Seed to Sovereignty: Voices from Lower Sioux

MORTON, Minn. — The Lower Sioux Indian Community celebrated the opening of its new hemp-processing facility with a full day of hemp education and demonstrations on September 5, 2024. This processing plant brings the tribe one step closer to what it calls “Seed to Sovereignty,“ where the tribe creates its own supply chain: growing the hemp to be processed in the facility, where it will be made into hempcrete houses to address the housing crisis on the reservation through agriculture. This week on the Hemp Podcast, we bring you conversations from the Lower Sioux. We’ll hear from Danny Desjarlais, project manager and leader of the building crew; Kristi Shane, Tribal Council treasurer; Robert Larson Jr., hempcrete mixmaster; and the “Earl of Hemp” himself, Earl Pendleton, who for many years has been the tribe’s vision holder for hemp. We’ll also talk to Mary Jane Oatman, executive director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association and a member of the Nez Perce Tribe of the Columbia River Plateau; Rob Pero, founder of Canndigenous and a member of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians; and Nick Hernandez, founder and CEO of Makoce Agriculture Development in Porcupine, South Dakota, and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and a citizen of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Plus, Ken Meyer from Complete Hemp Proeccsing and Derrick Dohmann from Horizon Hemp Seeds, North Dakota hempcrete builder Matt Marino, Minnesota inventor Bob Albertson, broadcaster Dan Lemke from the Linder Farm Network, and more. News Nugget: Newsom says hemp industry is ‘a disgrace’ for not policing itself over intoxicants Thanks to Our Sponsors! IND HEMP AMERICHANVRE Forever Green   Music by Tin Bird Shadow