About Us

The Eric Allen (Haskell) Greenhouse was built in July of 2005 with $100,000 in funding from the Department of Defense (DoD) for switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) research. This initiative was led by long-time Natural Resources professor Mr. Bill Welton and Dr. Diane Mann (DoD), where over 30 different ecotypes of P. virgatum from Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana were gathered for research, planting, and traditional Caddo thatching.

Just two years prior, Eric Allen, an environmental science student at Haskell Indian Nations University, suffered from a stroke at the age of 33. With the blessing of Eric's parents, Virgil and Ellen Allen, the greenhouse was named in his honor.

For the past 20 years, the greenhouse has provided a space for the Haskell community to come together and grow a variety of different plant species, care for the land, (re)connect with their cultures, build relationships with people from all walks of life, and learn to lead themselves and their Tribal communities into the future.

The Eric Allen Greenhouse operations are fully funded by the USDA-NIFA Tribal College Equity Grant, which Haskell receives due to its 1994 land grant status. The USDA Equity funding at Haskell focuses on helping promote student leaders, giving new opportunities, and sharing methods of traditional and contemporary land stewardship practices.

The COVID-19 pandemic ceased all greenhouse operations in the Spring of 2020. It was not until the Fall of 2021 that the greenhouse began to be utilized again. By the Fall of 2022, the greenhouse would begin seeing a major shift in initiatives, including restoring the woodlands, wetlands, and prairies on HINU lands. Student researchers partake in growing traditional vegetables and herbs, harvesting and preparing traditional medicines for the Indigenous community, utilizing contemporary and Indigenous practices to better care for the land, and more.

Currently, the Haskell Greenhouse team is comprised of 9 interdisciplinary student researchers representing 8 Tribal Nations.