b'Pictured above are members of the Cherokee Nation at the depositing ceremony at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Several seed banks have deposited seed on multiple occa-sions. For example, the genebank at the International Center forFACTS ABOUT THE SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT Tropical Agriculture in Cali, Colombia, has deposited on 13 dif-ferent occasions, and over 90% of their collection is now repre-Operated by the Government ofApplicants must meet detailed sented in the Vault.Norway, Nordic Genetic Resourceguidelines. In the majority of cases, Center (NordGen) and the Global Cropthe seeds must be deposited in The Cherokee Deposit Diversity Trust (Crop Trust).another seed bank prior to sending The deposit by the Cherokee Nation in February was part of the vaults largest seed deposit yet. It included 35 genebanks S eed depositors do not pay fees foradditional samples to the Vault.such as the University of Haifa (Israel), Institut National de laseed storage and retain ownership of Seeds entering the Vault are sealed Recherche Agronomique (Morocco), the Julius Khn Institutetheir seeds. in custom-made three-ply foil (Germany), the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, thepackages, placed inside boxes and Baekdudaegan National Arboretum (South Korea), Suceava S valbard is 12 years old and located Genebank Mihai Cristea (Romania) and Kew Gardens (UK). more than 800 miles north of thestored on shelves inside the vault. The Cherokee deposited seed from nine plant species, whichArctic Circle. A few years ago, the Internationalthey narrowed down from about 30 choices (Svalbard onlyCenter for Agricultural Research in the accepts seeds that are important for food production). They Recently, a structural upgrade was include Cherokee White Eagle Corn, the tribes most sacred corn;completed to make the access tunnelDry Areas (ICARDA) took thousands some of its kernels appear to display the white open wings of anwatertight. of seed samples from genebanks in eagle. Others include Cherokee Trail of Tears Beans, CherokeeAleppo, Syria and deposited them Turkey Gizzard black and brown beans, and Cherokee CandyIt has the capacity to store 4.5 millionin the Vault to protect them from Roaster Squash.varieties of crops and currently holdsthe violent conflict. In 2017, some ofThese seeds came from the Cherokee Nation Heirloommore than 980,000 seeds fromthese seeds were withdrawn from Garden and Native Plant Site, but on these six acres, more thannearly every country in the world.the Vault for regenerative use and food plants are grown. Indeed, every year about 200 ancestral plants are cultivated, including many with ceremonial, medicinalmost of this withdrawal has been or medicinal and food uses such as tobacco and sunchoke.re-deposited. Each year, much of the seed from these plants are distributed to Cherokee who request them for their own cultivation, and now, with many years of seed distribution in place, Gwin likens the situation to having many small seed banks. No self-respect-ing Cherokee would ever be without a corn patch and its niceWHERE that there is ancestral corn and other plants being grown, heON THEFor more information on the Cherokee Nation Heirloom Garden and Native says. Last year, we sent out about 10,000 packs of seeds fromWEB Plants, visit secure.cherokee.org/seedbankover 50 plants.SW20/ SEEDWORLD.COMJUNE 2020'