needs no pesticides, little water, and grows quickly.

Hemp can increase access to healthy Indigenous food; make living off the land viable; help promote Indigenous culture; foster good health; and help generate new revenue streams, income sources, and jobs.

Scaled globally, this project could help reverse and prevent environmental devastation, reduce world hunger, help communities return to agrarian lifestyles and Indigenous culture, prevent disease, and stimulate economies.

Indigenous peoples are often the first and worst impacted by climate change. Contaminated water, toxic soil, and polluted air coincide with high rates of cancer and heart disease, which discourages farming and living off the land. People move to the city to find work, losing connection to their communities, culture, and access to traditional foods. Everyone loses when they are forced from land they have worked for centuries, and the pool of experts on local ecosystems shrinks.

This is happening the world over (e.g., Finland, Somalia, Haiti, Brazil, India, Canada), including in the U.S. (from Alaska to New York State to Florida to northern Michigan to Arizona), with devastating effects. Two examples: In one part of the Navajo Nation, where 521 abandoned uranium mines have contaminated the groundwater, gastric cancer rates doubled during the 1990's. In upstate New York, General Motors, Reynold Metals Company, and Aluminum Company of America discharged toxics into the air, land and water around the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation for 40 years (mid-20th century). The result - destruction of local land, air, and water, the Mohawk Nation’s food system and associated jobs, a spike in cancer, and a community shrinking as residents relocate to get work.

In 2019, Swiss researchers concluded that planting billions of trees is among the cheapest, most efficient ways to address climate change, removing from the atmosphere two-thirds of emissions from human activity. That was then.

Attention to hemp's superpowers is growing - understandably. After one growing cycle, an acre of industrial hemp removes four times the CO2 an acre of trees removes; a growing cycle is four months for hemp, but 20 to 80 years for trees. 

We plan to jumpstart widespread cultivation of hemp by training and inspiring Indigenous women (to grow hemp) at our community longhouse and mini-farm (site of hands-on learning).

We've assembled a team of experts in hemp farming, applications, and law; Indigenous permaculture; and financing Indigenous businesses. They will provide hemp-related training (e.g., how to grow hemp, hemp uses, leveraging hemp-growing skills to get/create jobs,) and support (e.g., referring aspiring farmers to vetted, Indigenous-owned banks).

Our solution is teaching Indigenous women an existing technology - growing hemp - in the service of a new application - rehabilitating and protecting the environment. That something so simple, easy, low-cost, and available - growing hemp - can so powerfully and rapidly jumpstart environmental recovery is truly cause for hope.

Target population - Greater Denver - Boulder area's Indigenous women

We've spent much of the last 10 years helping Indigenous women in Haiti  establish a community garden and learn about growing hemp. 

Nevertheless, we live and work in the greater Denver-Boulder area. For 10 years, we've worked with local Indigenous organizations, joining Boards of Directors and spearheading advocacy efforts and cultural events. We also organize gardening activities for Indigenous women - distributing kits of seeds and tools, and producing gardening tutorials. 

The women who make up our target population worry about their kids and their bills. We plan to use future gardening events to ask if they want us to offer hemp activities for their kids (and if so, for what purpose?), if they hope to find work in the hemp field (and if so, what kind?  farming? production of hemp goods?), and how much time they have to train.

The problem we address (climate change) and its negative impact on Indigenous people aligns with the Challenge's focus on greater access to healthy and sovereign food, sustainable energy, and safe water. 

Our solution - to train and inspire Indigenous women to grow hemp as a way to heal the earth and its inhabitants - is consistent with the Challenge's focus on community members helping each other, thus helping to fortify their communities' resilience.

Our target population - low-income, Indigenous women - aligns well with the Challenge's focus on building Indigenous community capacity to help the community's marginalized residents.

We chose the "concept" stage because we are still refining aspects of our proposed solution. Example: Are prospective training participants in involving their kids in part of the training? Example: How much time do prospective training participants have for training? And how is their availability/time best distributed across training sessions? Twice a week for one hour? Once a week for two hours?