Wisconsin Women in Conservation Webinar w/ Hinu Smith, Exec. Dir. Ho-Chunk Dept. of Ag, 11/7/24

In this first webinar of a two-part series we celebrated Native American Heritage Month by learning about the past, present and future of Ho-Chunk Nation agriculture. We joined Hinu Helgesen Smith, a former Ho-Chunk legislator with a professional background in community health and diabetes prevention in a high risk population, whose guiding principle then was to create legislation that improved tribal outcomes and protected the environment. In her current position as the Executive Director of the Ho-Chunk Sovereign Nation’s Department of Agriculture, her commitment to renewing Ho-Chunk agriculture and food ways is based on a desire to improve tribal members' health outcomes through fresh, local, healthy, regeneratively grown, and culturally relevant food. Much of the food grown at the Ho-Chunk Nation’s farm, Whirling Thunder Organic Farm, is given away to the community, with the goal to get product into the Tribal Elder Food Boxes.

Hinu began the webinar with a question, “What have you learned from an elder that is still important to you today?” She went on to share the long journey of the Ho-Chunk Nation from traditional ways that began with time, through the heart-breaking and destructive extermination era of the United States government, to the rebuilding of tribal health, tradition and sovereignty through Ho-Chunk Nation effort.

Hinu began with the deep past, when The Ho-Chunk people followed the seasons; planting, foraging, hunting, trapping, tapping and ricing according to the season. They grew extensive gardens and raised beds, including many varieties of corn, squash and beans, and harvested muskrat, beaver, rabbits, fish, fowl and buffalo to be dried, smoked, and prepared in traditional ways according to season.

Hinu continued to share that with the westward expansion of the United States and the destructive policies and actions of the U.S. government, traditional food systems were attacked, with food sources killed, burned and taken. Native Ho-Chunk people were forcibly moved from their land to other less desirable land. They carried seeds on and in their persons, to ensure food sources after the move. Hinu shared a heart-breaking story of a family sharing one kernel of corn, and making the decision to eat or wait to plant, all while starving.

Hinu shared that despite the difficult past, the present and future of the Ho-Chunk people are hopeful, in light of the ingenuity and resilience of the people. The sovereign Ho-Chunk Nation has a four branch government, and the Department of Agriculture is working within that framework to re-acquire and manage land using conservation practices and revitalize the health of the people by reaffirming traditional hunting, fishing and trapping, gathering and growing.

Hinu finished the webinar sharing about the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Whirling Thunder Organic Farm, where food grown is given away to the community, with the goal to get product into the Tribal Elder Food Boxes. They teach farmer cohorts, are working with the NRCS to grow in high tunnels, and are developing new products with traditional foods to share with the community. As the Executive Director of the Department of Agriculture, she is involved in many collaborative organizations with the common goal of improving the health of the land and people.

Key links from the chat:

SAS-CAP grant - CIAS, Tribal partners awarded $10 million USDA grant for collaborative effort working to support Native American foodways in Great Lakes region

Tribal Elder Food Box program -    • Tribal Elder Food Box Program  

Tribal Elder Food Box Program - https://feedingamericawi.org/tribal-f...

Rural Partnerships Institute - Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute – Supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

WTCAC: https://www.wtcac.org/

GLIFC: https://greatlakesintertribalfood.org/

Ho-Chunk Agriculture Facebook page -   / 61562286651158  

About Wisconsin Women in Conservation
WiWiC is a state-wide collaborative effort led by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in partnership with Wisconsin Farmers Union, Renewing the Countryside and Marbleseed (formerly MOSES). A five-year multi-faceted project funded by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), WiWiC brings together Wisconsin's women landowners, farmers, farm workers, urban growers, and conservation professionals to connect and share about conservation practices, resources, and funding opportunities.


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