Rooted in History:
Examining the tradition of local agriculture at
the Seeds of Change Research Farm and Gardens
by Evan Snow 

The Seeds of Change Research Farm and Gardens are located in Estaca, New Mexico about four miles north of San Juan Pueblo. We get our water from the mighty Rio Grande and an acequia, or irrigation canal, that is rumored to be the oldest in the area, which would make it the oldest in the country. (An acequia is a canal that diverts water off of a river and brings it within reach of land that is being cultivated. Individual farmers take water from the acequia and apply it to their crops using different methods; the most common is to divert the water into a network of smaller ditches that allow farmers to flood their fields most efficiently.) There is a rich history here and you don’t have to go far to find evidence of it. San Juan Pueblo is right down the road and there are petroglyphs scattered throughout the hills next to the farm. It is not unusual to find pottery shards in the fields while weeding. 

There is evidence that indigenous people grew food in this area long before the first Spanish settlers arrived in 1598 with Juan de Oñate, “the Last Conquistador.” Oñate arrived with 28 families and established a settlement just across the Rio Grande from San Juan Pueblo. The Spaniards brought with them their own farming techniques along with livestock and introduced acequias to the area. One of the families that came with Oñate carried the name Lopez. Juan Lopez was given a tract of land by Sebastian Martin Serrano, a prominent figure among the Spanish immigrants. This land included the few acres which are now the Seeds of Change Farm. 

Our network of irrigation ditches was constructed in the 1880's and land here was used to raise alfalfa for livestock. When Ernesto Lopez inherited the farm from his father in the 1920’s he built the house that the farm interns now live in. Ernesto married Maria S. de Lopez who came from Mexico. They raised alfalfa, pigs, vegetables, and many fruit trees, some of which we still enjoy today. After they divorced, Maria stayed here at Rancho de Lopez and kept the farm beautiful and productive. She was also the principal of a local school for many years. She hired local help to keep her farm and gardens operational including one of our own, Joe Martinez. Joe has lived in this area his whole life and as a young man he helped Maria with farm chores. Then about ten years ago Joe returned to this farm and is now part of the foundation of the Seeds of Change Farm. (Martinez) He is also the source for much of this history and we thank him for his willingness to share his wisdom. 

When Maria passed away, her sister, who still lived in Mexico, inherited the farm and sold it to the Shapiros who eventually brought Seeds of Change here. The old wooden ranch gate is still here and from it hangs a faded wooden sign that reads Rancho de Lopez. A few yards up the road there is a new, black metal gate with a sign the reads Seeds of Change. If you visit our farm you will mostly meet young Anglo-Americans with a variety of backgrounds who often come from across the country to work here and learn about organic agriculture. We bring with us enthusiasm and a hunger for knowledge. As we work on this land and dig our hands in this dirt it is important that we understand a little about the history of this area and the people who dug their hands in this dirt centuries before we ever laid eyes on it. Northern New Mexico is home to a very unique group of indigenous people who we can learn much from.
                 
Ancient Pueblo People
There are nineteen Pueblos scattered across the northern part of the piece of land we call New Mexico. Pueblo is the Spanish word for the compact towns or villages characterized by adobe or stone structures whose inhabitants are the descendants of a people who have survived in the Southwest for at least 10,000 years. They maintain much of their traditional culture despite strong pressures from non-native peoples. Most of the Pueblos are located near the Rio Grande and its tributaries and all of the Pueblos share strong ties to farming in their everyday and religous lives. Pueblo people have been successful farmers in an arid region for more than 2,000 years. Their unique way of irrigating land, and their well-adapted planting and seed saving techniques have helped to create strong farming communities that have held onto their traditional ways (Cordell).  

Due to the tenacity of the Pueblo people, the Spanish mission system was never totally successful in New Mexico. Despite this, many of the modern Pueblo religious ceremonies incororate elements of Christianity, which exist beside native beliefs and practices. Early pressure on the Pueblo people concerning their religious beliefs by the invading Spaniards led to a revolt in 1680. The Spanish were kept out of the area until 1696, and when they returned they were forced to be more accepting of the Pueblo lifestyle and religious beliefs. The Pueblos do integrate some Spanish words into their day-to-day speech but only formal native language is used in ceremonies. The Pueblos each have their own unique feast days and perform pre-European dances, intended in part to honor their patron saint. This approach to an influential outside culture is referred to as compartmentalization. While the Pueblos assimilate certain Christian and Spanish practices into their lives, they keep them separate from their traditional practices. The Pueblos have adopted certain Spanish foods and historically they even fought with the Spaniards against nomadic invaders. Despite this, the Pueblos maintained strong communities and it was the Spaniards who often adapted to the native way of life, rather than vice versa (Cordell). 

Traditional Pueblo Agriculture            
The Pueblo people have been successful farmers for centuries in an area of difficult climatic conditions. Their success is due to many factors, among them: using well-adapted planting techniques and crops, advanced irrigation techniques, the successful transmission of knowledge from generation to generation, and skills in creating pottery for storing and cooking food and storing seed. Corn was brought to the southwest from Mesoamerica around 1,500 BCE and has become central to Pueblo life and agriculture. The development of corn varieties that are better adapted to the cooler and drier climate of New Mexico and the Southwest was essential to the success of ancient Pueblo people.  By not selecting seed based on size and by making sure to preserve the unique traits of each variety, the Pueblos were able to maintain high biodiversity and mitigate the risk of crop failure. In a harsh and varying climate such as the Southwest there is no advantage in selecting seed based on average conditions. 

The attitude of the Pueblo people is to be thankful for all the corn they grow. Their use of multiple planting locations and times helped reduce the risk of crop failure. Corn was often planted in clusters atop low earth mounds, with each mound containing several plants and the mounds placed several yards apart. Using this method allowed the outer plants to protect the inner ones, isolated pest and disease problems, reduced competition for moisture, and facilitated easy crop rotation. Pueblo farmers would carefully select field locations, looking for deep soils to retain moisture, north- and east-facing slopes to reduce exposure to the intense sun, natural flood plains for easy irrigation, and even planted in sand dunes allowing the sand to act as mulch (Cordell). 
           
Irrigation is essential to dryland farming and Pueblo farmers have used it in different forms throughout their agricultural history. Floodwater farming was the earliest and easiest technique that the Pueblos used. This could mean simply planting in a natural floodplain or diverting runoff water to a specific area. The ancestors of the Pueblo people, the Anasazi, used check dams to create beds with good soil that would catch and hold water. By strategically placing rocks along intermittent streams they could slow the flow of water, allow silt and organic matter to build up and then have a plantable bed. Canal systems came along later and provided a more secure water source, allowing for farmers to spend more time in other endeavors. Pueblo farmers dug networks of ditches, referred to as acequias, which would divert river water to their farmland and allow them to flood irrigate on a regular schedule. A dependable and substantial water source gave the Pueblo people more time to develop other crafts, expand their dwellings, and create more advanced religious systems (Vlasich). 
           
Farmers handed down their knowledge of soils, drainage conditions, and climatic patterns from one generation to the next. The timing of moisture for their crops was critical and Pueblo farmers used different techniques to establish calendars to work by. Observing the migration of birds, changes in air temperature, and the color of foliage in the mountains all gave them clues about when to plant and harvest. They calculated more accurately the solstices, equinoxes, and phases of the moon by observing the rising and setting of the sun in relation to known landmarks (Cordell). 
           
Clay pottery was introduced to Pueblo peoples around 300–400 CE. The incorporation of pottery into Pueblo life facilitated a more sedentary lifestyle. With the skills to create vessels for cooking food, storing food, and storing seed, the Pueblo people now had more free time and were able to advance their culture and grow more food to sustain more people. Archaeologists use the remains of the varying types of pottery created by the native peoples to classify them into different groups and distinguish unique time periods within the history of southwestern indigenous peoples (Cordell). 

Modern Pueblo Agriculture
Modern times have seen a drastic decline in small-scale subsistence farming across the United States and Pueblo agriculture has been no exception to that trend. The struggle for Pueblo people to hold onto their traditional agricultural ways has been one of both internal and external issues. Lack of land, water, and interest, have all contributed to the decline in production from Pueblo farmland. Most of the original Pueblo land, especially land with any potential resources, was taken from the Pueblos before the Pueblo people were recognized as American citizens in 1924. The land that each Pueblo still has is held collectively by the Pueblo while the rights to use the land are inherited by each generation of Pueblo people. This has led to a system of small, widely scattered land holdings that makes for large effort and small return on small-scale farming endeavors. Much of their water has been taken from them, as rights of individual non-native property owners often take precedent over the indigenous rights of the Pueblo people according to current law. Government on the state and national level often fails to recognize these rights and ignores the water right laws and land treaties that already exist. Despite the decline in Pueblo agriculture, the Pueblo people still recognize the importance of farming and this can be seen in their religious ceremonies that still focus on the land and growing food (Vlasich).

As I explore the world of organic agriculture and rediscover a lifestyle of more sustainable practices, I feel that it is also valuable to explore my roots and connect with the land in such a way that I can begin to appreciate all that it has given to me and many people before me. Often we look at a piece of land like a blank canvas, but in most cases there have been many painters who have already left their brush strokes. There is, of course, always room for more painting. We seek permanence in agriculture and we strive to create that on our small farm in the Rio Grande Valley. As the Seeds of Change Research Farm and Gardens continues to evolve, we are trying to make sure that we stay rooted in the rich history of agriculture and diverse peoples that sustained themselves on this land for many centuries before we arrived.

Evan Snow
Seeds of Change Change Research Farm Intern

Works Cited

Cordell, Linda S. Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 1994.

Martinez, Joe. Personal interview. 3 June 2008.

Vlasich, James A. Pueblo Indian Agriculture. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico P, 2005. 

Photo Captions: (1) The Seeds of Change Research Farm and Gardens is located in the historic Rio Grande Valley, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico (2) The centuries old acequia that provides irrigation water to the farm (3) Petroglyphs are scattered throughout the hills near the Farm