How A Seed Bank Helps Preserve Cherokee Culture Through Traditional Foods

Charles Gourd's garden is so big that before he installed irrigation, it could take three hours to water everything by hand. He grows beans and cucumbers that wind up archways you can walk underneath and pluck the ripe vegetables as though they're growing in thin air.

"I like the basics, the Three Sisters — corn, beans and squash," he says. "In order for it to taste right, you have to cook a bunch of it — it means you have to have your family and friends there." He describes making a pot of beans, adding a little bit of hickory nut meat, then some corn hominy and squash. "You boil that up real good, and the more times you boil it, the better it tastes."

"Talking about this made me hungry," he adds.

Gourd is the director of the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, Okla., and one of the many Cherokee who order seeds from the Cherokee Nation's seed bank each year in February. The seeds are free for any Cherokee; this year, recipients are limited to two varieties because demand is so high. Last year, the bank sent 4,905 packages of seeds to citizens of federally recognized Cherokee tribes. This year, they will distribute a record 10,000 seed packets.