Gete Okosomin: The Story Of the “Cool Old Squash”
Introduction
We first learned of Gete Okosomin squash when seed saver Roger Smith brought seeds to the National Heirloom Exposition in 2015. The squash had gained internet fame as “the 800-year-old squash” after a story circulated that the seeds had been found in 2008, inside a clay pot during an archaeological dig on Menominee tribal land in Wisconsin. Compelling as it might be, however, that story isn’t true. So, what’s the truth behind the mystery?
The “Cool Old Squash” from Indiana
This big, sweet, thin-skinned squash had been grown for centuries by the Miami people of Indiana. And its story demonstrates the critical role of seed stewardship in indigenous communities.
According to University of Wisconsin professor emeritus David Wrone, they had been grown and protected by members of the Miami Nation of Indiana for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years. Wrone spent much of his career studying the history of indigenous peoples around the Great Lakes.
The “Regular” vs “Ancient” Squash Seeds
On a trip to the Miami Nation of Indiana with a Menominee artist friend in 1995, Wrone met some elderly Miami gardeners. On a tour of their gardens, they pointed out two kinds of squash to the men.
One was what Wrone described as a “regular” squash, which the women told them had been “in the tribal economy for many generations,” as Wrone wrote in a memo to the White Earth Land Recovery Project, “perhaps one or two thousand years.” Each year, they took careful steps to prevent the squash plants from cross pollinating and saved the seeds season after season.
Seeds of the other, they said, had been found on a ledge deep inside an underground cave in Kentucky. Dating of the remnants showed that they could be as many as 4,000 to 5,000 years old.
While it wasn't found in a clay jar in a cave, the Gete Okosomin is indeed a "cool old squash."
Bringing the Seeds Back Home
Wrone recalled that his friend, the noted wood carver James Frechette Jr., asked if they would share some of the seeds. The women said yes, but not until the end of the growing season. The two friends went home to Wisconsin and forgot about them, but later that autumn, a package containing seeds of both varieties arrived.
Wrone grew both varieties the following year, but said he found the fruit of the “ancient” seeds to be much inferior, and he never shared those seeds with anyone.
Sharing the Story of the Ancient Seeds
The “regular” squash seeds, as he called them, grew beautifully. Those, he shared with some friends, including a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans, who lived on tribal land northeast of his home in Stevens Point, Wis. He shared the story of the “ancient” seeds, but not the seeds themselves.
She in turn shared them with some people from the nearby Menominee reservation. From there, the story of the clay ball and the ancient seeds took hold.
Eventually, Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Minnesota acquired some of the squash seeds and gave the variety its name—“Gete Okosomin,” which, roughly translated, means “cool old squash” in the Anishinaabe language.
The Rise of the Gete Okosomin Squash
The seeds—and the story—began to spread. Zachary Paige, of North Circle Seeds and the White Earth Seed Library, said that they shared the seeds at the Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference in 2013 or 2014, including with Roger Smith, who introduced Baker Creek to the variety in 2015.
“After 2014, the seed was out. From there, it kind of exploded. From various seed swaps, it just spiraled. A lot of people had access to the seed, and the story, too,” Paige said.
Main Takeaways
It’s probably safe to agree with Paige who said that he thinks the “800-year-old” squash story was simply a case of “telephone,” where information got communicated, miscommunicated, and embellished over time.
But none of this should diminish the exceptional flavor and size of this big, beautiful squash, or the importance of seed stewardship in native communities.