Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Our friend and colleague David Williams remembered a reference to the maize of the Pawnee on reading a recent post and eventually tracked it down. I found this tidbit about Pawnee corn in the book Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose (1996). The author …
Our friend Karen Williams at the USDA writes: The story of the Pawnee maize is fascinating! You have probably seen the display cases in Beltsville of the collection of maize varieties. Years ago, David and I were involved in getting all the samples photographed. Attached are photos of the 3 samples identified as Pawnee varieties. …
Tom Hoegemeyer very kindly replied to my query about rescuing Pawnee corn, and agreed to have his email published here. Thanks, Tom, and very best wishes with your work with the Pawnee. I was out at the Pawnee homecoming and have been attempting to help them grow some of their old varieties (some had been …
There’s an extremely intriguing article in Sunday’s North Platte Telegraph. North Platte is in Nebraska, and the story is bylined Kearney, which is in the same state. Nebraska is home to the Pawnee people, ((Although actually the Pawnee Nation seems to be in Oklahoma. I don’t quite get it.)) and the article is basically an …
A Mexican entrepreneur and a Pawnee Keeper of the Seed try to save maize landraces in their different ways. Indian farmer tries to save plantain varieties. Indigenous conservation will save conservation. Alice Walters cannot save the food system. But why not let her try? None of the above of them would understand the concept of …