The seed keeper: Kirsten Kirby Shoote is helping keep Indigenous crops alive, including the Cherokee White Eagle corn, which survived the Trail of Tears. I first meet Kirsten Kirby Shoote on the shores of Lake Michigan on a warm, sunny day. Her hands are closed around something, silhouetted against the waves. As she gently unwraps her fingers, I see that it s a corn cob crimson and yellow, colors dancing in the gleaming sunlight. She hands the little seeds to me. I m trusting you with these ancestors, to plant them when they re ready, she says. You ll know when they re ready. The beauty of these little seeds captivates my eyes as she illustrates the importance of this heirloom corn, and her relationship with it. They came from a corn called Cherokee White Eagle, and traveled through the trust of other seed keepers like Shoote.