Restoring Food Systems and Cultural Knowledge with the Chickahominy Tribe's Food Forest

“This connects us back to the stewardship of our ancestral land.”

As Guardians programs grow across Canada, we’re also seeing momentum build in the U.S., where communities like the Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division are creating land-based models of care , rooted in sovereignty and designed on their own terms. In what’s now known as Virginia, the Eastern Division of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe is building a food forest—reviving traditional knowledge, restoring ecosystems, and reasserting their relationship to the land.

This project is about more than food. It’s about reclaiming stewardship, preserving their connection to the land, and reestablishing traditional languages, foods, and relationships for future generations.