Honoring Connections

Southeastern Indigenous Peoples & Plants

By Jason Holmes, Curator of the Doris Duke Center Gardens

In 2024, the featured theme in the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden was the Southeastern Indigenous Peoples Garden. Duke Gardens grows on the lands of several Indigenous Nations, peoples who have and continue to nurture and celebrate their lands in ways that provide home, shelter and sustenance in relationship with the plants and animals living here. To honor this connection, we wanted to create a display highlighting a selection of plants that have significance and importance to the Indigenous peoples of this land.

Plants have been propagated and traded in the Americas for thousands of years. Many plants we enjoy today, like beans, corn, peppers and squash, made their way from Central and South America through cultivation and sharing among peoples before the arrival of Europeans. Corn, for example, was first cultivated by Indigenous Nations in present-day Mexico, who shared it with others across the continent. Members of the Catawba Nation, in the present-day Carolinas, have grown corn for hundreds of years. Indigenous peoples selected plants for distinct traits like larger fruits, better taste, more extended storage and other uses, sustaining life for countless generations in incredible ways. These plants have and continue to play an important cultural role for Native Nations, whether providing corn for meals, tobacco for spiritual ceremony, gourds for carrying vessels or squashes for food.

So many of these specialized varieties have been left behind by industrialized agriculture and are not seen on grocery store shelves. Thanks to generations who cared for and passed along seeds through time, many of these heirloom varieties still exist. Today, many of these seeds are supported by the Cherokee Nations’ seed banks, saving these unique varieties from going extinct and continuing their relationship with the Cherokee people. The candy roaster squash is one of these plants with a distinct look and flavor. Long cultivated by the Cherokee Nation, this plant is known throughout Appalachia and, thanks to seed saving, is available today through various seed sources. 

Recently, the Catawba Nation sought a unique strain of corn traditionally ground to make cornmeal and grits. Concerned it was lost forever, members of the Nation set out to find it, and fortunately, rediscovered it with a family in Hickory, North Carolina, as “Indian corn” seed saved and handed down year to year. This corn has been brought back from the brink of extinction and, through collaborations, is now grown and shared throughout the Catawba Nation. This success story is a testament to those who sustained life from this corn and shared it for uncountable generations.  

In the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden, we dedicated our planting this year to many of these life-sustaining crops and their importance to the Indigenous people of this land, including citizens of three Cherokee Nations. Seeds shared by Dr. Courtney Lewis, the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and partnerships with Duke University’s Native American / Indigenous Student Alliance, Native American Studies Initiative and Campus Farm were integral to its creation. These collaborations are part of an effort to repair relationships with the peoples, plants, and communities harmed by colonization. Produce was shared with local Native partners, and supported programming at the Harvest Festival and for the Native American / Indigenous Student Alliance (NAISA) by Tigerlily Kaynor, a Duke undergraduate student who is a member of the Equity Through Stories Program at Duke Gardens and a NAISA council member.

Questions?

Please contact us at gardens@duke.edu.