OKMULGEE – What began as a grant opportunity shared among students at the College of the Muscogee Nation has grown into a student-led renewable energy project designed to strengthen food sovereignty while creating lasting educational opportunities for generations.
The college received a $40,000 NEXUS grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to install a solar-powered irrigation system at the CMN garden. The project, developed and led by students with guidance from Extension Educator Courtney Natseway (Mvskoke), will use solar energy to automate irrigation, allowing the garden to expand food production while reducing the time and labor required to maintain it.
“It’s just going to allow us to produce more food and medicine for the community,” Natseway said.
The CMN garden serves as the heart of the college’s extension program, supplying fresh produce to the campus café, students, employees, Muscogee Nation Elderly Nutrition, and the Nation’s Food Distribution Program. It also functions as an outdoor classroom where students and community members learn gardening, nutrition, traditional agriculture, and land stewardship.
“We teach people, this is what you can do in your own backyard,” Natseway said. “It also just serves as a teaching tool.”
The idea for the project came after student Steven Thomas (Mvskoke) discovered the NEXUS grant opportunity and brought it to Natseway and fellow students Arvcuken (Arthur) Noquisi (Mvskoke) and Daniel Sanders (Seminole). Together, the four developed a proposal centered on renewable energy and food sovereignty.
Thomas led much of the research, exploring renewable energy options before the team determined that solar power best fit the garden’s needs.
“The solar option became important because it allowed us the possibility of irrigating where there wasn’t already electrical infrastructure laid out for us,” Thomas said. “Once we have a working prototype, we can show communities this is something that could be set up and potentially help with their efforts.”
For Thomas, the project represents more than installing solar panels.
“I’ve recently come to the opinion that sovereignty begins in our backyards,” he said. “Our nation is only as strong as our communities, and our communities are only as strong as our families and our individuals.”
Noquisi, a recent CMN graduate with degrees in Natural Resources and Muscogee language, served as the project’s documentation manager, producing the one-minute video required for the grant application. Since receiving the award, he has continued helping install the solar-powered drip irrigation system while gaining practical experience in renewable energy and agriculture.
“You’re learning as you go along,” Noquisi said. “You’re learning by doing.”
He said the experience taught the team how to transform a large idea into achievable steps while learning new technical skills, from grant writing to designing irrigation systems.
Sanders, who has worked in the garden since 2023, helped lead the construction of the solar panel rack that now supports the first six panels installed there. With a background in construction but little experience in agriculture, Sanders said the project challenged him to learn new skills while strengthening his connection to Muscogee culture.
“The Muscogee people were an agrarian society, and we grew large communal fields,” Sanders said. “Being able to incorporate modern elements such as renewable energy and automatic irrigation – it would be our ancestors’ wildest dreams.”
Although the NEXUS program was originally structured as a multi-phase grant, funding was later canceled following federal funding changes. Rather than abandon the project, the students chose to move forward using the initial award.
“We’ve already made this plan,” Thomas said. “Let’s see what we can do with it.”
Natseway said the solar array will initially power automated irrigation for the garden’s 25 raised beds, greenhouse, terrace garden, and future Three Sisters garden. Watering the garden currently requires up to two hours of labor each morning. Automating that work will allow students to spend more time growing food, expanding the garden, and developing future projects. The remaining solar capacity may eventually support greenhouse automation, improved lighting, and other infrastructure improvements.
Beyond the physical improvements, Natseway said the project gave students valuable experience writing grants, developing budgets, and managing a large-scale project – skills that will benefit them throughout their careers.
“They got real-world experience,” she said. “When they go to bigger schools or apply for jobs, they can say they led this project and installed solar panels at the garden on campus. That’s a big deal.”
The team hopes the project will continue inspiring future students to pursue agriculture, renewable energy, and food sovereignty while demonstrating that meaningful change can begin on a small scale.
“I hope they feel inspired to maybe do the same thing,” Natseway said. “Our garden is probably the size of someone’s large backyard, so this is totally possible for the regular person. The fact that students who hadn’t even graduated yet wrote the grant themselves and received the funding shows that a regular person can do the same thing.”
this was the highlight of my week! Elated to hear about this project preparing students with practical and immediately applicable skills. I hope that the innovation continues to happen around the new solar garden!