Tuskegee
Pine Ridge PDC
These photos are from the Permaculture Design Course that was held at the Pine Ridge Lakota Indian Reservation in August, 2009.
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Pine Ridge reflections
Writing from the rez – the course is starting to wrap up with students going off into their own world, working on their design projects. I’ve been working with OLCERI (Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative) for several years and helped raise funding for their initial projects, but this is the first partnership for Permaculture Guild and OLCERI.
The course was held on an 8000 acre cattle ranch on the rez, run by Bryan Deans. Bryan also heads a youth organization called Running Strong, which gives Lakota youth experience training and riding horses on the ranch and gaining other traditional skills.
Some of the students who arrived early for the course helped raise the tipis that dot his pasture amidst horses and a round pole shade shelter.
Bryan has many projects ongoing – homemade wind generators, veggie oil biodiesal, straw bale retrofit of flimsy homes, super efficient heating stoves using “waste” fuels to counteract the sometimes brutally cold winds that sweep the rez, and a plan to provide food for the rez on tribal common lands, a return to the wildcraft gathering ways of the Lakota. Bryan’s ranch is an ideal place for permaculture design – so many resources yet so much damage. Illegal overgrazing by a white rancher on tribal lands has created huge erosion and water catchment problems which permaculture is well-qualified to solve.
Our expert guest permaculture instructor, Warren Brush, has communicated many ideas about how to regenerate rangeland, not only to catch water, but to again grow the tall prairie grasses that have been unable to find a foothold in the denuded landscape. He has shared knowledge about intensive raising of grass fed cattle and other animals, as well as integrating multiple systems such as aquaculture (fish and water plants), food forests and more. This is big country, with lots of potential.
The students are learning about Lakota ways and perspectives as they absorb knowledge about weather, natural patterns in landscapes and in communities, living soil and water, and the transactions of trees and how all of these relate to designing for abundance in human systems. They are also getting practical hands on knowledge – how to create a 21 day compost pile, how to do a cold frame graywater system, how to make energy efficient stoves.
Bryan’s vision is large – he wants to regenerate all 2 million acres of the reservation, he wants to use straw bale to retrofit the very energy inefficient housing that dots the rez, for warmth in winter and coolness in summer, he wants to create food forests all over the rez to feed his people and he wants to create a sustainability school where anyone can come to learn about how to live a truly sustainable life. There are others on the rez who also share large visions – how appropriate for the Lakota to lead the way in teaching sustainable practices.
The Permaculture Guild wants to back up this vision, and in conjunction with OLCERI, we are planning a series of courses on regenerative practices at the rez next year. One aspect of the program will be a youth component, where youth programs at Pine Ridge will team up with Permaculture Guild to create an apprenticeship program for youth on and off the rez. Skills will include natural building, cattle cutting and herding, native wildcraft and herbs, permaculture design, wilderness survival and tracking, etc. Career mentoring will be included as a part of this program as well.
Other workshops will include straw bale and super adobe building, water systems, wind turbines, biodiesel production and of course, permaculture design. Warren Brush has agreed to return next year to bring his wisdom and expertise on permaculture design to a new group of PDC students in September. More news soon!
Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation PDC
Permaculture Design Certification Course Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation, South Dakota Aug. 16 – 29, 2010
72-hour Permaculture Design Certification Course will give you the tools to…
- Create sustainable food systems in any environment
- Practice water catchment and harvesting
- Work with built environments
- Build healthy communities
- Share your knowledge to create urban farms, aid in rural areas and more
Location:
Take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn these essential skills in a Native American environment. The Oglala Lakota tribe has a rich history. The Pine Ridge reservation is home to Wounded Knee and other key historical sites. Additional workshops and field trips will be offered by tribal members on sustainable technologies, tribal history and native practices.
The course will be held on a beautiful 8000 acre ranch located in the reservation which includes historical sites, tribal lands and a variety of ecosystems. The ranch has a number of self-sufficiency projects ongoing including biodiesel, wind power, solar (made on the rez), building high efficiency stoves, sustainable timber work, etc. Planned for this summer are straw bale building, food forestry, broadscale prairie rehab including keyline and more.
Housing will include tipis, and traditional Lakota and indigenous techniques will be included in the instruction. There will be ample opportunity to interact with and experience Lakota culture on the reservation and also opportunities to apprentice and intern for those who are interested – please inquire about our internship program!
Come one or two days early to explore life on the ranch and reservation.
This course is likely to fill to capacity so please consider registering early. Please pay with pay pal (button to the right) or if via check, contact cory@permacultureguild.us for address.
College credits will be available for this course. Details will be provided on our site as soon as we have a course number.
Instructors:
Main instructor: Warren Brush, Certified Permaculture Designer and Educator throughout North America, India and West Africa, founder of True Nature Design, and co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm and Trees for Children. For more than 20 years, Warren has enlightened thousands of people on their discovery of sustainable living and respect for land and communities.He teaches courses including: Permaculture Certification, Rainwater Harvesting Systems, Ferro-Cement Tank Building, Compost Toilet Systems, Greywater Solutions, Water for Every Farm, Drought Proofing, Cultural Mentoring, Introduction to Permaculture Systems, Corporation Sole Formation, Various Origins Skills, Food Forestry, among other offerings.
Learn more about Warren Brush organizations and programs:
Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm, www.quailsprings.org, a 450-acre arid land Permaculture demonstration and educational center located in the southern California mountains.
Trees for Children, www.treesforchildren.org, is an organization that teaches youth how to plant trees in ways that contribute to their community’s resilience and stability. It also raises funds for tree planting projects.
Mentoring for Peace, www.mentoring4peace.com, is a research project that is discovering the nature of how to mentor our children to be peacemakers with broad concentric rings of influence.
True Nature Design, www.truenaturedesign.net, is Warren’s Permaculture design and education company
Wilderness Youth Project, www.wyp.org, a youth centered organization that mentors youth in learning nature observation and origins skills.
Assistant instructor: Cory Brennan is a certified permaculture instructor and designer who is focused on permaculture work in high poverty areas. Work includes the Olceri project at Pine Ridge, a course taught in Little Haiti, Miami, work with a food forest at Crenshaw High in S. Central Los Angeles, and permaculture relief corp work in Haiti after the recent earthquake. She founded createclearwater.com, dedicated to forming regenerative community, and is currently working on establishing Create Los Angeles, a similar project. Her passions are food forestry, creating community and financial permaculture.
This course is being delivered in coordination with Olceri, a Lakota project to create sustainable, self-sufficient systems as a demonstration and educational site at Pine Ridge reservation.
For more information
Registration Details:
Prices include tuition, certification, handbook/course guide, organic catered meals, and camping accommodations on the ranch. Tipis will be available for early registrants.
Early registration with deposit to secure a place in the course is advised as enrollment is limited and the course is expected to fill quickly.
Early Bird discounts for payment in full by July 1, 2010. Early Bird price: $1,250
NOTE: Early Bird price has been extended to July 18, to encourage early enrollment! We have much to accomplish this summer and we’d like to complete course registration so we can focus fully on the projects on the rez.
Regular registration $400 deposit to secure your space with balance due by July 20, 2010.
Full price is $1350.
All available scholarships and work study will be offered to Lakota on the reservation so we will be unable to offer those to people attending the course from outside the rez.
We offer an affliate program for those who assist us to register people for any of our courses, which offers 10% of the course fee in cash or 15% off the price of tuition.
Price is $100 less for couples, and those who are already certified via a previous permaculture design course.
