Ongoing Initiatives and Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events 2024-2025

Lunch & Learn with Clint Carroll: Knowing the Land
Monday, April 7, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: Lily Gallery

Clint Carroll (Cherokee Nation) will discuss his NSF-funded research on land-based education for Indigenous communities. Carroll is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He works closely with Cherokee people on the perpetuation of land-based knowledge. His book, Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance(2015, University of Minnesota Press), explores efforts in cultural revitalization through traditional forms of decision-making and place-based learning.

Ongoing and Future Initiatives

Growing corn at the farms: Under the leadership of farm manager Halle Murphy, Davidson students work together with Catawba natural resources staff to plant, tend, and harvest Catawba flour corn at the college farm and Black Snake Farm/Yawakče Yabsigre. Beginning in summer 2024, we will introduce an indigenous bean from this region to our program, and we hope to introduce an additional variety of corn in summer 2025.

Experiments at the greenhouse: Dr. Susana Wadgymar leads the project’s research portion, specifically addressing our Catawba partners’ biological inquiries. In the Pat Peroni Greenhouse at Davidson College, Wadgymar and students experimented on more than 250 plants to quantify drought resistance in the Catawba’s recently rematriated traditional variety of corn. Students measured growth, physiology, and yield to assess whether the corn was vulnerable to drought as either juvenile or adult plants. At Catawba Nation’s Black Snake Farm, Wadgymar worked with Davidson students, staff, faculty, and Catawba citizens to conduct an experiment examining the costs and benefits of growing corn, beans, and squash in polyculture (together, an Indigenous planting practice called “The Three Sisters”) versus in monoculture (separately, as is typically done in Western agriculture). This experiment included 2,820 plants and involved collaborative work by 8 Davidson students, 5 Davidson faculty and staff members, and 8 Catawba Nation citizens, one of whom was a high school student. The results of this experiment informed future planting efforts at Black Snake Farm, first presented by Environmental Studies student Ty Cryan ‘24 as his senior capstone project and has been submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Wildlife management: In summer 2023 a group of Davidson College researchers led by Dr. Kevin Smith began collaborating with the Catawba Nation Department of Natural Resources to survey and assess biodiversity at the Catawba Wildlife Preserve (CWP). The goal of the surveys was to provide information to be considered as part of habitat management decision making, with an emphasis on use of the CWP for hunting (for example, of deer and turkey) and gathering/foraging by citizens of the Nation. The Davidson College team focused on several planted stands of Loblolly Pine and associated edge habitats scattered throughout the property, which were the areas deemed most in need of assessment and potential management. They focused on documenting tree, shrub, and forest floor plant biodiversity to assess the potential of CWP to support populations of and become core habitat for these and other wildlife species and provide foraging and gathering opportunities for citizens of the Catawba Nation. The Smith’s team’s assessment of forest management activities such as stand thinning, prescribed fire, and/or forest stand improvement is ongoing. 

Meals with Indigenous Chefs: Chef Craig Mombert at Davidson College remains a key collaborator by welcoming an Indigenous chefs to campus each fall. This chef prepares a meal featuring kus and other indigenous foods for service at the college dining hall and Catawba Cultural Center.