Like a resurrection fern, the native people of Mississippi are awakening from a long sleep, ready to embrace the world again.
That is the story shared by Tammy Greer, founder of the Center for American Indian Research and Studies at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and a member of the United Houma Nation. The university is home to a medicine wheel garden that not only shares the story of the state’s native plants, but also tells the story of Mississippi’s history.
“People were telling me they thought we were extinct, but we’re not,” Greer said. “All we need is a little bit of water, a little attention, a little bit of something to elevate our culture.”
The garden, nestled between the university’s International and Liberal Arts buildings, was started in 2005, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in November, which is also Native American Heritage Month.
“During fourth grade, kids are learning about Mississippi history, and what they’re learning a lot of times is just pan-Indian stuff,” Greer said. “So, we would have games that were native Mississippi games. Sometimes we would let them build mounds and talk about the mound-building culture.
“These are native Mississippi experiences. They can’t get that in school.”
In the garden, visitors can find plants like boneset, yaupon, palmetto, elderflower, American beautyberry … the list goes on. Each plant has a purpose, sometimes several purposes, Greer said.
The plants inside the garden were what indigenous people used for food, medicine, pigments, rituals, housing, weapons, and well, just about anything you can imagine.
Before the garden was built, the elders told Greer they had lost touch with a lot of their culture and didn’t know how to use the rich botanical resources at their disposal. And, in 2004, Joe Bohanon, a former student at Southern Miss, suggested the garden as a way for indigenous people, especially students, to get in touch with their roots.
Greer and Bohanon started planning, and received a small grant to get the garden started. Greer asked the university for space to build it. She said she expected an off-campus location, but to her surprise, she was given space behind the International Center, where students could visit and tend the garden daily.
The garden gradually grew, with new topsoil and a few plants as money or donations became available until one day, Joe and Merrill Willis, a couple from the Oxford area, arrived with a truck bed and trailer full of plants native to Mississippi.
A call went out for volunteers to get the plants in the ground right away, and literally overnight the garden was robust and flourishing.
The garden is four-directional, meaning its paths face east and west, north and south, with each direction signifying a time of year coinciding with the four seasons.
Over the last 20 years, the garden has welcomed thousands of visitors, who come to learn about the plants, native American culture, Mississippi history, botany, and anthropology.
Mississippi once was home to dozens of tribes of indigenous peoples. That number dwindled over time, with tribal members scattered throughout the Southeast. The groups are gathering again to rebuild their communities and regain the traditions that were once lost to them, to be a people no longer “extinct.”
Anyone is welcome to visit the garden year-round with no admission fee. Signage helps visitors learn about the garden, the plants and cultural significance. Or, they can find a quiet place of reflection at the center of the wheel, Greer said.
“A lot of people go and sit in the center of the garden,” Greer said. “I find people out there all the time when I go harvest seeds.”
Lici Beveridge is a freelance writer based in Hattiesburg
