Bridging generations: native elders and students unite at the Sustainable Agriculture Project

BY Julianna Schrier
Image credit - Cory Morse

Nov 24, 2025

The July morning was cool, but it quickly heated up as the sun emerged from behind the clouds.

Mismatched lawn chairs were arranged in a grassy clearing at the back of the Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP), where a group of people had begun to arrive. They were members from the Native American Elders Program (NAEP), which serves Native American elders in West Michigan through Northlawn United Methodist Church.

This was the group’s first meeting at the SAP, but NAEP program director Rhonda Loonsfoot had been looking for a plot of land to tend to for two years before connecting with SAP farm manager Isak Davis. “We wanted to find a place to learn to grow your own food,” said Loonsfoot.

Also in attendance were members of Grand Valley’s Native American Student Association, including president Kella Elswick and Reilly McKay ‘25. The two environmental and sustainability studies students organized the program as part of their summer internships at the SAP.

The meeting began with an introduction of names and tribes, showcasing the variety of tribes represented in the group, from Ojibwe to Blackfoot to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.

“You have to know who your family is,” said elder Linell Crampton as the group exchanged stories of growing up, some of whom were surrounded by native communities and others who didn’t have that community until they were older. Crampton also spoke about her time at Grand Valley in the 1970s, comparing her experience to what the students in attendance knew.

A hand holds up a paper that reads Anishinaabemowin Introduction, followed by a list of introduction sentences in both Anishinaabemowin and English, including “hello,” “my name is,” and “I live in”.

To begin each meeting at the Sustainable Agriculture Project, each attendee introduced themselves in Anishinaabemowin.

Two older women, one wearing a black polo, the other wearing a red sweatshirt and blue and red skirt, sit in lawn chairs. The woman in the skirt holds a large brown feather.

Linell Crampton, left, and NAEP program director Rhonda Loonsfoot sit in a meeting circle at the Sustainable Agriculture Project.

“The goal was very much an exchange of knowledge,” said McKay.

Meeting every other Thursday, the group practiced the Anishinaabemowin language, shared meals together and built connections between generations. Every week, Elswick and McKay brought a new activity to the group – some of which they led, others that the elders led.

“We had a fry bread day,” said McKay, where the elders taught the younger generation how to make a traditional indigenous deep-fried bread. “I did a song for them called Wichita Song. I started singing it and then these two other elders joined me out of nowhere, just came and stood by me and started singing. That was pretty cool.”

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Another week Elswick created and shared a guide to foraging local edible and medicinal plants, and yet another week the group helped with the harvest of the medicinal plants she was growing as part of her summer internship.

“I thought about having something that could both bridge our club with the elders in the community and do that through sustainable agriculture,” said Elswick. “I’m working with specifically sacred medicines that are used in our community for ceremonial purposes. So we planted sage, sweet grass, and tobacco.”

Elswick taught the group how she had learned to harvest white sage and sort through the dried seed pods from tobacco plants, and elders chimed in to share their advice, including Loonsfoot, who grows her own tobacco and dries it every year.

Two older and two younger women collect dried seeds from a plot of plants in small metal buckets.

Native American Student Association vice president Saviee Zavala-Perez harvests dried seed pods from a tobacco plant.

Elswick, a junior at Grand Valley and president of the Native American Student Association, said that she had been exploring environmental programs at universities in Michigan, and that the SAP was part of why she decided to attend Grand Valley in the first place.

McKay, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in environmental and sustainability studies in April 2025, focused on the “Three Sisters” method of agriculture for his SAP internship. The technique involves growing three common staple crops in Native American agriculture: corn, beans and squash.

“The corn provides a trellis for the climbing beans and the beans provide nitrogen for the corn and the squash. And the squash is a little cover so it keeps all the water in [the soil] when it gets super sunny,” said McKay.

In addition to intergenerational learning and gardening, the gatherings at the SAP increased visibility of the native community at Grand Valley, said Elswick.

A young man wearing a beanie and grey shirt that reads “Anishinaabe” stands in a small clearing between two rows of thin trees.

Reilly McKay ‘25, served as a summer intern at the SAP and graduated with a bachelor's degree in environmental and sustainability studies in April 2025.

A young woman holds a bouquet of sunflowers she’s pulled from a larger bucket of harvested flowers.

Kella Elswick is the president of the Native American Student Association, earning her degree in environmental and sustainability studies.

“Part of why I wanted to do this was to spread awareness that these things are happening, you know, on a campus in Michigan,” she said. “There are a lot of people like me – I didn't grow up around my community since I'm a part of the Mohawk tribe. So being here and learning a lot of the different things from the native community at Grand Valley has been really cool. I wanted to show that through my internship, that this could be a place for people who are interested in this land and the community.”

Following the bi-weekly meetings at the SAP throughout the summer, Elswick and the Native American Student Association have continued cultivating their relationship with the NAEP through additional programs, including a feast-bag-making workshop led by the elders.

“It's going really well so far,” said McKay. “I feel like we're learning a lot from the elders and the elders are learning a lot from us, you know? They’re not going to be around forever, so they’re teaching us their knowledge before it’s lost.”