IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v41y2024i3d10.1007_s10460-023-10532-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The seeds are coming home: a rising movement for Indigenous seed rematriation in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Emma Herrighty

    (Cornell University)

  • Christina Gish Hill

    (Iowa State University)

Abstract

Seed rematriation is a rising movement within greater efforts to improve seed and food sovereignty for Native American communities in the United States. As a feminized reframing of repatriation, rematriation seeks to heal Indigenous relationships with food, seeds, and landscapes. Since first contact, Native agricultural practices have been systematically targeted by colonization, resulting in the diminished biodiversity of cultural gardening systems. Of this vast wealth, many varieties exist today solely under the stewardship of non-Native institutions. Seed rematriation is therefore the process and movement by which Native nations reclaim their cultural seed heritages. Once seeds are returned to the hands and soils of their home communities, Indigenous Nations can reestablish healthy, diverse, and sustainable seed and foodways for generations to come. This article explores the history of the term rematriation within Indigenous sovereignty scholarship as well as its evolving interpretations and applications. Considering how the seed rematriation movement has been shaped by several seed keepers in the Midwest reveals the cultural understandings and significances that underpin this work across many aspects of Indigenous lifeways. The resulting discussion from ethnographic material demonstrates why seed reclamation and seed sovereignty movements in the Midwest uphold Native nationhood through both resurgence and refusal. The Indigenous processes of recognizing and reclaiming seeds work beyond recovering agricultural knowledge to also mend severed kin relationships, rejuvenate cultural knowledge, and reestablish authority over Indigenous food systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma Herrighty & Christina Gish Hill, 2024. "The seeds are coming home: a rising movement for Indigenous seed rematriation in the United States," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(3), pages 1007-1018, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:41:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-023-10532-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10532-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-023-10532-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-023-10532-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D. G. Kapayou & E. M. Herrighty & C. Gish Hill & V. Cano Camacho & A. Nair & D. M. Winham & M. D. McDaniel, 2023. "Reuniting the Three Sisters: collaborative science with Native growers to improve soil and community health," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 65-82, March.
    2. Vanessa Ocampo-Giraldo & Carolina Camacho-Villa & Denise E. Costich & Victor A. Vidal Martínez & Melinda Smale & Nelissa Jamora, 2020. "Dynamic conservation of genetic resources: Rematriation of the maize landrace Jala," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 945-958, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edwin Rafael Alvarado-Ramírez & Gilberto Ballesteros-Rodea & Abdelfattah Zeidan Mohamed Salem & José Reyes-Hernández & Camelia Alejandra Herrera-Corredor & Javier Hernández-Meléndez & Andrés Gilberto , 2023. "The Impact of Genotype on Chemical Composition, Feeding Value and In Vitro Rumen Degradability of Fresh and Ensiled Forage of Native Maize ( Zea mays L.) from Mexico," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:41:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-023-10532-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.