Growing Hope Program

Growing our Future

By revitilizing our traditional crops and sharing related knolwedge, the Growing Hope Program helps make it possible to revitilize traditional Choctaw foods. These foods are an important part of Choctaw heritage. Both tasty and healthy, they provide an opportunity to use our own culture to help us live healthier lives today.

Sharing our Culture

Choctaw people were widely recognized as being among the most effective food producers in the Southeastern United States as a result of thousands of years of experience. After 400 years of colonization weakened our communities, much of that knolwedge lay sleeping, waiting for the next generation to awaken our ancestors' wisdom. Though some of our native seeds were lost, other survived the Trail of Tears and Death and gave us a new beggining.

By partnering with community members, the Growing Hope Program has tracked down varities of plants that were grown by our ancestors. These plants are grown from seed at our main garden within the Choctaw Nation Reservation. When seed stores get large enough, we share them with tribal members along with the knowledge of how to plant, harvest, and cook them into traditional foods. While supplies last, the following seeds are currentyl offered: