MU-Osage Summer Experience Week

Five Osage high school students joined Osage Food Sovereignty Coordinator, Harleigh Moore, for a visit to central Missouri this summer as participants in the inaugural MU-Osage Summer Experience Week “Learning from Our Land”. The week-long program included a full agenda with hands-on learning opportunities at various University of Missouri research centers and place-based experiences connecting Missouri and MU land-based research with Osage ancestral heritage and culture.

The summer experience for Osage students is the first in what is planned to be an annual program supported by Osage Nation Education Department and Natural Resources Department and the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry as recipients of the USDA NIFA New Beginning for Tribal Students grant program. The NIFA-funded project, titled “MU-Osage Food and Agriculture Program for Tribal Student Recruitment, Engagement, and Success” grew from expressed Osage interest in youth education at the MU Land of the Osages Research Center which opened in 2019, and in our mutual goals to increase Osage presence and involvement in MU’s College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (CAFNR) and MU Center for Agroforestry activities.

With leadership from Osage Nation Education Department staff, students have been informed and advised about this opportunity in addition to a scholarship for three Osage students to attend MU in a CAFNR degree program. Partnership with the Education Department has been critical to accomplishing the project’s goals, and the first scholarship recipient will begin her undergraduate studies at MU this fall.

Participants in this year’s MU-Osage Summer Experience Week, including the inaugural scholarship recipient, spent several days on the MU campus, living in a dorm, and visiting with students and faculty to learn about research and education opportunities relevant to their interests. Hands-on place-based activities included a tree-ring science and forest ecology lab, seed saving from native fruits and herbs, a silvopasture forage study, a food science lab with elderberry juice, hiking and kayaking with birding where eagles, kingfishers, least bitterns, and herons flew close by along the water. Additional community events included a farm and market tour with connections to Harvest Land activities, and a Missouri River boat trip to Osage petroglyphs above a cave on the river.

Students also had a chance to connect with other Native students at MU during their welcome dinner and beading circle with the Four Directions Native and Ally student group, and to learn more about their own heritage with instructor Kilan Jacobs from the Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office who joined the group at the Land of the Osages Research Center to share about the importance of this place for the Osage people.

As the collaborative project continues, organizers hope to sustain the relationships established through this program and grow more opportunities for MU and Osage partnership. Osage students interested in the MU CAFNR scholarship or the summer experience program may contact Robynn Rulo (Osage Nation Education Dept. rrulo@osagenation-nsn.gov) or Hannah Hemmelgarn (University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry hemmelgarnh@missouri.edu).