Who are Nez Perce Tribe & Indigenous CANNabis Coalition?

Nez Perce Tribe (Nimiipuu people) have always resided and subsisted on lands that included the present-day Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho.

Headquartered in Lapwai, ID, the Nez Perce Reservation spans about 770,000 acres and the Nez Perce Tribe has more than 3,500 citizens. ICANNC serves Indigenous communities through advocacy, education and promotion of First Nations cultures and economies in the Tribal Hemp and Cannabis industries.

The Nez Perce Tribe had their USDA Hemp Plan approved on February 12, 2021 and have been strategizing on the development and production of hemp for fiber. The Indigenous CANNabis Coalition is led by Nez Perce Tribal member Mary Jane Oatman, who also publishes THC Magazine, the nation’s first print publication dedicated to Tribal Hemp & Cannabis communities.

Oatman explains: “We have such vast homelands, but very little knowledge about the cultivation of hemp or what the first steps to processing will look like. As a tribal nation, we are still a year out from cultivation, but we have so many families that are eager to start growing. They want to start small, just to get acclimated to the plants. We have many farmers, but, due to politics, none of our tribal agriculture families have been able to grow hemp yet. In Idaho, we had many challenges and setback with our legislature that stifled our tribal communities.

The fear of the long reach of the law always keeps tribes on the fence.” During a community meeting hosted by the ICANNC, Nez Perce tribal community members gathered to learn more from Indigenous Cannabis business people from the region.

Sunbelt Seeds donated 1,000 Goliath Seeds, which were distributed to a dozen or so families for research and development purposes, with three dozen of them germinated and in tiny planters for the elders and veterans to plant.

The presentations included tribal entrepreneurs working on soil science & regenerative farming practices in hemp, CBD e-commerce, and retail start up. “We are a fiber tribe. Since time immemorial, our Indigenous communities have utilized all of the gifts of our Creator to live on the landscape.

Our women were rope makers and provided the woven fibers as a source of continued sustenance in harvesting of the salmon, as well as to bind homes with hemp rope fibers.

It is well documented, the use of our Indian Hemp rope, or dogbane, but we also have our oral pre-histories that merge with other written accounts of our people as smoking people. And it was clear that it was not the same tobacco used in the colonial settlers’ pipes,” says Oatman. “We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Sunbelt Seeds to get their Goliath in the ground for the sake of Mother Earth.”

About Sunbelt Seeds

Sunbelt Seeds is an established team built by a collective of people from the UK, Europe and the USA over 10 years of passion & experience within t

he agricultural industry and 30 plus years experience of seed breeding and growing hemp/cannabis from all over the world. Their Cannabis & Hemp genetics library is second to none.

GOLIATH STRAIN

Goliath is an extremely vigorous high CBD/low THC hemp plant, which can reach in excess of 12 feet if grown correctly (this includes feeding it with the right plant nutrients from veg all the way to flower).

With good care of the plant you will develop very dense large buds that have the potential to grow like trees and produce a lemon/peach terpene profile. Yield per plant can be up to 7.5lbs if nurtured in the right conditions, as stated above.

This strain has been developed to produce a high CBD and very low THC varietal, it has been developed over a 5-year period utilizing a wild hemp variety that has then been crossed and back crossed multiple times per year for 5 years with a stable high CBD variety (SCBDX 1).

A lengthy phenotype selection process has been utilized to create a stable pest resistant strain suitable for windy colder climates that offers a uniform flower canopy for easier harvesting.

This particular strain has been tested at multiple sites between 37 degrees N and 48 degrees N and has flourished everywhere it has been trialed. The plant is easily identifiable in the field compared to current hemp strains due to the size and bushiness of the strain, as it is very Xmas-tree-like in stature.

Goliath creates a great extracted high-end medicinal CBD product that can be used in a tincture/balm/skin product and the biomass is perfect for the creation of hemp rope, hempcrete, hemp batteries, hemp clothing, and so on - the list is endless, which means there is no waste.

Sunbelt Seeds looks forward to a long relationship with Indigenous CANNAbis Coalition and is excited to be part of their journey