Gete Okosomin Really Big Old Squash: 2,000 Years of Annual Sowing

Summary: Three Native Americanists say that Gete Okosomin really big old squash reflects 2,000 years of annual sows while a food advocate calls it 800-year-old seed.

photo by Owen Taylor/Seedkeeping Tumblr: Street Food & Vine‏ @StreetFoodUK via Twitter Nov. 28, 2015

Gete Okosomin really big old squash attests to either superior agricultural techniques among generations of Miami squash growers in Indiana or the viability of 800-year-old seeds preserved in Menominee pottery in Wisconsin.

Online reports and social media base the particular interpretation that they advance upon one of four source authorities: Winona LaDuke, Kenton Lobe, Zachary Paige, David Wrone.

The interpretation associated with Winona LaDuke, advocate for Native American food sovereignty, centers upon an 800-year-old clay pot excavated at a Menominee Reservation dig in 2008. Adherents describe the clay vessel’s germinating seeds, for the first time in eight centuries, within seven years in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and receiving a Menominee name. They enjoy the winter squash as a variety that is butternut squash-like in storage and reclaimable from extinction.

Kenton Lobe, Environmental Studies Professor at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba, furnishes the perspective of observing students devoting three years to growing 30-pound (13.61-kilogram) squashes. He gives White Earth Seed Library in northern Minnesota as current seed distributors and the Miami Nation in Indiana as Turtle Island’s (North America’s) seed preservers. He has the philosophical reaction to the Winona LaDuke explanation that “A story about a giant squash that comes from a clay ball really captures the imagination.” He indicates that, more fascinating than fiction, the facts give “a glimpse into what people ate and the agricultural knowledge they had [regarding hand-pollinated pure-breeding].” He judges that “The Miami [Nation] maintained a variety of squash that is prolific, it’s huge, and it tastes incredible.”

Zachary Paige, as assistant in forming White Earth Seed Library and manager of Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, knows about the Gete Okosomin really big old squash. He looks for heritage seeds such as Gete Okosomin really big old squash for the indigenous farming conferences hosted each year by White Earth Seed Library. He mentions that seeds traveled west to Chicago’s American Indian Center and that “We have no idea where the idea of the clay ball comes from.” He notes regarding dispersal from Illinois throughout North America: “Instead of being neglected for 800 years, it was grown for thousands of years by the Miami.” He opts for emergence stories dissimilar to Winona La Duke’s explanation and similar to Professor Lobe’s and David Wrone’s interpretations.

David Wrone, Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, provides eyewitness testimony of Miami gardeners sharing ancient and regular squash seeds back in 1995. The ancient, 4,000- to 5,000-year-old seeds qualify as “smallish and much inferior in taste” from storage on a ledge in a deep underground cave in Kentucky.

Professor Wrone reveals his subsequent sharing regular seeds with Stockbridge tribespeople, descendants of Miami Nation neighbors, even though “I never gave any ancient seeds to anyone.” He states that regular seeds, shared with him and Menominee wood carver James F. Frechette Jr., descend from 1,000 to 2,000 years of annual hand-planted hand-pollination. He turns out to be the reason why Menominee, language of Gete Okosomin really big old squash, is taught nowadays.

APTN News photo of students at Canadian Mennonite University celebrating end-of-semester with a feast: Shareable @Shareable via Twitter Oct. 30, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

photo by Owen Taylor/Seedkeeping Tumblr: Street Food & Vine‏ @StreetFoodUK via Twitter Nov. 28, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/StreetFoodUK/status/670838215339831297

APTN News photo of students at Canadian Mennonite University celebrating end-of-semester with a feast: Shareable @Shareable via Twitter Oct. 30, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/Shareable/status/660244831621398528

For further information:

Bernard Tritz. 1 October 2015. "historic squash." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTlt4Ru93HM

Cascone, Sarah. 27 November 2015. "Extinct Squash Revived from Seeds Stored for 800 Years in a Clay Pot." Artnet News > Art World.
Available @ https://news.artnet.com/art-world/extinct-squash-revived-370727

Johnson, Cat. "Students Grow Extinct Squash From 800-year-old Seeds." Shareable. Oct. 27, 2015.
Available @ https://www.shareable.net/blog/students-grow-extinct-squash-from-800-year-old-seeds

Landry, Alysa. 3 December 2015. “The Shocking True Story of That Giant Squash.” Indian Country Today Media Network > News.
Available @ http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/12/03/shocking-true-story-giant-squash-162639

McGladrey, Dustin. 22 January 2016. “Archaeologists Dig up an 800-Year-Old Native American Pot. What They Found Inside Is Changing History.” CFWE Radio > On Air > blogs > Dustin McGladrey.
Available @ http://www.cfweradio.ca/on-air/blogs/dustin-mcgladrey-351668/entry/471/

Shareable @Shareable. 30 October 2015. "Students grow extinct squash from 800-year-old seeds." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Shareable/status/660244831621398528

Street Food & Vine‏ @StreetFoodUK. 28 November 2015. "The Gete-okosomin squash, thought extinct, has been revived thanks to 800-year-old seeds." Twitter. Nov. 28, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/StreetFoodUK/status/670838215339831297

Thordarson, Matt. "Winnipeg Students Grow Rare Squash From Seeds 800 Years Old." APTN News > National News. Sept. 28, 2015.
Available @ http://aptnnews.ca/2015/09/28/winnipeg-students-grow-rare-squash-from-seeds-800-years-old/

Wrone, David R. 17 November 2015. “Memo on Squash Seed.” White Earth Land Recovery Project > Indigenous Seed Library > Squash Story.
Available @ http://welrp.org/indigenous-seed-library/squash-story