Native American seeds are finally making a comeback to their tribes after being stolen, lost, and displaced as a result of colonialism. Along with Native food sovereignty came another movement concerning the origin of those Indigenous foods: seed sovereignty. Forced relocation had led to the disappearance of these seeds from tribal communities, ending up in "vaults of public institutions, seed banks, universities, seedkeeper collections and some laying upon dusty pantry shelves of foresighted elders" (NAFSA). One of the main goals is returning these seeds back to their original tribal communities, an intergenerational movement called seed rematriation. While repatriation signifies one's return home to their own country, this movement feminizes itself by using rematriation instead, as the primary Native seed holders and care takers were women (NAFSA). The rematriation of seeds does not just mean the return of certain Indigenous plants and foods, but rather it encompasses "the reclaiming of ancestral remains, spirituality, culture, knowledge, and resources" (NAFSA).
Two organizations that are playing a large role in the seed rematriation project are Sierra Seeds and the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN), who often work together to find and bring home Indigenous seeds. A couple of years ago, the ISKN began working with one of the world's largest seed banks in the world, called Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). Through this partnership, ISKN was able to find hundreds of seed varieties whose homes can be traced back to North American Indigenous communities. While not an Indigenous organization, SSE further works Indigenous communities who hope to create their own seed banks that would protect the returned and reintegrated seeds, sharing "protocols and methods for seed history and cultural memory documentation, as well as seed bank database and critical methods for seed storage." ISKN also shared the significance of reuniting with native seeds, that the reunion does not just mean cultivating foods that had been gone for generations, but it plays a crucial role in Native cosmology. Unlike in Western science, seeds aren't just needed for food; seeds bring back a myriad of memories and traditions, reconnecting people and communities.
"As we carry these sacred bundles of our seed relatives home to their mother communities, we re-awaken time-honored relationships once again." (Sierra Seeds)
One of the pioneers of the seed sovereignty movement is Brown University professor Elizabeth Hoover, who helped transfer a collection of Meskwaki seeds from the Field Museum in Chicago back to their tribal community. While it took some time to convince the museum board to rematriate the seeds and complete the transfer process, the seeds finally made it back home. Delivering and rematriating the second batch of Meskwaki seeds has been put on hold for the moment due to the pandemic, but they're hoping to continue efforts in the 2021 planting season. Although currently only the Field Museum and the Science Museum of Minnesota are working on rematriating seeds, other museums and universities are interested in getting involved as well. Even when certain seeds are no longer capable of being awakened, despite various germination techniques including the tradition of soaking up water overnight, Shelley Buffalo "didn’t care. It was just the fact that they were back with us” (Atlas Obscura).