(light music) - [Announcer] This episode of "Across Indiana" is made possible through a PBS Climate Change Grant, a grant from Wild Hope, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(light music continues) - Hello, Hoosiers.

We're at Cataract Falls, part of the Lieber State Recreational Area.

It's named after Richard Lieber, a German immigrant turned Hoosier, who later became the architect for Indiana State Parks system.

Lieber's love of nature is shared by many in the state.

Let's check out what the Potawatomi Nation is doing up in Northern Indiana at the Kankakee Wetlands.

- [Narrator] On a warm, sunny day in October, people from the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Nation are working to restore a sacred place: 1,147 acres of tribal property.

(soft music) The acreage is a small remnant of a vast area, once known as the Everglades of the North, the Grand Kankakee Marsh.

- Potawatomi, as a whole, our historical territory before the treaties was all the way up to Grand River, Michigan, all the way down the Wabash River, Indiana, all the way over to Detroit, a good chunk of Northeast Illinois, and then Eastern Wisconsin all the way to Door Peninsula: that's all Potawatomi territory.

Now, Pokagon Band, our band, heavily are in Dowagiac, Hartford, Niles, South Bend, was about the fourth biggest.

This area has a pretty high historical prevalence to Potawatomi.

This area was a huge area for wildlife.

I see a hawk or something flying over there.

There's a a huge wildlife presence in this area, and food and water resources, everything.

- [Narrator] What we now call Northern Indiana was once a vast ecosystem, supporting one of the highest concentrations of wildlife on the planet.

(frogs croaking) It was nearly a million acres of wetlands, abundant with plants and animals, which attracted Native people.

- My name is Bvidjudjan, or my English name is Kyle Malott.

I am from the Eagle Clan.

I am from Niles, Michigan, which we call Pawating, place of the rapids.

So back in the day, there was a lot of villages within the Kankakee Marsh area.

We follow where the resources are, and this is a huge area for that.

- [Narrator] But the area was attractive to settlers too.

The United States took land away from the Native people, and agriculture became the main objective.

By the early 1900s, the Kankakee River was straightened to half of its original length, and the wetlands were dredged and drained.

Farmers installed drainage tiles and planted corn.

What was once a wooded, gently meandering river became a fast-flowing straight ditch, collecting muddy runoff from the surrounding crops.

- I'm Deb Knepp.

I'm the district conservationist for USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

So we are charged with helping people help the land, getting conservation out on the ground for the betterment of soil health, water quality, air quality, wildlife habitats, and the health of the plants that are growing.

- [Narrator] Deb works with clients, like the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi, who want to restore their property to wetlands.

The USDA facilitates and pays for the restoration, pays for the value of the land, and the property is protected in an easement.

The waitlist is long, and the program is growing in popularity.

Because as people restore wetlands, they in turn protect crops.

- They have levees on downstream.

And before this went in here at the Pokagon site, every year the levee would break somewhere and somebody's crop field was flooded and they weren't getting their crop out that year.

Since this has gone in, that happens very rarely.

Wetlands, as well as providing habitat, they also do a lot of storage of water.

They recharge our ground water.

They actually filter out a lot of chemicals or pollutants that may be in water that flows through the low areas before going to ditches or rivers.

So they do a lot to clean up the environment and keep water where it belongs so that the farming operations can happen on the farm fields, and the water can stay where it needs to stay and not create a lot of issues.

So yeah, there's a lot of benefits to the wetlands.

They're just so important, and people don't realize how important they are.

- And they're like the kidneys of the landscape.

So they capture the water, filter it, and when the water comes out of it, like we're seeing here, these seeps coming out of the bank, that's cleaner water than just water running over the edge and falling down.

I'll say bonjour.

My name is Grant Poole.

I'm the water quality specialist for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

For me, the healthy water is one that's resilient.

So I'm also looking at the fish community and other macroinvertebrates, along with potential contaminants and things like that.

In the Great Lakes region here, we unfortunately had the issue of historic PCBs and the mercury.

So all aquatic life is kind of impaired 'cause of those two pollutants.

We're seeing some darters, we're seeing some creek chubs.

but the overall Kankakee River system is still impaired for aquatic life.

And we're working with federal partners, state partners, and our local watershed groups or basin commissions to hopefully address those issues.

But that's gonna be a long haul down the road.

This is a favorite spot for the deer.

- [Narrator] Since 2001, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Pokagon Band's team of scientists have been working hard to monitor and manage the land.

They've plugged ditches and made shallow impressions in the earth, called scrapes, so the land will hold more water.

(fire crackling) They're removing invasive species with controlled burns.

They're studying water and soils and planting native species favorable to animals, pollinators, and the tribe.

- Today, one of the things that we're doing is we're planting the final manoomin, or wild rice, of the season.

So manoo is good and min is berry, so the good berry.

And then watch your face.

Toss it in.

We're gonna be planting the final rice of the season down here near the Miller Ditch.

It is good to just kind of get some of it in here.

We have an area that has shown some success in the past with growth with wild rice.

So we're gonna try to seed that area a bit more this year.

My name is Jennifer Kanine.

I am the director of the department formerly known as Natural Resources for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, now known as (in Potawatomi), which is they watch over this land.

We've been, you know, working towards changing it from agricultural fields and trying to put that prairie restoration back in place, but also identifying those locations with NRCS of where can we create these wetlands, where can we create scrapes, where can we just plug a ditch, and then all that water will back up behind it.

Well, that answers that question.

- That answers that question.

That one's producing fruit.

And over time we've just tried to put as much water on the property as possible and provide this biodiversity that you see, as well as the habitats that we have on the property.

It's not just prairies, not wetlands; it's forested wetlands, it's the forest behind you.

One of the reasons why we have so many species out here in the first place.

We've actually been able to observe 191 different species of birds on the property.

And some of those are threatened species, some of those are state endangered species.

Sandhill cranes will use this as a stopover in the springtime and in the fall as well.

And we'll see them gather in up to the tens of thousands here.

- [Narrator] As some of the original residents of the Grand Kankakee return, the Pokagon band has found a place to enjoy the outdoors and their culture.

- [Deb] It's a place that people can come and just be with nature.

They can immerse themselves in what, you know, used to be here by this little remnant that we've created here.

- This property here, having such a a prevalence of wildlife, we're able to come down here and hunt and gather and get things that we need.

We'd have them for ceremonies and things like that.

That's really important.

Our band did not get removed out West due to the fact of what Leopold Pokagon did for us at the Treaty of Chicago.

In order to stay here, we gave away a lot.

So we are still here.

Our culture is still around.

We still practice it.

And it's just who we are.

It's not a set religion or anything.

It's just a way of life.

So this is how we way we live our life, and this is a beautiful way to live.

- Our next story is another way we Hoosiers show our love for nature: agriculture.

Farming's a big deal in the state, and my friend Kyle did a story about a group of farmers you might not even know exists.

Kyle, how did you find out about this group?

- Sure, I attended Farm Aid last year as a music journalist.

- Nice.

- And I went to the morning press conference to hear from Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp; They were joined on stage by Indiana farmers.

Two of those farmers we'll see in this story: Lauren McCalister and Denise Greer Jamerson.

- We grow food here to feed our community.

- These farmers didn't fit the stereotype that I learned when I was a kid.

They're Black women.

And I was very interested in meeting them.

We spoke after the press conference, and that eventually led to this story.

- Very cool.

Well, it was definitely my honor to get to meet Stormin' Norman, Denise's dad.

Been farming for 60 years.

- For 60 years down there.

All right, well, let's check out Kyle's story: Existence is Resistance.

(soft country music) - [Kyle] Here in Indiana, climate change is making the already difficult job of farming even tougher.

Intense flooding and frequent droughts are part of the irregular weather patterns Hoosier farmers are struggling to navigate.

One group of farmers are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change: Black farmers.

(somber music) - Hi, I'm Lauren McCalister.

- I'm Brett Volpp.

We're at 3 Flock Farm.

It's our farm.

- In Ellettsville.

- [Kyle] The farm started with a wedding gift from the couple's friends.

They raise Jacob sheep.

- [Lauren] And Jacob sheep have varieties: some have two horns, some have four horns.

And so you'll notice some of ours have that variety where there's horns at the top and on the sides.

It's the tails that get me.

Do you see that little rotation?

It's too much.

- [Kyle] They also grow a variety of produce utilizing regenerative and sustainable farming techniques.

- So I did like a casting of collards here in this grass.

I mean in this straw, just for funsies.

We'll see.

You can make a little hole in the straw.

- [Kyle] Lauren is currently experimenting with growing mushrooms in spent grain, a waste product acquired from nearby breweries.

- After they make the delicious beer, we go and pick up the grain and it decomposes.

I mean, you can tell.

Look how disgusting that is.

That's great.

This is waste to the brewer and gold to a farmer.

- [Kyle] She believes that exploring new methods of growing and diversifying the foods they produce is an essential step in mitigating the damage climate change might bring.

- Last year, one of the blueberry farms in Indiana had zero blueberries.

I think big long rows and big harvest may not be possible unless we do succession, which is an interesting issue, right?

So if I only had blueberries and I lost my entire blueberry crop, what does that mean for my farm?

We're gonna have to diversify.

- [Kyle] Lauren is charismatic, and her passion for farming is contagious.

And she's unapologetic in her condemnation of corporate greed, blaming corporate farms for perpetuating climate change.

Factory farms are very different from small family farms like 3 Flock.

The term factory farm or corporate farm refers to large-scale agricultural production centers, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations.

The profit-driven production methods of factory farming often lead to excessive waste and animal cruelty.

Factory farms contribute to air and water pollution.

According to a study published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, factory farms are responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually.

- I think small farming is the way because it's just more fun.

Corporations are the biggest perpetuators, criminals.

They're the ones that are creating the climate change crisis.

- [Kyle] She's keenly aware of the historic challenges Black farmers have faced and how that legacy shapes the present-day reality for farmers like her.

- In Indiana there are 80, 8-0 Black farmers.

So 80 out of 99,000 is a very small number.

And often people say to me: Well, there just aren't a lot of Black farmers.

There aren't a lot of farmers of color.

So then you have to ask yourself: "What did we do with them?"

There's a real emphasis on the idea that farming is done on a tractor by a white guy and his family; when, in fact, farming did not begin like that in this country.

It was done specifically by enslaved people.

There was an intention to break the line of farming for Black people.

So it's not just that Black farmers were enslaved and then subject to violence even after they were theoretically freed, it's that underneath all of that there were policies and procedures by the federal government that were constantly segregating Black farmers and giving them less.

These segregating points continue.

- [Kyle] Black farmers have faced a vortex of destructive social and political forces in the United States, from systemic racism at the USDA to mob violence, which has a pernicious history in Indiana.

During the 1830s, a vigilante movement known as the White Caps developed in Corydon, Indiana.

As white-capping spread across the United States, the movement attracted white supremacists who used mob violence to expel Blacks from their land.

The 1920s saw the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana.

At its peak in 1923, 30% of native-born Indiana men were members of the KKK.

Around 1920, just prior to the Klan's rise, Black farm ownership had reached its peak in the US.

But since then, Black Americans have lost over 13 million acres of farmland.

- Growing our own food means that we're going to continue to exist.

I didn't realize that existence was resistance until I really started researching about why being alive and being Black meant that we're resisting capitalistic white supremacist systems.

- [Kyle] There's one place in Indiana where the line of Black farming has not been broken: Lyles Station is located in Southern Indiana.

It's been called the last remaining historic Black settlement in Indiana.

Lyles Station was settled in the 1840s and named in 1866 to honor Joshua Lyles, a free Black man who migrated to Indiana during the 1830s.

We met with Denise Greer Jamerson.

- So Lyles Station is the last remaining African-American settlement in Indiana.

Dad still farms around 100, 150 acres of soybeans.

And then for Legacy Taste of the Garden, we do produce.

- [Kyle] Awesome.

Denise's father, Norman Greer, has been recognized as one of the last Black farmers working family land that predates the Civil War.

The Greer's legacy in farming has been extensively documented, and a soil sample from the Greer family land is on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

Norman Greer has faced many challenges during his 60-plus years in farming.

- They took the government control sheet.

That's what it is.

'Cause they wanna sit back and make all the money off of you, and you keep working like a damn fool.

All this stuff they're burning at the White House ain't no good.

You can't live off no subsidy.

We need to get a a good price for our product.

That's what we need.

And to where we can make a living out of it without having to scramble around.

You know, it ain't no good.

That's why I'm about ready to hang it up.

- [Kyle] On top of all those issues, Denise told us that climate change has become a growing concern in Lyles Station.

- You know, probably a couple of years ago, the whole state of Indiana didn't get crops out because of the rain.

I mean, and it got past the time for them to plant, like Dad planted and then he replanted.

In the past years, people get their whole strawberry crops wiped out by rain or whatever.

So the climate change is real.

- [Kyle] And while there are resources available to help farmers fight against the effects of climate change, Denise told us that decades of systemic racism has made some Black farmers skeptical of asking government agencies for assistance.

- You asked and you don't get.

So who got time to keep asking?

When I'm in the season, just like with Dad, when he's ready to go, he's ready to go.

Imagine how much more our family legacy could be if he wouldn't have got knocked off of his feet.

So yes, the systematic racism has affected, and that is one of the main, another reason why I'm doing what I'm doing.

- [Kyle] When you add climate change to the long list of obstacles Black farmers face, the future might look pretty bleak.

But back in Ellettsville, farmer Lauren McCalister doesn't see it that way.

She views farming as an act of liberation for people and the planet.

- I think growing food is a way to get some of the power back.

I really want to encourage people to view the past as something that we can learn from.

But also to look around now for the Black and Brown and Indigenous producers of color who are working in this moment, that they can invest in, that they can partner with, and really collaborate on how to imagine a world in which there's more farming and less exploitation.

- And finally, on this trip, we visit FACE Animal Clinic in Indianapolis and Indiana Audubon to find out how we Hoosiers can balance the scales for cats and birds.

(relaxed jazz music) - [Narrator] It's an age-old rivalry: cats and birds.

One can only speculate when it started.

- Hi, my name is Aidan, and I'm a naturalist here at Eagle Creek Ornithology Center.

Birds are absolutely amazing animals.

They're extremely diverse.

- Hi, I'm Whitney Yoerger.

I am out here at Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary in Connersville.

This is the 735-acre property that we own and operate.

- My name is Libby Keyes.

As Indiana Audubon, we do love our birds (laughs).

They're really great indicator species.

They indicate things about the environment.

- [Narrator] People seem pretty sure that birds were here first, because they are basically dinosaurs from the Jurassic Period, roughly 150 million years ago; giving birds plenty of time to figure out what to do with their useless arms.

Most birds.

Cats are thought to only be 10 million years old, but they are very sneaky and could be older.

(cat meowing) - Arguably very similar timelines that birds kind of adapted.

but I would say, just barely, birds came first.

- [Narrator] Over the millennia, both animal species developed relationships with humans.

Birds were said to be domesticated around 5000 BC and used in various ways in society.

Cats were domesticated later, around 3000 BC.

they helped stop the spread of disease and protected crops.

Egyptians quickly considered them to be a best friend to humans.

(dog groaning) Things were pretty good for both species.

However, these days we are experiencing an eco imbalance.

Cat populations are too high while bird populations are dropping.

- We're seeing species that used to come and return every single year that aren't returning now.

- [Narrator] Birds like the ring-billed gull and the American goldfinch, down over 40% in Indiana.

So what's happening?

- The biggest reason behind bird declines is human-caused destruction of habitat.

And that could be deforestation, that could be pollution, that could be simply agriculture.

- [Narrator] With large-scale issues such as disappearing trees and climate change, the birds that are around have it rough in a lot of places, (birds chirping) which drew more attention to unintended bird death.

- And a few of those factors range anywhere from window collisions in cities during migration to feral cats.

- The number one direct cause is nonnative domestic cats.

- 1.3 to 4 billion birds are killed annually by feral cats.

(bird squawking) (woman screaming) (door slamming) That number, definitely, especially to the passionate cat owners, is very startling.

And to most people, that number seems absolutely unbelievable.

Like, how can feral cats kill that many birds annually?

Cats are adapted to hunting birds.

That is their main prey.

- [Narrator] We've known about cat overpopulation since the first time we were home sick from school.

- [Bob] Bob Barker reminding you, help control the pet population.

Have your pet spayed or neutered.

Goodbye everybody.

- [Narrator] We must be making a dent by now.

- Hi, I'm Jen.

I work at FACE Low Cost Animal Clinic.

Spay-neuter is what's going to help reduce the cat population.

Because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that there are fewer cats who have to live outdoors.

- Hi, I am Katie DeBrota, and I am the medical director here at FACE Low Cost Animal Clinic.

I'm also one of the surgeons here.

And you'll see that we are finishing up our surgery day.

They're gonna bring another one in though.

We had about 60 animals on the schedule, which is pretty typical for us.

- Spayed and neutering process and attempts are working, but they're also not working at a rate that is obviously conducive to the bird populations.

(device beeping) - There are a lot of problems with animal overpopulation.

And it has been studied time and time again, that the only way to reduce overpopulation is through really high-intensity spay-neuter.

- [Narrator] From a shelter's perspective, cat intake is down 40% since 2019.

However, the need for increased cat sterilization remains.

- We typically allocate about 65% of our surgeries to cats.

- [Narrator] One thing is for sure, both cat and bird fans want to help each other.

- We love animals, whether it's the birds in my backyard that I feed, and the squirrels too, 'cause they usually get into the bird feeder.

(squirrel barking) or if it's the cats.

I think we all share that same love and compassion for these creatures that we share our world with.

- It might seem like doom and gloom, but there are things that we can do as bird lovers, appreciators, birders, cat lovers.

- [Narrator] Some ways to help include putting stickers on windows to reduce bird strikes.

You could implement something called a catio, allowing your cats to get some controlled time outside.

And for those adventurous cats, you can try out the cat on a leash trend.

- [Cat Owner] Yeah.

(whimsical music) - Honestly, if you love birds and you love cats, as much as you want that cat to have the freedom of the outdoor world, keep it inside.

You're able to love your cat.

You're able to get as much attention to that cat as you possibly can while also loving the birds.

- [Narrator] The best way for the average cat owner to help is to just keep an eye on your kitty.

- Any kind of general appreciation or awareness of birds is really good.

Through that caring, we can do more for birds.

- [Narrator] Currently, the most impact is being made by trap-neuter-release, or TNR.

- We would be open to working with groups who do have active programs for TNR, and help inform their data and their efforts and try to have an educational approach.

- We are always open to partnering with other organizations.

And I think from what I've seen with some of the different organizations is an alignment around spay-neuter.

- That would be great if we were able to partner with kind of spay and neuter programs.

I think it could really make a huge difference.

- [Narrator] With more research and the possibility of partnerships, someday cat and bird populations may just live in harmony.

- I would say that there's not gonna be a huge hope for cats and birds ever getting along, but I think, if you love animals, there will absolutely be a way to save the bird populations in the end.

- That's it for this trip across Indiana.

We'll see you next time.

(soft music) - [Announcer] This episode of "Across Indiana" is made possible through a PBS Climate Change Grant, a grant from Wild Hope, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(soft music fades)