A scheduled planting of industrial hemp seeds by the Coalition for Hemp Awareness (CHA) took place on test plots of American Indian soil. The initial planting came about following a resolution passed unanimously by the Navajo Nation to allow for hemp cultivation to occur on sovereign soil.
Following meetings with both the Vice President and the Director of Agriculture of the Navajo Nation, CHA spokesman Christie Bohling told NORML that support for the hemp cultivation project is “overwhelming beyond our wildest dreams.” Bohling notes that adverse weather and a lack of seeds limited CHA’s spring planting to a small “ceremonial celebration,” but adds that a widescale planting is scheduled for the end of April.
The Navajo Hemp Project began in 1992 when activists Jim Robinson and Tom and Carolyn McCormick moved to the reservation for the purpose of introducing hemp cultivation on sovereign soil. Currently, well over 30,000 acres of Navajo nation land has been allocated for hemp cultivation. In addition, CHA states that the organization is close to securing approval for similar cultivation projects from ten other tribes located across the United States. This will enable CHA the opportunity to grow hemp in a variety of “different [climates and] environments,” Bohling explains.
The Coalition for Hemp Awareness was founded in 1991 to incite the rapid return of cannabis hemp as an agricultural crop. CHA is a political advocacy network group that assimilates and disseminates hemp information to both politicians and the public.
For more information on the Coalition for Hemp Awareness or the Navajo Hemp Project please contact CHA at (602) 988-9355.