The sun was shining bright last Friday as more than 200 FLC faculty, staff, students, and community members gathered outside FLC’s Indigenous Garden for its official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“It’s really beautiful today. And I think this garden’s going to have many days like that,” said Lilliona Benally, one of the FLC students who spent the summer interning at the garden. “It’s also going to have hard days, like all of us. I really want to think about that support, that as much as we’re supporting this garden, we’re going to support each other in the years to come.”
The garden, Benally said, “is going to be a place to share, a place of community. I’m glad that this was such a collective thing that we did all together.”
The garden, which sits on the south side of the Art Building, is the result of years of campus discussions around food sovereignty, water conservation, and creating a space where Indigenous students could connect more deeply with the land. 
From the classroom to the garden
The idea for the garden came from the Indigenous Garden Learning Circle, said Kathy Hilimire, chair and professor of Environment & Sustainability, adding the Native American Agricultural Fund has been supportive of the efforts from the start. She said the learning circle agreed the garden was to be a place of learning, community building, and cultural connection, centrally located on campus, “so everybody could see it and celebrate it and think about it.”
The group also wanted the garden to be used to teach language, be connected to reconciliation efforts, and allow for the sharing of food and traditions.
“For me, I am truly looking forward to bringing students in my environmental science and agroecology courses, my political ecology of food courses, out to this space to learn, experientially in this space, and really grow. And I’m so grateful that this is, this is here, and I’m so glad that you’re all here to celebrate it with us.”
Fort Lewis College President Heather Shotton said the garden exists because of faculty like Hilimire, who helped students’ dreams into existence. She also thanked “the students who held us accountable, who insisted that we respond to their calls for a need for a space, a space of healing, a space that centered Indigenous knowledge, a space that could serve for future generations, for people that would be here long after they were gone.
“Those students planted that seed,” she said.
Community connections
Lori Cook, vice president of Advancement and CEO of the FLC Foundation, said the garden would not have been possible without community support. She said several donors saw the vision “before we even had the schematics or the renderings.”
“Our Indigenous Garden represents a space that’s both for and by our community,” Cook said. “And it’s a beautiful example of how generosity through time, talent, and funding can make a tremendous difference.”
She thanked several donors, including the Dear Family, the Erteszek Family Foundation, the Colorado Health Foundation, the Home Depot Foundation, El Pomar Foundation, and the Boettcher Foundation.
“These families and organizations, along with many individual donors, allowed us to build the Indigenous Garden that we see today.”
Plants as relatives
Joslynn Lee, associate professor of chemistry, is an FLC alumna who was key in launching the reconciliation efforts at FLC. She called on those present to consider how Indigenous people connect with plants.
“They’re important because plants are central not only for nutrition, medicinal purposes, ceremonial, and utility, just to name a few, but it’s really the connection that people feel with land, place, and space,’ she said.
Lee said she remembers, as a student, meeting other Indigenous students and sharing their knowledge about plants in their different cultures: how they harvested them and the stories connected to them.
“When I think about the knowledge that is going to come from this space, it’s really exciting,” she said. “What I hope is that these plants can start a dialogue and help each of us educate each other.
Chris Nelson, vice president of Diversity Affairs and special advisor on tribal relations, also talked about the importance of a garden in Indigenous culture.
“As we move into these different spaces of seeing the garden grow and mold into its environment, you all are part of that,” Nelson said. “And as you all, especially the students, need space to heal, space to process, you can see these as your extension to relatives, to be able to talk to, to find solace, to find comfort, to find happiness. And also just a place to chill and have a good time and be in community with other folks as well.”
She added: “The goal is that we continue to find those voices that exist within us so that we can continue to reimagine higher education. To me, that is why we’re here.”
Lee invited everyone to return to the garden.
“This should be seen as a shared living space. Think of it as somewhere we can all grow,” she said. “I hope you spend some time here, greet all of our relatives.”