From seed to seed: MRC assistant director connects to culture through food and land

For Ethan Tyo, food is a tangible link between the past and present and a way to connect with his heritage.

Tyo, who recently assumed the newly-created Assistant Director for Native American and Indigenous Student Initiatives role, became involved with the Binghamton University community when he helped create the campus’ inaugural Three Sisters Garden in May 2021.

A member of the Mohawk Tribe and Wolf Clan, Tyo grew up in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. He is also a first-generation student who attended Syracuse University to study information management technology.

“I’ve always had a fascination with tech,” Tyo shared. “But as I progressed, I found myself more drawn to thinking about food, which started with focusing on my personal health.”

Tyo describes a wellness journey that sparked a deeper exploration into issues around food, including access, sustainability and nutrition. What began as a personal endeavor—creating recipes, delving into plant-based foods, and fostering an online community—soon became a significant part of his life. His developing interest in food and food systems also helped Tyo reconnect with his culture.

“Even though I grew up on the reservation, I often felt like I was straddling two worlds,” Tyo said. “I had this ‘I’m Indigenous, but I’m not Indigenous enough’ inner battle, and I often struggled with trying to figure out where I fit in. Through doing this work, I was able to say, ‘Well, I am Indigenous, and this is work that I’m doing to support my people.’”

Tyo relied on his background in technology to look at issues around food differently.

“I have always been interested in systems-thinking and finding actionable solutions,” said Tyo. “I began to examine food-related issues from a systems approach. This helped me understand my position in my community, the impact and importance of our food system, while finding the value I could add and the skills I could bring.”

Three Sisters Garden: a model for community engagement

Despite his background in information technology, Tyo returned to Syracuse University to pursue a master’s degree in food studies. In May 2020, as part of his graduate program, he began developing the idea of hands-on programming that would serve in place of a traditional dissertation or thesis. Part of that project centered on a garden using Indigenous seeds planted in traditional Haudenosaunee mounds—corn, beans and squash; within this seed-to-seed knowledge framework, the first Three Sisters Sovereignty Garden was born.

“These gardens are much more than just planting traditional crops and harvesting them. These spaces represent true land acknowledgments between tribal communities and academic institutions,” said Tyo. “It’s a tangible relationship that requires reciprocity from both sides to sustain, and the Indigenous-led programming, experiences and stories that come from them demonstrate the ongoing commitments to creating space for Indigenous youth in higher education.”

Tyo used existing garden space on the university campus, along with seeds from the Onondaga Nation Farm—a working farm just south of Syracuse, which boasts a significant collection of heritage seeds, including 4,000-year-old corn kernels.

Although the Three Sisters Garden was just part of his graduate project, it generated considerable interest, including an article in the New York Times. The following year, student-led groups from Binghamton University and Colgate University interested in initiating similar projects on their campuses reached out to Tyo.

“I started hearing from other students who saw the Three Sisters Garden and were interested in creating similar spaces on their campuses,” Tyo said. “I was able to provide a road map there, partly because I am Indigenous and could make those community connections.”

The Binghamton University Three Sisters Garden received tremendous interest and support from the campus community, and Tyo expresses great pride in helping to bring this project to fruition. Additionally, he made substantial connections to members of the University, which ultimately led to his current role in the Division of Diversity Equity and Inclusion.

“Ethan has been working with faculty, students and staff at the University for almost three years now on various projects, ranging from the founding of the Three Sisters Garden to the Haudenosaunee Festival to various research projects,” said BrieAnna Langlie, associate professor of anthropology. “Broadly, this collaborative work has enriched the University’s pedagogy, programming and research and strengthened relationships with Haudenosaunee community partners across New York state.”

The Three Sisters Garden continues to serve as a model for building bridges between communities and across time, bringing history to the present. Tyo hopes to continue to work on these kinds of cultural installations with colleges, K-12 schools and museums.

“These spaces hold knowledge but also have a lot of power in how they share and present that knowledge,” Tyo said. “The idea is to figure out new and innovative ways to get the general public involved in learning about Indigenous knowledge beyond dioramas, beyond artifacts and archives, and seeing that we are living, breathing people.”

Sharing Indigenous culture and knowledge

In September 2023, the Binghamton campus hosted the Haudenosaunee Festival, a two-day program in collaboration with the Vestal Museum featuring Indigenous speakers, food, music, dance, art, storytelling and more. It also celebrated the second-year harvest of the University’s Three Sisters Garden.

“The festival allowed us to scale up from the garden by bringing people with different interests together, showing how Indigenous and traditional knowledge can be enjoyed in the present and changing the mindset of what that knowledge looks like. One of my biggest gripes is the prevalent assumption that learning about Indigenous people is always in the past,” Tyo said.

To that end, one of the first projects Tyo helped initiate was part of the Multicultural Resource Center’s lineup for Women’s History Month. Last month, the MRC screened an episode of Marvel’s new “What if…?” series featuring the first Mohawk superhero, Kahhori, with script translator and Mohawk member Cecelia King speaking during the event. Tyo says that the Marvel project went beyond highlighting the first female Mohawk superhero to being a thoughtfully planned project that involved input from the Mohawk community. That included language experts such as King, who helped ensure accuracy for the episode, which was presented entirely in the native Mohawk language and spoken by Mohawk voice actors.

“I’m not a superhero kind of person,” said Tyo, “but to hear and see the Mohawk language in such a massive project was so cool. It was just a beautifully done project.”

Building bridges with the Haudenosaunee community

In addition to creating programming and spaces for Indigenous and other students on campus, Tyo will help lead efforts to connect with and engage local tribal communities, mainly middle and high school students who may need help finding the path to higher education. One of Tyo’s goals is to connect students with the University’s resources and make Binghamton University the go-to institution for Indigenous higher education.

“In Ethan’s new role, we imagine endless potential growth and enrichment of these projects, as well as strengthening our partnerships and friendships with the Haudenosaunee people who have lived on SUNY lands from time immemorial,” Langlie said.

Tyo recounts his experience in high school and hopes to encourage future students to pursue higher education as he was once inspired.

“The biggest motivation for me to attend college was when an Indigenous liaison from Syracuse University visited our school and talked about the available opportunities,” he said. “It was that personal connection I had with her and what she represented—the first Indigenous person I knew who had gone off to pursue an education, who went to college—that allowed me to see myself in that role and prepared me to take that next life-altering step.”