Quapaw Tribe giving pea, okra harvests to food bank

The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma is donating truckloads of purple hull peas to the Arkansas Food Bank this week.

A contract farmer for the tribe grew the peas on the 160 acres of land the tribe owns in southeast Pulaski County near Little Rock. Food bank officials anticipate 1,200 pounds of purple hull peas will be gathered by the end of this week.

The land normally is planted with soybeans, but a rainy spring made purple hull peas and okra more practical, tribe spokesman Sean Harrison said.

The tribe plans to donate the okra when it is ready for harvest later this year.

The tribe purchased the historically significant former tribal land in Pulaski County in two separate 80-acre purchases in 2013 and 2014 but has been criticized by local and statewide officials for its attempt to place that land into federal trust, which would remove it from most local and state legal jurisdiction.

Much of the criticism has been related to speculation by local officials that the tribe intends to build a casino on the property, which lies in the middle of the Little Rock industrial port and contains graves of Quapaws and former slaves.

Tribe Chairman John Berrey has repeatedly denied that the tribe intends to build a casino and has offered to sign an agreement with government agencies promising that they won't build one or possibly other structures of concern. A decision has yet to be made at the federal level on the tribe's application.

The donation to the food bank in Little Rock follows through on a statement Berrey made to local leaders that the tribe would grow produce on its land that would be donated to the Food Bank. Earlier this spring, Berrey made a donation of beef to the food bank.

But the tribe has donated to food banks in Arkansas since before this spring, tribe and food bank officials said.

"It's been longer than the past few months," Arkansas Food Bank CEO Rhonda Sanders said. "It's my understanding that he's been doing this for quite a while," she added about Berrey.

The tribe has a long history of donating to food banks in Oklahoma, providing 50 tons of canned food twice each year in northeast Oklahoma, according to a statement from Berrey in a tribe news release.

The donations this week were provided with help from the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance's Gleaning Project and inmates from the Arkansas Department of Correction who helped pick the peas and load them for delivery on Wednesday.

Metro on 07/31/2015

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