Can a Canadian Iroquois revive the Six Nations' farming tradition?

摘要

One of several home territories of the fabled Iroquois Confederacy is the Six Nations Indian Reserve, nestled in fertile land on the banks of the Grand River in southern Ontario, Canada. Home to Mohawk, Oneida, Tus-carora, Onondaga, Seneca and Cay-ugapeoples (the Six Nations of the Confederacy), it's one of the largest and richest reserves in the country, but most income is from renting land to white residents of the city of Oshawa, and from off-reserve income. Though farming was once an integral part of life among the Six Nations, today there are only 12 farmers on the 59 000-acre reserve. Now a modern-day resident of the reserve, Lehman Gibson, wants to establish a native experimental farm on the Grand River, to convince his neighbors and their children to take up farming the rich soil that is their inheritance, and revive a traditional livelihood.