Our Instructors:

Juan Nelson Rojas

Ronaldo Lec Ajcot

This course will incorporate traditional indigenous knowledge of agricultural practices with permaculture design principles, ethics, and characteristics. We will explore the practical aspects of permaculture through study and application of permaculture design methods and principals in the areas of microclimates, soils, water, earthworks, gardening, animal husbandry, aquaculture, seeds, plants, and distribution, site design, market and food preservation, forest gardens, maps and plans, including comprehensive comunity food systems. The course will be 72 hour of hands-on and classroom instruction.

Co-Facilitators for the course are Juan Nelson Rojas and Ronaldo Lec Ajcot of the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP). Tsyunhehkwa and Oneida Nation Program staff will offer instruction in many of the topic areas currently being practiced as a part of the Oneida Community Integrated Food Systems.

Registration: To register to the Advanced Indigenous Permaculture Course, submit the completed Registration Form along with method of payment via Mail, email, fax or in-person to:

Attn: Maggie Escalante
College of Menominee Nation
Sustainable Development Institute
Advanced Indigenous Permaculture Design Course
P O Box 1179
Keshena WI 54135
Email:   [email protected]
Fax:      (715) 799-5951

Participant Qualifications: Applicants should provide permaculture design course certificate or have relevant and acceptable life experience for advanced permaculture design certification. Qualifications determined by couse Instructors.

Registration Form

Information Packet & Registration Form

Tuition: Tuition includes *Accommodations
$600 USD for 9-Day,72 hour Certification / Non- Certification Course
$150 USD for each Daily 8 hour Non-Certification Course
For Daily Non-Certification Courses please specify, on the registration form, which Day/Days you Plan to attend.

*Accommodations: Lunches provided.
Camping w/available showers.
Bring your tent and sleeping bag, Please have comfortable outdoor work clothing and shoes. Work gloves, hat for sun if needed and rain coat or parka.

Tsyunhehkwa Farm -Oneida, Wisconsin

Tuesday May 26, 20
Introduction to Permaculture

“In life and in design, we must accept that immutable rules will not apply, and instead be prepared to be guided on our continuing exploration by flexible principles and directives”

8:00–9:00am - Welcome - Rick Hill - Oneida Nation of Wisconsin Chairman
                   S. Verna Fowler - President, College of Menominee Nation
                   Juan Nelson Rojas - Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute, El Salvador
                   Ronaldo Lec Ajcot - Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute, Guatemala
                   Melissa Cook - Sustainable Development Institute
                   Ted Skenandore - Tsyunhehkw^Prayer/Ceremony - Bob Brown - Oneida Nation
9:00am-12:00pm - Analysis of agriculture and its tendencies worldwide – Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                                Analysis of the environment and global warming
                                First Nation´s Cosmovisión at Abya Yala (Virgin land & turtle island)
                                Permaculture in time and space
12:00pm-1:30pm - Lunch at Norbert Hill Center
1:30pm-4:30pm -   Tour of Oneida Nation – Kirby Metoxen
4:30pm-5:00pm - Daily Summary and Wrap Up

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Natural Principals, Ethics and Characteristics in Permaculture

“Aboriginal cultures used myth to show how unnecessary acts and unthinking destruction of elements brings about catastrophe and suffering. If we don’t destroy the earth, open-system energy saving will see us evolve as conscious beings in a conscious universe.

8:00am-10:00am - Permaculture, ethics, characteristics and natural principles – Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                              Applying laws and principles to design
10:15am-12:00pm - The moon and its influence on agriculture - Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
12:00pm-1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm-2:45pm - The Mayan calendar, a practical guide to simply living - Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
3:00pm-4:30pm - Oneida Cultural Heritage – Randy Cornelius
4:30pm-5:00pm – Daily Summary and Wrap Up

Thursday May 28, 2009
Forest-Based Gardening

“We can construct or own variations of the forest by establishing an intercrop of taller and shorter species, climbing plants, and herbs according to their heights, shade tolerance and water requirements.

Bus departs from Tsyunhehkw^ at 8:00am
Bus arrives back at 5:00pm
8:00am-9:00am – Travel to Menominee Nation
9:00am-12:00pm - Forest garden design elements – James Chamberlain, US Forest Service
                              Native plants, fruits, berries, medicines, grasses and trees
12:00pm-1:00pm – Lunch
1:00pm-4:00pm – Tour of Menominee Forest – David “Jonesy” Miller, David Napoose Turney
                               Menominee Ancestral Way of Life
4:00pm-5:00pm – Travel Back to Oneida Nation

Friday  May 29, 2009
Cultivated Ecosystems, Care for the Earth

“We must study whether the resources and energy consumed can be derived from renewable or non-renewable resources, and how non-renewable resources can best be used to conserve and generate energy in living (renewable) systems.

Track 1
8:00am-9:00am - Broad climate zones, temperate, tropic and arid zones-Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
9:00am-10:00am - Reading the landscape, maps, slopes and valleys-Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
10:15pm-10:30pm – Travel
10:30am-12:00pm - Aquaculture, creek bank preservation – Steve Linskins, Dan Brooks, Rod Hill)
12:00pm - 1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm-1:45pm – Travel
1:45pm-3:00pm – Oneida Nation Farm, Raising Buffalo, management, grazing, etc – Dennis Van Vreede
3:00pm-3:15pm – Travel
3:15pm-4:30pm - Apple Orchard, growing, pruning, etc –Roger Arms, Jeff Scofield 4:30pm-5:00pm – Daily Summary and Wrap Up
Track 2
Bee Keeping Basics – Ross Conrad (Keshena CMN Campus)
1:00pm-1:30pm – Introduction and overview
1:30pm-2:30pm – Honey Bee Biology and tip for working with Bees
2:30pm-3:30pm – Hive Construction and Layout
3:30pm-6:00pm – Hands-On Building of equipment

Saturday May 30, 2009
Developing Cultivated Ecosystems with Permaculture

“These systems, fueled by the sun, should produce not only their own needs, but the needs of the people creating or controlling them. Thus, they are sustainable, as they sustain both themselves and those who construct them.”

 Track 1
8:30am-10:30am - Water and soils, natural resources, biodiversity- Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                               Climate and seasons, yield and storage
10:45am -12:00pm - Green House plants – Tsyunhehkwa Staff
                                  Plant and seed distribution
12:00pm-1:30pm - Cookout Lunch
1:30pm-5:30pm - Preparing and planting garden beds – Tsyunhehkwa Staff
                       Planting a strawberry patch
Track 2
Bee Keeping - Ross Conrad (Keshena CMN Campus)
1:00pm-2:30pm - Colony Colapse Disorder  (The current state of beekeeping and organic solutions)
2:30pm-4:00pm - Nontoxic Varroa Mite Control
4:00pm-6:00pm - Transfer Nucleaus Colonies into New Equipment

Sunday May 31, 2009
Methods of Design

“Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms. It seeks to provide a sustainable and secure place for living things on this earth.”

Track 1 
8:30am-10:00am - Site Analysis, zones and sectors
                              Pest Management – Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
10:15am-12:00pm - Farmers Market/Oneida Community Integrated Food Systems – Bill Ver Voort
12:00pm-1:30pm - Cookout Lunch
1:30pm-5:30pm - Animal Husbandry, raising chickens, cattle, turkeys – Tsyunhehkwa Staff
                             Growing, Drying, Storing White Corn
                             Making corn mush – Vicky Cornelius, Jamie Betters
                             Canning practices
Track 2
Bee Keeping – Ross Conrad (Keshena CMN Campus)
1:00pm-2:30pm – Natural Control of Honey Bee Pests and Predators (other than Varroa mites)
2:20pm-3:15pm – Seasonal Management of Hives
3:15pm-4:45pm – Products from the Hive and their Uses
4:45pm-6:00pm – Field Visit to Bee Hives (Demonstrate and practice working with Bees)

Monday June 1, 2009
Social Permaculture & Self Sufficiency, Care for the People

“Permaculture as a design system contains nothing new. It arrays what was always there in a different way, so that it works to conserve energy or to generate more energy than it consumes. What is novel, and often overlooked, is that any system of total commonsense design for human communities is revolutionary!”

8:00am-10:30am - Ethics & access to land, Legal and invisible structures – Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                              Population & social  organization, Bioregion
10:45am-12:00pm - Suburban & Urban Permaculture - Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                                Permaculture rural Communities
12:00pm-1:30pm - Lunch
1:30pm-4:30pm - Solar power and applications, Site tours – Mike Troge
4:30pm-5:00pm - Daily Summary and Wrap Up

Tuesday June 2, 2009
Drawing Techniques in the Design

“Site designing needs not a specialist approach, but rather a multi-disciplinary and bio-social approach that takes into account the effects the environment has on its intended occupants.”

8:00am-4:30pm - Scales, maps and plans – Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                             Instruments and drawing materials
                             Symbols, etc
4:30pm-5:00pm - Daily Summary and Wrap Up

Wednesday June 3, 2009
Practical Designs in the Field

8:00am-4:30pm - Site analysis, gathering information – Juan Rojas, Ronaldo Lec Ajcot
                            Collective design exercise, stages of the practical design, etc.
                            Assessment of designs and end of the course.
4:30pm-5:00pm - Daily Summary and Wrap Up