**3. Methodology**

*La Milpa* project follows the research methodology of Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) [20]. According to the authors like Atalay and McCleary, "CBPAR is best understood as a decolonizing methodology intended to improve the ethics and practices of research by striving for the mutual benefit of those most affected by a particular research project through equitable, collaborative partnerships at all stages of research between researchers and community members" ([20]: 5). In the *La Milpa Project*, we know that the inclusion of community methodologies and epistemologies is important to be able to implement projects related to plants as relatives. The methodologies of the La Milpa Project since the beginning of the work have been about social change and social justice. Along with the cultivation of Our Mother Corn in agricultural practices, we acknowledge the importance of collaborating with the community on topics related to culture and language revitalization. Additionally, we follow decolonial epistemologies in the project. Decolonial practices help us understand the central role of land as our teachers. We listen to the teachings of more-than-human beings [21].

The work of linguistic revitalization is relevant to Indigenous peoples who live in the diaspora. When in connection with Traditional Ecological knowledge, we learn about the relationship between people and land. Additionally, language is a key component in understanding worldview. Understanding different ways of knowing the world helps us to demystify the relationship between body and land. For this, *La Milpa* Project works in collaboration with collectives such as the *Proyecto Taniuki* (Our Language Project) and *Yuri'Ikú* (Cultural and Gastronomic Center) to teach about the inclusion of the Wixárika community and the approach to a linguistic policy that prioritizes Indigenous pedagogies including agricultural practice.

Language in connection with agricultural practices has been a vehicle for the revitalization and strengthening of Indigenous identity. Although the workshops with *Proyecto Taniuki* are small initiatives, they have an impact on the community.

#### *Teachings of Tatéi Niwetsika: Native Maize from Northern Mexico DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112629*

An example is the ethnolinguistic landscape project in *Lomas Bonitas* that culminated in 2022. After extensive fieldwork with the community and consultation with the community assembly, community Elders, and the general population, Kalamazoo students conducted ethnographic fieldwork to collect names for spaces and places relevant to the community. Within these spaces were public and community spaces, and topographies (mountains and hills). These spaces have meaning and social and cultural value. The members of the project included people from the community, teachers, students, and the children of the community. Together they organized namespaces in Wixárika and in Spanish. In this intergenerational work, the names, meanings, and spaces to be named were established by consensus. Thus, students from the community and outside communities conceptualize the importance of land and territory from the community's perspective.

#### **3.1 Study area: Tepic and Kalamazoo**

In the work of growing La Milpa in Tepic and Kalamazoo, methodologies and practices are carried out following community protocols and principles for the interaction and coexistence of people with Native seeds. In planting, we include consent practices such as the cultivation and planting ceremony to consult with the Elders about their opinion of the growth of the Milpa. The Elders consult, following their tradition, the ancestors to know how to proceed with the milpa. In Tepic, we cultivate with Wixárika families living in urban centers but with connections with rural communities in La Sierra. Tepic is in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. Most of the population is mestizo (mixed heritage) but many Indigenous communities continue living or migrating to the city. In Kalamazoo, we cultivate in the Hoop House one of the growing gardens at Kalamazoo College. Kalamazoo is in southwest Michigan.

The cultivation of the Milpa has been a school for learning not only about seeds (how to adapt to other climates) but also about ontological relationships with morethan-human beings. With the ceremonies and small practices that are made as an offering to the crop, we learn what it is like to be in a community with more than humans. The Milpa has become a university of the earth where with our bodily labors we enter communion with the seeds. It is also a project that connects us with the communities of Mexico and the USA. We estimated that the seeds will be shared with the community in Kalamazoo to be able to grow Milpas in various neighborhoods of Spanish-speaking peoples and some Indigenous communities in Michigan. This project will help migrants from Mexico and Central America to reconnect with ancestral seeds and ancestral practices.
