Bloomington's Parks and Recreation Department is inviting volunteers to Pond Dakota Mission Park this Sunday, July 26, from 1 to 4 p.m., for a soil-rejuvenation session that marks the next visible step in building an Indigenous Plant Arboretum and Botanical Gardens on the site.
The park sits at 401 E. 104th St. and is home to the Gideon and Agnes Pond House, where the Pond family lived and worked as missionaries to the Dakota in the mid-1800s. Sunday's session covers soil quality, compaction, rock dust and water retention before volunteers get to work shoveling, loading wheelbarrows and raking amendments into the garden beds. Anyone with a shovel or rake is asked to bring one, and no registration is required — organizers say people can drop in for any part of the three hours.
The arboretum itself is a 30-foot-diameter circular garden being built near the middle of the park to showcase Indigenous plants and shrubs, many of which no longer grow naturally in the area. It's a collaboration between the city's Parks and Recreation Department and the Bloomington Public Schools American Indian Education Program, coordinated by Cânté Sütá-Francis Bettelyoun, a Lakota specialist in Indigenous plants and food ecosystems.
Work on the project started in 2024 with an introduction workshop that fall, and the plan going forward follows the seasons: planting and tending in spring, tending and harvesting through summer, harvesting and soil prep in fall, and storytelling and food preparation over winter. A guided walk with Bettelyoun in June already laid out the vision for the space; planting itself will follow on a date the city has yet to announce.
Anyone who wants to get involved or learn more can reach Parks and Recreation at 952-563-8877 or [email protected].