SEQUIM — Celebrated as the North Olympic Peninsula’s first Native American master gardeners, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members Ruth Charles and Sheryl Charging Whirlwind were handed their badges last week.
The learning accomplishment earned with a two-year master gardener internship entitles them to share their knowledge, leading plant clinics, teaching good gardening practices and how to properly compost for healthier soil.
Charles and Charging Whirlwind were honored last Thursday night at the Clallam County Master Gardener’s annual dinner at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sequim, where others were recognized for their service and longevity with the organization.
Helping tribe
It was an honor for Charles and Charging Whirlwind, they said.
Both live on the Lower Elwha reservation west of Port Angeles and have already taken their newfound knowledge to fellow tribal members as well those on the Makah reservation in Neah Bay.
“I can get right into helping instruct others,” said an enthusiastic Charles, who at 62 retired after a long career in the Seattle area as a native culture and history instructor.
She hopes to lead plant clinics, in which they identify plants, plant problems and insects infesting plants.
“I’m thinking it should come right down to the basics,” Charles said. “We should grow our own food instead of buying food with ecoli.”
Charles said she plans to grow vegetables to share with Elwha elders and other tribe members.
Charging Whirlwind, 54, said she too is interested in growing healthy vegetables and healing herbs.
A diabetic, she said, “I was told to change my diet,” which she can now do by growing her own garden patch.
She sees the master gardeners’ learning process as helpful to learning more about her own culture.
“I learned a lot about native plants that our native people have been eating,” she said.
Increased diversity
Elizabeth Oakes, who mentored Charles and helped mentor Charging Whirlwind, said the Clallam County Master Gardeners considered it a positive breakthrough that will bring more diversity to the organization with members across the county.
“Several of us have been working for years to get into a working relationship with the Peninsula’s Native Americans,” said Oakes, a Joyce-area resident.
The Clallam County Master Gardeners’ mission is to enhance and supplement the efforts of the Washington State University Master Gardener Program by providing sound, research-based education and information on sustainable horticulture and gardening practices.
Charles has fond memories of growing an acre of vegetables and flowers as a child growing up on the reservation with brothers and sisters.
“Everything we had came in to our table,” she recalled. “I would pick and wash and prep and carry the vegetables to the elders.”
As one who loves to learn, Charles earned a bachelor’s degree in social services at the University of Washington.
Charging Whirlwind, who was originally mentored by Master Gardener Cindy Erickson, said she will attend to the care of native trees on the reservation as well as growing vegetables and flowers.
Her mentors gave her a composter.
“I in turn gave it to the after-school program on the reservation,” Charging Whirlwind said, to use for the children’s garden near the tribal center.
She said the Master Gardener’s program as a positive point in her life journey.
“It’s another milestone in my life that I’ve accomplished, and I’m so proud of myself that I can continue to learn,” she said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
