The Ho-Chunk Nation has a helping hand for horticulture projects this summer.
Jack Keenan has been hired as a contract horticulture consultant, having started April 18.
He is an enrolled Ho-Chunk member, the son of Irene Keenan, and is from Prairie du Sac.
Keenan is a 2014 graduate of University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a degree in philosophy.
His main mission with the Nation is to get the fruit and nut production going, so he has been planting apple, pear and nut trees to create an orchard at Whirling Thunder Ranch near Tomah.
Also helping with the vegetable production, Keenan will be working in all agricultural tasks with Woodrow White at Whirling Thunder Ranch. A large vegetable garden provides all types of nutritious vegetation that will be given to the Head Start centers in Black River Falls and all the Tribal Aging Units in the Ho-Chunk communities.
Whirling Thunder Ranch is the center of the Ho-Chunk horticulture effort, both for production and for training.
“The big goal is education,” White said. “Gardening is culturally ingrained within the Ho-Chunk people. We are working toward food sovereignty.”
Keenan believes his work will help the people gain a better understanding and education of agricultural practices, something rooted in their culture.
“The Ho-Chunk word for people who grow their food is ‘Maax hoz`ura,’ which means ‘those who till the earth,” Keenan said. “It’s cultural education through agriculture.”