No Harm, Just Love
Embedded Files
Stephanie Keith
Team Chapnick
Story Summary
_______________________________________
Hannah Greenfeather Harms, 23, is a strong-willed, dedicated woman. She follows the farming tradition of her father’s German ancestry, while also continuing the customs of her mother’s Native American Shawnee and Cherokee heritage.
Hannah, her parents and her boyfriend Jack work the land together, forming a tight-knit, loving family unit. Despite having other opportunities and wanting to go to college, Hannah remains to help her older parents farm the land. “I can’t leave my parents. They need me,” Hannah said. “Later in my life, I’ll have my time.”
Her mother, Kathryn Harms, 57, said she had always been shunned as the “Indian girl,” until her husband, Darryl Harms, 55, encouraged his wife and their daughter to explore and sustain their Native roots. “I’m too white to be red and too red to be white,” Kathryn said of her experience being half Native American in a majority German-American farming community just south of Sedalia.
The federal government does not recognize any tribes in the state of Missouri. Though she may not have a community to share these native traditions, Hannah has participated in Sedalia’s only Pow Wow and, for the last four years, has the reined as the “Pow Wow Princess” of Sedalia. She owns several traditional jingle dresses and Pow Wow crowns to prove it.
Hannah Greenfeather Harms, 23, stands in her grandfather's barn just south of Sedalia in Cole Camp. The farm has been in the family for three generations.
Hannah walks through a graveyard of farm machinery with her boyfriend Jack Geary, 23, and her dog Otis near Sedalia in Clinton, Mo. During harvest season, many farmers work on their combines – machines used to harvest crops – which require specific and hard-to-find parts.
Hannah, far right, sits with her father, Darryl "Mac" Harms, 55, her boyfriend, Jack Geary, 23, and her mother, Kathryn Greenfeather Harms, 57, just south of Sedalia in Cole Camp, Mo. The family often sit together after a day of working on the farm.
Hannah smells a sacred eagle feather fan while standing in her bedroom at her home in Cole Camp. Her fan smells of the cedar box in which it is stored. Cedar is a sacred wood for Native Americans. Behind her, a traditional jingle dress used for dancing at Pow Wows hangs on the closet door.
Kathryn, at right, uses cigarette tobacco to treat wasp stings on the hand of her daughter Hannah. Kathryn uses natural cigarettes she bought from Native American vendors.
Kathryn blesses an eagle feather while Hannah and Jack hug her in her living room at Kathryn’s home. Kathryn, whose father died this summer, is preparing for his memorial by blessing the sacred eagle feathers with burning sage, a traditional Native American practice. "I want to teach my daughter about my traditions so that she does them with her children too," Kathryn said.
Hannah sits outside in a workspace on her family's farm. Hannah spent the day helping her father and her boyfriend, not pictured, to tune up the combine machine, which is essential for harvesting.
Kathryn hugs the leg of her daughter Hannah on their farm. After a day working on the farm, the family often relax together outside.
Hannah plays with her dog Otis on the family farm.
A group of cows graze on the Greenfeather Harms farm. The cows are generally left to roam the pastures and do not require frequent care.
Hannah gathers with her family after a day of work on the farm including Jack, her father, Darryl and Kathryn outside of the parent's home.
As the moon rises, Kathryn hugs Hannah on the family farm.
Brian Kratzer, Co-Director
Alyssa Schukar, Co-Director
Hany Hawasly, Technical Director
Copyright © MMXVIII Missouri Photo Workshop
All rights reserved, content not to be repurposed without permission.
Page updated
Report abuse