Garlic,onions, peppers, tomatoes, squash and potatoes are now thriving in these beds. These were created (see upcoming Hopi post for exact directions!) by digging out the heavy clay soil and layering in black cinders to help with water filtration, as well as manure and leaves. The two acre garden is tended entirely by hand, utilizing lasagna bed gardens to help make the heavy clay soils more fertile. Clayton can trace farming in his family back 6 generations to Chief Alchesay, an Apache chief and Medal of Honor winning Indian Scout. Currently, Ndee Bikiyaa sells produce at cost to community members through farmers markets, provides fresh produce to the tribal rehabilitation program, organizes community events like harvest festivals and workshops, and hosts volunteers, interns and seasonal employees in the summer.Ĭlayton Harvey, garden and greenhouse manager, has worked for the farm for the past 5 years. It became clear that it would be too expensive to certify all of the fields, and so the project was scaled back to 120 acres of hay and a 2 acre garden with raised beds, a shade structure, and several cold-frame hoophouses. The firm recommended putting the fields into organic production. Then in 2005, as part of the continuing struggle to quantify the tribe’s water rights, the tribal government sought to re-evaluate the farm as a means of developing its water use, and hired a consulting firm to determine the most profitable use of the fields. Due to funding and management issues, the farm lay fallow through the 1990’s. Economic Development Administration to plant 800 acres of alfalfa and rye. The farm began in 1980 with a grant from the U.S. Ndee Bikiyaa began as a for-profit farming venture that has since been redeveloped into a community food initiative. Gardens, shade tunnel and high tunnel (provided by the Natural Resource Conservation Service NRCS) at the Ndee Bikiyaa farm. The White Mountain Apache Natural Resources office is housed in one of these buildings, and it is out of this office that the Ndee Bikiyaa is based. The former Fort Apache, which housed the American army in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, now makes up a 288 acre National Register Historic District, with 27 historic buildings. It is against these challenges that Ndee Bikiyaa, The People’s Farm, is working in an effort to restore personal and cultural health to the White Mountain Apache through agriculture In some families, farming knowledge was lost when youth were sent to boarding schools, and others today do not have the financial resources to farm. Unsustainable commercial timber exploitation also diminished wild food sources and led to erosion of soil. Photo by Angelo BacaĪt the turn of the 20 th century, BIA agents promoted cattle farming and leasing out land, which lead to degradation of the ecosystem. The current tribal farm has a greater focus on produce and greater community buy-in. Irrigation system from earlier attempts at a tribal farm.