Most people picture a seed bank as a massive underground vault, packed with seeds from around the world and built to safeguard humanity’s food supply. But seed saving also happens much closer to home in public libraries, gardens and communities across Oklahoma.
The distinction between a seed bank and a seed library is important.
“A seed bank is where genetic material is saved for the future,” says Johanna Burton, generalist associate in Adult Services at Tulsa City-County Library.
A seed library, by contrast, is dynamic: “The seeds keep moving in and out,” she adds.
At the Tulsa City-County Library, the seed library operates in nine public library locations, offering open-pollinated and heirloom seeds throughout the year. Patrons can take up to 15 packets per season, with no fines and no requirement to return seeds. Those who are able are encouraged to let some of their best plants go to seed and bring the seeds back to share.
The program is about access, Burton says, especially for gardeners on tight budgets and for people looking for varieties that may not be available on a typical seed rack. The library also seeks seeds suited specifically to Tulsa’s tumultuous climate.
That creates another benefit: local adaptation. When gardeners save seeds from plants that thrive in Tulsa, they are preserving traits that perform well there.
“Over the generations, as we regrow these,” Burton says, “we’re actually fine-tuning these varieties to be uniquely suited to our location.”
For the Cherokee Nation, seed saving carries an even deeper connection to cultural heritage.
Photos courtesy Cherokee Nation
Feather Smith, ethnobiology manager for the Cherokee Nation, says the nation’s seed bank began taking shape around 2006 after an effort to identify seeds that could represent the Cherokee Nation in a global seed vault. Researchers discovered that the commonly associated Cherokee Purple tomato was not actually a seed cultivated by the Cherokee people.
That realization launched a search for Cherokee heirloom crops. Seeds were difficult to find, and some were in poor genetic condition. The program worked to restore their viability and preserve their genetic integrity, Smith says.
Today, the Cherokee Nation distributes roughly 9,000 to 10,000 packets annually to about 4,000 to 5,000 Cherokee citizens. Its collection includes the traditional “Three Sisters” – corn, beans and squash – along with other culturally important plants.
The collection includes four varieties of corn, including Cherokee Yellow Flour, Colored Flour, White Flour and Cherokee White Eagle corn, which Smith describes as one of the oldest and most ceremonial varieties. There are also four varieties of pole beans, along with Georgia Candy Roaster squash and Cherokee Tan pumpkin.
The work extends beyond crops. The Cherokee Nation Heirloom Garden and Native Plant Site, located just east of the Cherokee Nation complex, now contains more than 100 species of plants. More than 50 to 60 are considered culturally important, having been used for food, medicine or practical purposes. Some are also distributed through the seed bank, including purple coneflower, cutleaf coneflower and compass plant.
But these seeds are more than genetic material.
“Our seeds are truly considered sacred to us,” Smith says. “A lot of our religion was shaped around when we were planting and harvesting.”
Agriculture shaped Cherokee life, ceremonies and communities, and preserving the seeds helps carry that culture forward. For citizens living far from the reservation, growing them can provide “a piece of home,” Smith says.
Whether preserved in a library or carefully stewarded by a tribal seed bank, seeds connect past and future. They carry genetic traits, food traditions, cultural memory and knowledge of place – and ensure all of those things keep growing.
