Plenty in Pine Ridge, S.D.

The longstanding Slim Butte Agri-Dev Community Gardens project is one locally run effort to improve the health of the Lakota people.

In 1989 there were 11 gardens in the project. By the year 2000 this number had swelled to over 200, and at last count there were over 400!

The phenomenal growth of the project is due in part to the tireless efforts of Plenty Board Member and Project Manager, Thomas Kanatakeniate Cook, and the irrepressible spirit of the Oglala Lakota people in the face of daunting obstacles.

Pine Ridge Gardens

Dennis Limon (center with beard) along with (l. to rt.)
Plenty volunteers, Dan Thalen, James Salter and Tony
Sferlazza, with Pine Ridge residents, Jahonah Blindman,
Louie and Tom Cook and Dwayne Blindman prepared
compost piles and potting soil in September for the
planting of seedlings to be distributed to hundreds of
reservation families in the spring of 2010.
(photo by Misty Sioux Davis)