Indigenous garden serves as next step in reconciliation for Otoe-Missouria Tribe

The City of Lincoln officially recognized the Otoe-Missouria Tribe around two and a half years ago as the original stewards of land that would later become Lancaster County.

It followed a wave of reckonings in 2022 across the U.S. when government officials acknowledged land and artifacts stolen from Indigenous tribes.

After the tribe was pushed out almost 200 years ago, the University of Nebraska’s Great Plains Studies program and some Lincoln residents have helped deepen relationships between the tribe and its ancestral lands in Lincoln. A new Indigenous garden in Lancaster County aims to mark another milestone of reconciliation and healing.

Christina Faw Faw-Goodson was one of 60 Otoe-Missouria members who made the September 2022 trek from her tribe's reservation in Oklahoma to witness the land acknowledgement made by Lincoln officials. Since then, she's traveled back to Nebraska dozens of times to visit her ancestral lands.

"It's mixed emotions, because I'm constantly thinking about [how] the businesses here are so successful, and it's clearly been a fruitful space for Lincoln to build itself up. It's a little bittersweet, because it was ours," she said. "I think about that a lot, driving from Oklahoma to Nebraska. It's like constantly on my mind, just thinking about their journey from Nebraska to Oklahoma, and those that did return after they left and really weren't allowed to come back."

She said she's been surprised by how much has been accomplished since the founding of the "Walking in Our Footsteps" project, which blossomed out of the 2022 land acknowledgement. Faw Faw-Goodson is a co-director of the project.

"We've been able to establish really wonderful relationships with a lot of different agencies, organizations and community members that have opened up so many doors and opportunities for us to not only create a garden plot for our traditional medicines and foods and things like that, but also just having spaces to have ceremony," she said.

She said it's been easier to come back to Lincoln, and it's feeling more like home.

"That's really lovely — just being able to come back to Lincoln without being invited, like it is my home," she said. "It is our home. So we can come back anytime and have a place here. That's the best part, is we're welcomed here, and that means more than anything, really."

On Saturday, Otoe-Missouria tribe members and leaders of the Great Plains studies program will make another milestone with the planting of an indigenous garden at Prairie Pines Nature Reserve, just northeast of Lincoln. The garden will be cared for by people in Lincoln who have befriended the Otoe-Missouria tribe.

"We've got some squash and watermelon," Faw Faw-Goodson said. "We're going to be planting what's called Wild Bergamot, but we call Indian perfume sweet grass. We're not doing corn this year, because that's just a lot of effort. We're just getting started, but I think that's something we'd like to do in the future. We're also going to plant some tobacco, traditional tobacco and beans."

One of the tribe's elders will lead the land blessing.

"Usually, we use water and cedar or tobacco — depending on what we have," she said. "And just pray and ask Creator to give us good crops on everything that is grown here, blesses people and that it doesn't cause harm to them."

The blessing ceremony will take place at Prairie Pines on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Some tribe members are making the journey from their Oklahoma reservation to Lincoln for the event. The public is invited to take part in a potluck to celebrate the garden connect with each other and learn more about the Otoe-Missouria people.