NPR The Indicator Promo Narrator

And these seeds, she gave them to me. She said that she had them sitting around since she had a crop in the 80s. And she gave me these handful. I germinated them. I think I planted about 15 seeds and had 13 trees germinate. About three years later, the trees had their first fruit that set on them.

And I took them and I shared them and I sliced them and I, you know, that's when I tasted my first peach. How'd you feel emotionally? I think I just felt humbled but just privileged, I guess, to be able to taste this fruit that is very hard to find and very few people are growing them.

And I took them and I shared them and I sliced them and I, you know, that's when I tasted my first peach. How'd you feel emotionally? I think I just felt humbled but just privileged, I guess, to be able to taste this fruit that is very hard to find and very few people are growing them.

And I took them and I shared them and I sliced them and I, you know, that's when I tasted my first peach. How'd you feel emotionally? I think I just felt humbled but just privileged, I guess, to be able to taste this fruit that is very hard to find and very few people are growing them.

One of the locations that we've been gathering most of our seed from is out by Navajo Mountain area, and I still have good close connections with the family there. That's probably the most versatile and the healthiest orchard I've seen. It's isolated away from any other types of, you know, nursery stock orchard, guaranteed.

One of the locations that we've been gathering most of our seed from is out by Navajo Mountain area, and I still have good close connections with the family there. That's probably the most versatile and the healthiest orchard I've seen. It's isolated away from any other types of, you know, nursery stock orchard, guaranteed.

One of the locations that we've been gathering most of our seed from is out by Navajo Mountain area, and I still have good close connections with the family there. That's probably the most versatile and the healthiest orchard I've seen. It's isolated away from any other types of, you know, nursery stock orchard, guaranteed.

So we can guarantee that any seed that we get from there is going to be genetically pure and we can sample it. And that matters to Regan.

So we can guarantee that any seed that we get from there is going to be genetically pure and we can sample it. And that matters to Regan.

So we can guarantee that any seed that we get from there is going to be genetically pure and we can sample it. And that matters to Regan.

At the time, you know, I'd been trained, very whitewashed, going into school, being trained to be a scientist, but also had to step back from both of those and realize, like, how to grow humility, how to grow a lot of respect for different groups of people, and how to listen to receive information and to have patience when working with traditional elders in the community.

At the time, you know, I'd been trained, very whitewashed, going into school, being trained to be a scientist, but also had to step back from both of those and realize, like, how to grow humility, how to grow a lot of respect for different groups of people, and how to listen to receive information and to have patience when working with traditional elders in the community.

At the time, you know, I'd been trained, very whitewashed, going into school, being trained to be a scientist, but also had to step back from both of those and realize, like, how to grow humility, how to grow a lot of respect for different groups of people, and how to listen to receive information and to have patience when working with traditional elders in the community.

Yeah, I was able to start comparing westernized practices for food production versus Native American traditional practices of food production.

Yeah, I was able to start comparing westernized practices for food production versus Native American traditional practices of food production.

Yeah, I was able to start comparing westernized practices for food production versus Native American traditional practices of food production.

Even though Native Americans don't have... A large, like, written, documented process of their history or methods in all the things that they do, it's all orally taught, does not mean that it's not valid. Or because there's no scientific, hard data to correlate with it, that it should be negated as a truth.

Even though Native Americans don't have... A large, like, written, documented process of their history or methods in all the things that they do, it's all orally taught, does not mean that it's not valid. Or because there's no scientific, hard data to correlate with it, that it should be negated as a truth.

Even though Native Americans don't have... A large, like, written, documented process of their history or methods in all the things that they do, it's all orally taught, does not mean that it's not valid. Or because there's no scientific, hard data to correlate with it, that it should be negated as a truth.

And I... Took samples from dead trees, from orchards that were no longer being taken care of. We did tree ring analysis and saw that the tree ring growth patterns and the variability between the tree ring growths correlated very well with just what was verbally communicated.