locally grown foods

Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network: Facilitating Exchange between Arctic and Southwest Indigenous Communities on Food and Knowledge Sovereignty

Year

On a sunny morning in June of 2019, our hosts at the Athabaskan Nay'dini'aa Na'Kayax' Culture Camp, located near Chickaloon Native Village in south-central Alaska, set up a table near the smoke house and demonstrated how to fillet salmon. It was salmon season in Chickaloon, and young campers were learning how to process fish: how to fillet, smoke, and preserve it in oil. First, children and youth from the camp were given the chance to practice their knife skills, with adults standing behind them and offering encouragement and gentle correction of technique when it was needed. Adults also taught the children Ahtna words (Ahtna is part of the Athabaskan language group) and stories as they prepared the salmon. After the children had all had a turn, camp leaders offered our group of visitors the chance to try. Amy Juan, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation (located within the Sonoran Desert in south central Arizona) , eagerly stepped forward. "I've always wanted to learn how to fillet fish!" she said, explaining that since she came from a desert people, she had never had the chance to try.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Johnson, N,. Jäger, M.B., Jennings, L., Juan, A., Carroll, S.R., & Ferguson DB. (March 2020). Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network: Facilitating Exchange between Arctic and Southwest Indigenous Communities on Food and Knowledge Sovereignty.” Witness Community Highlights Arcus.org/witness-the-arctic

Hopi Farm Talk Podcast: Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network Gathering with Mary Beth Jäger

Producer
Hopi Farm Talk Podcast
Year

On September 12-16, 2022, the Natwani Coalition & Hopi Foundation hosted the Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network (IFKN) on Hopi Territory. This historic gathering connected Indigenous communities from Alaska and the Southwest in spaces provided for a sharing of knowledge. Tribal food and data sovereignty were areas of focus as the growing conversation over the unique responses to rapid environmental changes that bond geographically distant Indigenous communities. IFKN's Mary Beth Jäger, Citizen Band Potawatomi, sits down with the Natwani Coalition to reflect on time spend in Hopi and Tewa communities.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Hopi Farm Talk. "Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network Gathering: Mary Beth Jäger". October 2022. Spotify. Podcast. https://open.spotify.com/episode/...

Transcripts for all videos are available by request. Please email us: nni@arizona.edu.

Indigenous Peoples and COVID-19: Issues of Law and Justice – Canada

Producer
Māori Law Review and the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law
Year

A co-production of New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington and the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law, the "Indigenous Peoples and COVID-19: Issues of Law and Justice" is a series of conversations focused on the experiences of Indigenous Peoples with COVID-19, particularly government response and the issues of law and justice.

Moderated by Dr. Carwyn Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki), co-editor of the Māori Law Review, and produced by Māori Law Review and the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law.

Panelists:

Courtney Skye (Six Nations of the Grand River Territory), Research Fellow and Policy Analyst, Yellow Heaps Institute

Dr. John Borrows (Anishinabe/Ojibway and Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario), Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law and Law Foundation Chair in Aboriginal Justice and Governance at the University of Victoria

Jess Housty (Heiltsuk Nation), Executive Director, Qqs Projects Society, Tribal Councillor for Heiltsuk Nation and Community Activist

Dr. Jeff Corntassel (Cherokee Nation), Associate Professor, University of Victoria

Resource Type
Citation

Māori Law Review and the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law. "Indigenous Peoples and COVID-19: Issues of Law and Justice – Canada." September 9, 2020. Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved July 25, 2023 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZd2AI0jLzI

Cheyenne River Youth Project's Garden Evolving Into Micro Farm

Year

When the Cheyenne River Youth Project started its organic garden in 1999, staff at the 26-year-old nonprofit would never have guessed where the little garden would take them.

The two-acre Winyan Toka Win–or “Leading Lady”–garden is the heart of the youth project, and is becoming a micro farm. Sustainable agriculture at the youth project in Eagle Butte, South Dakota supports nutritious meals and snacks at the main youth center for 4 to 12 year olds and at the Cokata Wiconi Teen Center. The garden also provides fresh ingredients for the farm-to-table Keya Café, merchandise for the Keya Gift Shop, and seasonal Leading Lady Farmers Market. To continue with the garden’s success, CRYP has invested in a new irrigation system, a garden redesign, and a composting system...

Resource Type
Citation

ICT Staff. "Cheyenne River Youth Project’s Garden Evolving Into Micro Farm." Indian Country Today. July 6, 2015. Article. (https://ictnews.org/archive/cheyenne-river-youth-projects-garden-evolving-into-micro-farm, accessed March 22, 2023)

Food Sovereignty: How Osage People Will Grow Fresh Foods Locally

Year

Growing fresh and local foods for Osage people is now a revived approach to food sovereignty for the Osage Nation so efforts to find the most successful methods are being looked into by leadership and community members. On Feb. 7, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture along with the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology Okmulgee hosted the eighth annual workshop for ‘plasticulture’ farming workshops...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

HorseChief-Hamilton, Geneva. "Food Sovereignty: How Osage People Will Grow Fresh Foods Locally." Indian Country Today. February 12, 2015. Article. (https://ictnews.org/archive/food-sovereignty-how-osage-people-will-grow-fresh-foods-locally, accessed May 5, 2023)

Cherokee seed project sows respect for the past, hope for the future

Author
Year

The Cherokee Indians are preserving the roots of their heritage with a program that allows officially recognized members of the tribe to access seeds that are unique to the Cherokee Nation.

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Bill John Baker explained the seeds' lineage to CNN. "This strain of seeds came with us on the Trail of Tears," he said, referring to the forced migration of Cherokee nation from their land east of the Mississippi to an area that is now Oklahoma. The 15,000-person march took place in 1838 and 1839 under Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4000 Cherokees, due to starvation and sickness...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Keesee, Kellie. "Cherokee seed project sows respect for the past, hope for the future." CNN. January 16, 2014. Article. (https://eatocracy.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/16/cherokee-seed-project/, accessed March 22, 2023)

Winona LaDuke: Keep USDA Out of Our Kitchens

Author
Year

Native American author, educator, activist, mother and grandmother Winona LaDuke, Anishinaabekwe, is calling on tribes to relocalize food and energy production as a means of both reducing CO2 emissions and of asserting tribes' inherent right to live in accordance with their own precepts of the sacredness of Mother Earth and responsibility to future generations.

She said during a recent presentation on climate change at Harvard University, "We essentially need tribal food and energy policies that reflect sustainability. Tribes [as sovereign nations] have jurisdiction over food from seed to table and we need to take it or else USDA will take it…The last thing you want is USDA telling you how to cook your hominy, that you can't use ashes in it…I am the world-renowned, or reservation-wide renowned, beaver tamale queen. So who's going to come to my house and [inspect the beaver]? I don't want USDA in my food. I want us to exercise control over our food and not have them saying we can't eat what we traditionally eat."

LaDuke was talking about tribal food sovereignty... 

Resource Type
Citation

Lee, Tanya H. "Winona LaDuke: Keep USDA Out of Our Kitchens." Indian Country Today Media Network. December 2, 2013. Article. (https://ictnews.org/archive/winona-laduke-keep-usda-out-of-our-kitchens, accessed February 23, 2023)

Oneidas want locally produced food on local tables

Year

The Oneida Tribe of Indians’ foray into establishing a food hub in their community is proving to be so successful that they’d like to see it spread throughout the county. Products that are grown and processed on Oneida land have been feeding the tribe’s elementary students and elderly for some time now, and the tribe has been making a push to make them available for retail sale to the public since December, when the Oneida Market opened in a wing of the Oneida One Stop on Packerland Drive...

Resource Type
Citation

"Oneidas want locally produced food on local tables." The Journal. May 24, 2013. Article. (http://www.journal-news.net/life/home-and-garden/2013/05/oneida-tribe-wants.., accessed January 9, 2017)

Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project

Producer
Northwest Indian College
Year

The Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project is helping to increase understanding of Native foods and build community food security by exploring the Muckleshoot Tribe's food assets and access to local, healthy and traditional foods.

Native Nations
Citation

Northwest Indian College. "Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project." Northwest Indian College. Grant from First Nations Development Institute (FNDI). Bellingham, Washington. 2013. Video. (https://vimeo.com/88034342, accessed March 24, 2014)

Feeding Ourselves: Food Access, Health Disparities, and the Pathways to Healthy Native American Communities

Year

Echo Hawk Consulting, headed by Crystal Echo Hawk, released today a comprehensive report on the state of food access in Native American communities, and the resulting health disparities in Native Americans. The report--commissioned by the American Heart Association (AHA) and its Voices for Healthy Kids joint initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and AHA--calls for tribes, the federal government, and philanthropic organizations to serve as agents of change in the area of Native food access.

Written with Janie Simms Hipp, Director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, and Wilson Pipestem of Pipestem Law, the report describes the problem Natives face:

“Now-repudiated federal policies that forcibly separated Native peoples from our historical lands and traditional sources of food are manifesting in our bodies today. Separation from healthy foods has been one of the most pernicious health problems we endure. The epidemics of obesity and diabetes in Native communities, even among our children, are direct consequences of limited access to healthy food.”

Feeding Ourselves examines success stories from grassroots programs in tribal communities that inspire and educate. The authors then suggest specific pathways for tribes, the federal government, and philanthropists to empower Native people to solve these difficult problems.

Resource Type
Citation

Echo Hawk Consulting. Feeding Ourselves: Food Access, Health Disparities, and the Pathways to Healthy Native American Communities. Echo Hawk Consulting. Longmont, Colorado. 2015. Paper. (https://search.issuelab.org/resource/feeding-ourselves-food-access-health-disparities-and-the-pathways-to-healthy-native-american-communities.html, accessed April 11, 2023)