I'm a [? Teowa ?] Indian. I lived here all my life, about 68 years. It's been a hard life. People who live around here think that they can't grow nothing because of the drought and the ground is not productive. You struggle because of the harshness. Sometimes the temperatures are over 114 degrees. No shade, you have severe high winds, lack of rain; all those things are elements against you. We do have lots of alkaline salt soils in our area, sandstone, and we have erosion problems. This was a very undesirable place to be.

About six years ago, I planted, out tilling the ground and it didn't yield what I wanted it to do. And then this year, I talked with Elder Sorensen and he told me that they were going to have a get-together concerning a garden. Thereafter, I attended all the garden sessions and I was able to learn how to kind of garden. I got some seeds and then I proceeded to plant my garden. The garden project is such a great blessing to our people here in Kayenta and on the reservation here in our stake. What we are trying to do, really, out here is we want to make this place blossom temporally, physically, and we're doing that through provident living. Well, when I first heard it in the stake president's meeting that they were going to bring these projects in, I jumped. I want that for my people. My first time gardening, and it's been quite an experience in regards to learning how to work together and the effort that it takes to put something like this together and just a lot of learning, a lot of responsibility and a lot of love. It brings the family together. It unites us. We work together. We enjoy the fruits that are produced. We learned about it through our provident living classes in regards to being more self-reliant. It's allowing people to see that they can actually be self-sufficient and be able to save on their budget. And it brings about the great squashes that we see, the colorfulness of it, the corn that helps us know that there's hope for all of us. I realize what I can do with my own hands and show my kids and my grandkids. It's inspiring for everybody to take a seed and watch it grow and bring it to harvest. That puts you in touch with God. I've been inactive for a long time, and for me to be able to actually do something like this, I'm just really grateful that I'm able to do it, to taste it and to eat the produce that I've planted that I've done myself. I'm really grateful. I love the garden.

When you're a mother, when you're a wife, your appreciation for life is seen from a different perspective and your prayers are different, your prayers for your children, your prayers for your garden, your prayers for the land and for the rain. My relationship is different with my husband, with my children. When you see something growing and it's good, you're all excited. You're watching this seed that you put into the ground and all of a sudden, it pops up and then there's growth there and it continues to grow and it's matured now. And I think we've done a good job.