What started as an effort to conserve native seeds of the Southwest and save indigenous foods and cultural traditions has grown into a stewardship of flora with an innate resilience to adapt to changing climate.

Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) started in Tucson in the early 1980s in response to the loss of agricultural biodiversity that had occurred in the U.S. in the early 1900s. As two of the nonprofit’s founders worked with the Tohono O’odham Nation on food security programs, they found many of the community’s members talking about the foods they had when they were children but couldn’t find anymore. It was the start of a decades-long effort of seed collection focused on seeds from the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico.

Today, the NS/S seed bank holds up to 1,800 different accessions, or varieties, representing more than 50 indigenous communities. And as the collection has grown, so has the mission.

“We steward seeds,” says NS/S executive director Alexandra Zamecnik. “So our form of conservation is to distribute seeds and have seeds in communities being grown by gardeners and farmers. [We also aim to have seeds] consumed by families in communities, especially in communities of origin.”

According to Zamecnik, the organization’s main focus for the last 20 years has been regenerating the seeds and growing them out. It’s a process that takes many years and, in addition to the gardens at its conservation center, it also partners with farmers across the region. “We have some crops that are obviously from a higher desert and we’re wanting to have those grown out by our partners that are in different climates,” she says.

There are also a variety of seed access programs that distribute and return seeds to their native communities. Through the Native American Seed Request program, for example, any person of Native American heritage living in the Southwest—or living in a tribe that is from the Southwest—can request up to 15 seed packets for free. Zamecnik explains the program prioritizes the cultural and historical connections the communities have with the seeds and also to the region the seeds are adapted to.

A new rematriation effort also builds on this cause. “Within the seed world, rematriation is the return of seed to a community or person,” she adds. For NS/S, it is rematriating seeds to a donor who provided their original seed, or to a descendant of the donor. There is also a process for seed return, in which tribes can request an entire collection of seeds be given back or define how they are used.

“We wouldn’t have this collection, be able to share this collection, or be able to steward these seeds if it hadn’t been for the indigenous farmers that stewarded them for as long as they did,” Zamecnik says.

The majority of NS/S seed collection are corn, beans and squash, and as the collection rejuvenates the diversity, communities and businesses are integrating them into recipes. Restaurants like Café Gozhoo in Whiteriver are serving traditional plates of the Apache Nation, while spots like La Chaiteria in Tucson create Mesquite lattes. In Mexico, Tortillas Azules Diodata are renowned for their blue corn tortillas.

Zamecnik says NS/S was part of the effort to bring White Sonoran Wheat back from near extinction and now it’s becoming a popular ingredient in Tucson, as are other ingredients like the Chilta bean and the Mayo Blusher squash.

As Native Seeds/SEARCH moves into its next 20 years, Zamecnik says the next push is to make sure the seeds are used in the community. Part of that is about distribution, and part is about education and supporting farmers with resources.

“People perceive there is this huge seed bank waiting for some doomsday future. What we’re trying to promote here is a seed bank that is being used today, not for a supposed future. We’re already in a drought. This region is already struggling with access to water,” she notes.

NS/S works to support small farmers outside of extension services with resources like fencing, shade cloth and soil amendments. This is to help ensure success with the seeds and their gardens to provide food for themselves and their communities.

“One of the important reasons to continue to preserve seeds is that these seeds were grown in these communities for generations, sometimes thousands of years, and they really adapted to the arid climate of the Southwest,” Zamecnik says.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization saw an increased public awareness of local food systems and an increase in demands on its seeds as people took up home gardening. NS/S works to educate and preserve the tradition of seed saving with information on its social media, as well as opportunities to volunteer at the conservation center. Zamecnik encourages everyone to start small and not be intimidated, even if you’re just growing on a patio garden.

“The more you can continue to have a relationship with your plants and with your crops over the years, the more resilient that crop is going to be to your microclimate.”