SARE Panel: SOYL (Sowing Opportunities for Youth Leadership) Sustainable Agriculture Project

Connections Across the Generations

Friday, November 8th, 2024 – 9:00am MT – The Joe Rovere | Minnilusa Pioneer Room

SARE Panel: SOYL (Sowing Opportunities for Youth Leadership) Sustainable Agriculture Project

SOYL (Sowing Opportunities for Youth Leadership) Sustainable Agriculture Project

SOYL is a Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE)-funded project for youth in YFS’ Middle School Program. Participants studied sustainable agriculture through a series of class activities and field trips to local farms and ranches. The final project activity was to showcase their learning by teaching their younger peers at YFS’ Girls Inc. about a sustainable agriculture practice of their choice.

  • Youth Led Sustainable and Ethical Beekeeping
    • Marla BullBear, Lakota Youth Development
      • Marla C. Bull Bear, M.A. is Sicangu (Burnt Thigh) Lakota, a wife of Naca Charles W. BullBear, mother and grandmother and has been sharing traditional knowledge with youth for over 30 years. Mrs. Bull Bear, founding Executive Director of Lakota Youth Development (LYD) received her Master’s in Community Counseling from a tribal university located on the Rosebud Reservation Her passion is the work of Lakota Youth Development and its culturally specific prevention program, teaching self-sufficiency with land stewardship and youth development through Lakota language immersion, apprenticeships in bee keeping and cultural heritage tourism enterprises
  • SOYL (Sowing Opportunities for Youth Leadership) Sustainable Agriculture Project
    • Sharon Oney & Destiny Durham, Youth & Family Services
      • Sharon Oney is Chief Grants Officer and Garden Project Director at Youth & Family Services, Inc. (YFS) in Rapid City who is an enthusiastic gardener and beekeeper with a consuming interest in healthy foods. Destiny Durham has a degree in Environmental Physical Science from BHSU and has shared garden education activities with hundreds of kids, pre-K – 8th grade, at YFS for nearly two years. She has a passion for stewardship of the land and enjoys sharing her passion with others.
  • Multi-state safe and humane shearing workshops
    • Jaelyn Whaley, SDSU Extension
      • Jaelyn Whaley has served SD as the Sheep Field Specialist for 4 years in Lemmon. She grew up raising sheep and cattle and throughout graduate school, helped coach wool judging. Her passion for both lamb and wool production continues through her extension efforts.

Keynote Feature: Celebrity Chef Justin Warner 

Everything You Wanted To Know About Food Television But Were Afraid To Ask

Cultivating: Building Markets with Community in Mind

Saturday, November 9th, 2024 – 1:00pm MT – Wells Fargo Theater

What To Expect: Celebrity Chef Justin Warner will give a fun yet organized overview of what goes into making a Food Network show and highlight the local and sustainable approaches to food sourcing that is used on set.

Justin Warner was raised in Hagerstown, Maryland and developed a curiosity for cuisine at a young age.  He moved to Colorado to work in a sushi restaurant where he would meet his future wife and business partner, Brooke, who hailed from South Dakota.  Along the way he became recognized by Michelin, the New York Times, and many other publications.  He won season 8 of Food Network Star and is currently the culinary ambassador on Food Network’s #1 show, Tournament of Champions. Justin and his wife own and operate Bokujo Ramen and bb’s Natural in Rapid City, SD.

Keynote Feature: Mariah Gladstone, Piikuni (Blackfeet) and Tsalagi (Cherokee)

A Recipe for Resilience

Cultivating: Building Markets with Community in Mind

Friday, November 8th, 2024 – 10:30am MT – Wells Fargo Theater

What to expect: Locally harvested, pre-contact foods are a testament to the resilience of Native lifestyles and should be part of our modern kitchens. Mariah will discuss how to prepare nutritious meals using readily available and affordable foods in new and easy ways. Her presentation will also examine traditional Indigenous foodways, the impact of colonization on our diets, and the health and cultural benefits of reconnecting to our traditional foods.

Mariah Gladstone, Piikuni (Blackfeet) and Tsalagi (Cherokee), grew up in Northwest Montana on and near the Blackfeet Reservation. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Engineering and returned home where she began her work on food advocacy. She developed Indigikitchen, an online cooking platform, to revitalize and re-imagine Native foods. She then earned a Master’s degree at SUNY-ESF in the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Mariah has been recognized as a Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow. She has shared the importance of reconnecting to traditional foods at events throughout North America and abroad, as well as through appearances on the Today Show, CBC, and more.

Native Tea Time Workshop

Connections Across the Generations

Friday, November 8th, 2024 – 12:45-2:15pm MT – The Joe Rovere | Minnilusa Pioneer Room

For thousands of years, Indigenous people have hunted, fished, farmed and foraged for food on this continent. Mariah practices many of those traditions today and teaches others how to incorporate indigenous foods into their contemporary diets. She will bring a variety of plants she has grown and foraged that have traditionally been used to make tea, such as cedar, yarrow and mint. She will make some teas for participants to sample, then work with them to create their own personalized teas to take home. Throughout this hands-on workshop, Mariah will also discuss traditional Native foodways, changes that took place with colonization, and what is happening with the Indigenous Food Movement today.