CNO tribal members represent Tribe at FFA Leadership Conference in D.C.

Jocelyn James and Avery McGill recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with the Tribal Agricultural Fellows (TAF) and the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF) to attend the National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Washington Leadership Conference.

During their trip, the young women represented the tribe in meetings with the Bureau of Indian Education at the Department of the Interior, the Department of State, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Tribal Relations Office.

James says she and McGill went a day before the national conference, along with several other FFA students and leaders, to speak to each department. “Avery and I both spoke a little bit about how our background with Choctaw culture has helped us delve more into agriculture as a whole,” said James.

According to James, her long held a passion for agriculture, which started in the eighth grade. “In the eighth grade, I gave a speech about Native American influence on agriculture,” said James. “From there, I started getting into Native American water rights and how they impact agriculture, and it led me to do a little more research on tribal agricultural operations across the country.”

James grew up in Broken Bow and says that being in a more rural area and experiencing the Choctaw culture helped her along this path.

McGill says her love for agriculture was a little more subtle.”I didn’t grow up in an agricultural field, but learning about my heritage through the Choctaw Nation and being able to get the seed packets and things that have been sent out over the years,” said McGill. “I was able to find this love for agriculture.”

According to McGill, it was very useful and interesting when talking about her trip. “I learned a lot about how certain policies are put into order, who they affect the most, how funding goes out from the Department of Ag to different organizations and to different groups and how the Department of Interior helps with certain native programs for other tribes,” McGill said.

McGill was also struck by the different backgrounds of the other people attending the conference, who were from many more rural areas and reservations. “How different of a life that we have, knowing that we have great funding through Choctaws, they’re [the Choctaw Nations] is always there to support us,” McGill said.

Both young women were able to speak to these different departments on topics ranging from agriculture to language preservation.

James expressed the importance of Native American agriculture in the birth of the United States. “I look back to the beginnings of the United States when settlers first arrived here,” James said. “I think back to the story of the first Thanksgiving; whether it’s completely accurate or not, settlers were coming from a land that looked completely different than this one. So without the knowledge that they gained from the local tribes there, I think it comes into question whether settlers would have been successful at all in the creation of the United States.”

As Natives, James and McGill think they come to agriculture with a slightly different perspective. “Coming at this through my culture and looking at agriculture as a whole,” said James. “I see a lot in land and water conservation and how it ties back into the beliefs of the Choctaw people.”

James is passionate about making that known to the agriculture industry. “It’s of great importance to our people, and when we tie those beliefs into the industry as a whole,” James said. “I think it could be really beneficial.”

McGill was glad to be able to share her perspective as a Choctaw Nation tribal member. “The Choctaws have such deep roots in agriculture,” McGill said. “I feel being able to talk about that and connecting the two allowed me to share the culture and expand people’s knowledge of not only the services that the Choctaws offer but also how much they’re willing to support agriculturalists and expand opportunities for the youth.”

McGill plans to attend nursing school, but she says she still wants to be involved in agriculture, growing and raising her own crops and livestock.

James plans to major in agronomy (the science and technology of using plants for agriculture to produce food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, and more with a holistic approach) at Kansas State University.
From there, she plans to go on and get her Juris Doctorate.”I want to be able to use that to work in land and water conservation,” said James. “Specifically for tribal agriculture.”