When Dr. Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (tsay-TSAY-heh-STAH-hess) (Cheyenne), and European lineages, tells people she keeps sheep, they ask what the sheep do for her. Her answer stops the conversation cold: they're her relatives. They're her people.
Blending her Stanford background in Human Ecology, graduate study in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the worldview she grew up with, Dr. Lyla June walks us through the receipts: 3,500-year-old rock walls built by hand, fossilized pollen records, chestnut groves that sustained entire regions, clam gardens engineered as habitat for otters and water birds, Hawaiian kalo fields that doubled as nesting grounds for endangered species. None of it built to maximize human yield. All of it built to feed the whole web.
She's not here to romanticize it, either. We inherited a destructive way of life, she says, and the bill is coming due. But she also offers a way back, not through guilt, but through reciprocity, through fire, through the humbling act of asking: what is my garden doing for the land?
Key Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:03:52] The sheep question
[00:06:33] We are made of relatives
[00:08:57] Kin-centric vs. anthropocentric food systems
[00:10:36] Chestnut groves: monoculture killed a relative
[00:17:21] Pohuacu clam gardens: a nation of clams
[00:21:45] Ahupua'a: Hawaiian watersheds as districts
[00:26:12] Illinois prairie fire feeds the bison
[00:37:18] Humans as keystone species
[00:39:12] Ecosystems Benefit Assessment flips farming
[00:42:30] Bee baths, bird baths, backyard spirituality
[00:44:15] Land back to indigenous women leaders
Memorable Quotes:
"When you think about life as your relative versus your resource, you start to understand that we're not the masters of the web of life. We're but a strand within it." [00:06:46] – Dr. Lyla June Johnston
"The more we give to the land, the much more wealthy we become. The more we try to take from her, the more broke and sad and bankrupt we become as a species." [00:09:18] – Dr. Lyla June Johnston
“What is my garden doing for the land?” If this question lit something up in you, that's exactly what the Garden Club Summit is for: 72 hours free with the world's top growers, herbalists, and regenerators, teaching you how to actually start answering it. Claim your free pass at: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep005_people
Links Mentioned In This Episode:
ReHuman School: https://www.rehuman.earth/
Connect with Dr. Lyla June Johnston:
Website: https://www.lylajune.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lylajune
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lylajune
Connect with us:
Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversity
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorg
Produced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
