At “The Barn,” a historic farm-turned-office building that houses the University of Minnesota Extension in Ramsey County, there are two distinctly different gardens. The first is a collection of steel beds filled with plants maintained by volunteer gardeners. The second is about 20 yards away, and from a distance, it looks like a large mound of earth dotted with shrubs and long grasses.
This is the Four Directions Medicine Garden, a healing space created by Elder June Blue-Binesii-Ikwe (Thunderbird-Woman), Extension Health and Nutrition coordinator, along with the Indigenous Peoples community.
A closer look reveals its surprising true form: a turtle with 13 sections on its shell, outlined in large rocks known as grandfathers who hold the stories, songs and prayers of past Sweatlodge ceremonies.
Like every plant in the garden, the name and design were intentional and deeply meaningful choices by Elder June Blue, an Anishinabe Ojibwe Elder from White Earth Nation, grandma of seven, and member of the Crane Clan. Her goal was to curate a holistic healing space full of cultural and medicinal native plants that serves as both a spiritual space for her community and a place where anyone can come to learn.
The garden’s shape is a reference to Giizisoo-Mazina’igan, an Anishinabe Ojibwe calendar that marks time using 13 moons on a turtle’s back. The name was inspired by the Four Directions that make up the medicine wheel, used in many Indigenous Peoples' traditional teachings.
“What I love about the Medicine Wheel is that every piece is equal. It encompasses the power of unity, not a binary approach—which is a high-conflict trap. This is the time when we are bringing back the balance. All are welcome, and all are safe here. We can be diverse in honoring our cultures and still be unified,” says Elder June Blue.
She experienced this power of unity during her seven years as a member and four years as a co-chair of the Ramsey County Mental Health Wellness Action Team. Her time there was a celebration of many cultures, races, religions and sexual orientations, bringing together diverse ways of healing in community.
“This Medicine Garden holding space at Ramsey County Extension highlights the fact that this is still Dakota land, while also honoring all tribal nations and their ancestors that live here now. We are still here!”
Healing through culture and ceremony
Throughout her career, including her current role in Extension, Elder June Blue’s mission has been to build bridges between mainstream systems and indigenous people. Her approach to building holistic health is based on cultural connections and Ceremonies, a profound kind of wellness that is not recognized by the medical model of healing.
Elder June Blue knows firsthand how a lack of community creates deep trauma and that cultural connections can heal the spirit, mind, body and emotions. She identifies as Anishinabe Ojibwe and white; her father’s family is from White Earth Nation and her mother’s family is of Scandinavian descent. Her paternal family has lived in the Great Lakes area for millennia.
Elder June Blue had no real contact with her Indigenous cultural traditions until age 30 when she set out on a journey of rediscovering her roots that she says ultimately saved her life.
“Connecting with your culture and your ancestors is healing for anybody, but that’s especially true for us native people because of the historical trauma and racism we’ve endured and continue to endure,” says Elder June Blue. The 2023 TRUTH Report details the persistent, systematic mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples by the University of Minnesota.
“It took two years just to get this garden planted, and it shouldn’t have. It was racism at its worst. As a third-generation Anishinabe Ojibwe veteran, I will never start conflict, but will never run from it either. We respect all but we fear none. There’s a saying in my culture that ‘When you do something greater than yourself you are protected.’ Luckily, there were many who stood with me and, in the end, we overcame insurmountable barriers that were thrown at myself and others who supported me.”
“Colonizers tried to take everything from us—our land, our language, our children, our ways and traditions. But we’re still here and always will be,” says Elder June Blue.
Planting seeds for future generations
In addition to serving as a place for honoring Mama Aki (Mother Earth) through culture and Ceremonies, the Four Directions Medicine Garden is also a classroom. It was planted in the fall of 2023, and by spring 2024 Elder June Blue started the first of many training courses that weave science and cultural knowledge together.
Her hopes for the first six graduates of the course are that they find joy and abundance through their work, and feel a deep connection to their ancestors, culture and Ceremonies.
“This class is essential to my decolonization and healing as a Lakota,” wrote one student in the program evaluation survey. Another shared that the best part of the class was “Being in community with one another and being able to work in space together, learning from plants and Mother Earth.”
“We are cultivating healing. I would love to see my people creating medicine gardens all over the state,” says Elder June Blue. “We are the original inhabitants of North America and deserve to be honored for our time and unique wisdom. This can include but is not limited to the systems giving back all the resources; funding, land, positions they took from us—though it will never be enough!”
“As Indigenous Peoples, we are always envisioning seven generations into the future and what kind of world our descendants will inherit,” says Elder June Blue.
Plants in the Four Directions Medicine Garden
