In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we want to share our respect, appreciation, and gratitude to the Native people who lived on and cared for the land we all know now as Oakton College.
On December 13, 2022, Oakton’s Board of Trustees approved Oakton’s Land Acknowledgement to recognize and appreciate the roots of where this beautiful land came from.
“Oakton is the community’s college. We recognize that our community embodies a network of historical connections and contemporary relationships with Native peoples, families, students, and alumni. We continue to live and work on the traditional homelands stolen from many different Native peoples, including but not limited to the Bodéwadomi (Potawatomi), Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawaa (Ottawa), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Mamaceqtaw (Menominee), Myaamiaki (Miami), Thakiwaki (Sac and Fox) and Hoocagra (Ho-Chunk) nations.
Others have settled and cared for this land from time immemorial. The land of our Des Plaines campus nurtured a large Potawatomi settlement along the Des Plaines River. This was a site of trade, travel, and gathering for many Native people. With the lush forests and vibrant river, these communities flourished in this beautiful land of biodiversity and reciprocity. These lands are still home to many Native people of many nations.”
Oakton's Beautiful Des Plaines Campus
The exemplary ways in which Native people interact with and care for the land is an admirable way of life. They honor the land by tending to it with love and respect. In return, the land gives them what they need to survive. This is reciprocity, a word that gives me hope for a harm-free, spiritually connected world. Here I reveal my personal understanding of this concept and how Oakton College practices reciprocity in the lens of Naturalist and Sustainability Projects.
Oakton's Maple Woodland Classroom
My understanding of reciprocity is that an economy can be built by being open to receive from others, giving thanks, and providing a gift in return. Author Robin Wall Kimmerer ruminates on reciprocity as she enjoys fistfuls of berries from a serviceberry bush, enjoying the delicious harvest alongside robins who are doing the same. In The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance she writes;
“This abundance of berries feels like a pure gift from the land. I have not earned, paid for, nor labored for them. There is no mathematics of worthiness that reckons I deserve them in any way. And yet here they are—along with the sun and the air and the birds and the rain…You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the Robins and I know them as gifts. We both sing gratitude with our mouths full.”
Kimmerer enjoys a bounty of berries she had no part in growing and wonders if she could give anything in return. Gratitude, in return, is a start. Kimmerer continues;
“Gratitude creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you have what you need. In that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver. If our first response is gratitude, then our second is reciprocity: to give a gift in return.”
If we could start by openly receiving something, enjoying the gift received, giving thanks in return, and giving a gift in return…what would be the implications of such a practice?
Projects of Reciprocity at Oakton College
Maple Woodland Classroom
Nestled in the shady maple grove on the west side of the Des Plaines campus, this historic woodland is not only the site of Oakton’s maple syrup production, but also the location that hosted maple-tapping by numerous Indigenous groups from time immemorial, including the Potawatami, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Miami, Winnebago, Illinois, Menominee, Sac and Fox, and Ho-Chunk nations. The space offers a relaxing quick retreat to busy students, staff, and faculty who want to dip into the manifold benefits of Nature. The wind in the trees, the colorful songbirds, and the enveloping shade make this a natural space to host Forest Bathing events. It also serves as a meeting place for hands-on ecological restoration activities, such as the forty people who volunteered to cut and burn invasive trees during our Ecological Stewardship Volunteer Day on Saturday Oct 15, 2022. The creation of this classroom was made possible through the support of the Oakton Educational Foundation, the maple syrup produced by the trees, and the labor of the Naturalist. All of these things are valuable gifts to our campus community.
Pollinator Gardens
Through a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, Oakton is converting over two acres of turfgrass into vibrant pollinator gardens. This project has beautified the campus and provided critical habitat for many species, including the globally endangered (and Illinois state insect) monarch butterfly. These gardens serve as hands-on learning opportunities for students, as they plant native plants and collect/process/spread seed. In the future, as the gardens mature, they will serve as additional sources of free native plant seed and continued class involvement. This seed can support the creation of additional pollinator habitat, fundraising efforts for Environmental Club, and even the creation of an Oakton College free seed program for community members looking to Oakton’s leadership in making their land more environmentally sustainable.
Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) recently planted as part of a Pollinator Garden
Apiary
Oakton College in Partnership with Village of Skokie and Alveole Beekeeping installed two hives of honey bees in the newly built Skokie Apiary. On the day of installation, approximately 30 students from Early Childhood Education came to observe the process and interact with the beekeeper. Students interacted with beeswax and pollen on the inside covers and asked questions of the Beekeeper on site. Since the installation, the College has received 200 jars of honey which were gifted to the College’s Education Foundation Board, Board of Directors, and newly onboarded Oakton Employees. The Apiary offers two community workshops per year, one in October (Campus Sustainability Month) and one in April (Earth Month). Learn more about Oakton’s Apiary at MyHive.
Community Garden
The Des Plaines community garden at entrance 31 is a natural space to engage the campus in sustainable initiatives. To date the Garden has hosted more than 20 garden workdays with Oakton students, staff and faculty. Initiatives included spring cleaning, mulch prep, seeding, planting, weeding, watering, turning compost and harvesting fruit. Beds are freely used and operated by community organizations, Oakton departments and student groups such as Trickster Cultural Center, Black Student Union, Bookstore Cooperative, IEEE student club, and Environmental Studies Concentration. Harvested fruit, vegetables, and herbs are gifted to local pantries, student groups, and Oakton’s Caring Closet program.
These larger projects do allow us to receive gifts from the land and participate in the almost boundless abundance of the Earth, but the mindset of reciprocity doesn't stop there. Both campuses at Oakton College offer ample opportunities for both giving to and receiving from Mother Earth. How have you engaged this year? And how might you cultivate more reciprocity into your life from this day forward?
-- Charmaine John, Arbella Pera, Amanda Krause, and Paul Gulezian
References:
Oakton College | Mission, Vision, and Values. (n.d.). Www.oakton.edu. Retrieved November 14, 2023, from https://www.oakton.edu/about/mission.php
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance – Robin Wall Kimmerer. (n.d.). Emergence Magazine. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/
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