What does hemp represent to the Lakota people?
For me, personally, it represents freedom. It represents sovereignty. It represents a means to support my family. A long time ago, the Lakota didn’t need money to survive. They just killed what they needed to eat and existed with all living elements. Today that has shifted. We need money so we can trade. I have a large family, and we all need income. In our whole family, there are nine adults on our tiospaye [a family’s tribal land holdings]. That’s the clan. Out of that, only two of them have employment. We’re not starving on the reservation, but we don’t have money. They’re responsible for helping all the rest of us who aren’t employed. So money is just stretched very thin. We would like to be able to supply ourselves with the basic needs to survive. When did you first discover hemp’s potential value? A lot of our relatives were interested in hemp clear back in 1986 or ’87. These ideas were really just talked about. Our tribal government separates industrial hemp from marijuana. Hemp
