Amid federal funding confusion, Salinas helps restore money for local Indigenous farm

A quiet two-acre farm just south of Salem, home to countless native trees and plants, has been caught in the back and forth of federal funding confusion as grants get awarded and cancelled.

Just off of the Delaney Road exit on Interstate 5, Elderberry Wisdom Farm is a place for Indigenous people and students of color to come together for educational and professional opportunities in agriculture.

Since President Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term, three federal grants awarded to the farm were canceled amid the whirl of executive orders and funding freezes affecting organizations around the country.

The grants had been awarded from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

One of the three grants was recently unfrozen, partly thanks to U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, who wrote a letter calling on the agency to reinstate the farm’s grant. That money, $750,000, will now be used to increase tree coverage in Salem neighborhoods by paying for students at low-income high schools to plant native trees and shrubs.

Rose High Bear, who founded the farm, sang the buffalo song, a Lakota song of empowerment, to honor Salinas, who visited the farm Wednesday morning. 

Started by High Bear almost six years ago, Elderberry Wisdom Farm functions as a nonprofit that encourages younger generations to be involved in agricultural business and Native American traditions.

“This is the perfect nexus of the work I think needs to be done,” Salinas said, describing the farm’s programs which tackle climate change by increasing tree cover while teaching Indigenous culture.

After USDA started freezing funding in January, Salinas signed letters to the department in February and April criticizing the wide sweeping freezes on agricultural funding, which included the grant awarded to Elderberry Wisdom Farm.

High Bear said she received an email in the last week restoring, or unfreezing, the grant, which was awarded to the farm through the Oregon Department of Forestry.

“We’ve actually started ahead of time, we didn’t want to wait,” High Bear said. “So we purchased trees, we’ve been repotting them into the right sizes.”

Soon, the farm will sell the trees to community partners for people to go out into Salem neighborhoods with low tree coverage to plant the trees, including Willamette Valley ponderosa pines. 

This summer, the farm will welcome a new group of around eight interns to help research neighborhoods and go out to plant the trees.

Two other federal grants that would have funded internship programs and other workforce development efforts have been paused or cancelled, one as recently as two weeks ago.

One would have paid the farm $350,000 for three years of habitat restoration internships for Indigenous youth and students of color. The interns would have worked on local urban forestry projects, improved tree canopies and researched disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Around 16 Indigenous youth and people of color intern at Elderberry Wisdom Farm throughout the year, with a majority interning during the summers, according to High Bear.

Internships are made possible by a five year workforce development grant and a partnership with Chemeketa Community College.

For the last four years, the grant and partnership has helped teach interns about agricultural practices and Indigenous health and wellness.

Some of the programs focus on helping Indigenous youth heal from generational or ancestral trauma, she said. 

“It’s a deeply spiritual thing that’s hard to talk about publicly,” High Bear said. She said the farm would still be able to host interns this summer with existing funding.

In the past, Elderberry Wisdom Farm has run documentary projects where Indigenous youth got to produce videos featuring tribal traditions and storytelling. 

“The valuable contributions of our project would reverberate through the participating Native American youth,” High Bear told Salem Reporter in 2022. “It would provide an investment in their own futures and strengthen the positive contributions they could provide to society. We estimate it will increase their health and wellness resiliency, including their cultural identity and positive self-esteem.”

Throughout 2023, the farm hosted a filmmaking program to encourage college students to “return to their own tribe and help to restore their own culture, history and vitality,” High Bear told Salem Reporter at the time.

UPDATE: This story was updated to include information on when U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas signed letters to the USDA.

Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].

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