Food Sovereignty

<aside> đź’ˇ Quotes

  • “Kill Every Buffalo You Can! Every Buffalo Dead Is an Indian Gone.” -Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, 1867

  • “Slaughtering the buffaloes is a government measure to subjugate the Indians.” -Montana land baron Granville Stuart, journal entry, 1879

  • “What was once a subsistence economy based on wild harvesting and small-scale agriculture was transformed almost overnight into dependency on USDA commodities. White flour, milk, white sugar, and canned foods replaced formerly protein- and nutrient-rich diets. Diabetes rates skyrocketed, and its spread can be contact-traced to a single public works project.” -Nick Estes, Ph.D. (Lower Brule Sioux Tribe)

  • Food sovereignty is often defined as the: “right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” -Declaration of NyĂ©lĂ©ni, the first global forum on food sovereignty

  • “The Karuk and other Klamath Basin Tribes are salmon people—our cultural identity is interwoven with the salmon life cycle.” -Chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery, Karuk Tribe 2017 Letter to the Environmental Protection Agency </aside>

<aside> ✏ Notes:

  • Traditional Foods

    • Important to support physical, mental, and spiritual health

    • Sustained communities and way of life

    • Indigenous food systems existed long before colonization but colonialism would immediately change that

    • “Three Sisters”: Squash, beans, and corns —> can be grown togeether as “sisters”

  • Buffalo Slaughter

    • Before 1800, an estimated 30 to 60 million buffalo ranged the Great Plains

    • In 1868, the government ordered the slaughterof the buffalo.

    • In just two years over four million buffalo were slaughtered.

    • By the 1880s over 30 million buffalo had been slaughtered and buffalo were nearly exterminated.

    • By 1900, only a few hundred remained.

    • This is noted as the most violent genocide of any mammal ever documented.

  • Importance of the Buffalo

    • For Plains Indians, buffalo were essential to their way of life:

      • Used as food, medicine,shelter, and clothing.

    • Spiritual importance

      • White buffalo

  • Fishing Rights

    • 1960s-1970s “Fish Wars” - Yakama, Nisqually,Puyallup, and Muckleshoot

      • Protested for the government to uphold the treaties that guaranteed their rights to fish inusual and accustomed fishing sites outside reservation borders

    • Treaties outlined that Native people were allowed to hunt and fish – not upheld

    • The Boldt Decision (1974)- upheld thelegality of treaty fishing rights

    • 1975-1991 Walleye War in Wisconsin

  • Rations

    • more towards to the Lakota people

    • Provided by government

      • Distributed twice a month on thereservation: Lard, flour, coffee and sugar and canned meat (spam)– commonly expired

    • Native people became dependent on these rations

    • Many Native people suffered from malnutrition, illness, and starvation

    • August 1876: “Sell or Starve” policy

  • Food Insecurity

    • Many Native communities face limited access to supermarkets and healthy food options.

    • 1 in 4 Native Americans experience food insecurity compared to 1 in 9 Americans overall.

    • A University of California, Berkeley study found that 92% of Native American households within their study region did not have consistent access to healthy, culturally appropriate foods in sufficient quantity.

  • Commodities

    • USDA Food Distribution Program thatbegan in the 1970’s

    • Aimed to address food insecurity

    • Provides food to reservations, typically cans, frozen, and processed cheeseblocks

    • 80% of Native Americans are lactose intolerant.

    • Providing poor quality, culturally inappropriate foods that undermine traditional diets

  • Diabetes

    • Native American adults are almost 3 times more likely tohave type 2 diabetes compared to White adults.

    • 1 in 6 Native American adults have been diagnosed with diabetes — more than double the prevalence rate for the general U.S. population.

  • Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

    • CVD is the leading cause of death among Native Americans

      • Natives die from heart disease at younger ages than any otherracial and ethnic group in the U.S.

    • Over one-third of CVD deaths occur before the age of 65 years.

      • In 2018, Natives were 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than their white counterparts.

  • Tribal Initiatives

    • Cherokee Seed Bank

    • BodwĂ©wadmi KtĂ«gan (Potawatomi Farm) Choctaw Nation Agriculture Demonstration Centers

    • The Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program (YTFP)

    • The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska – awarded new grant to sustainably harvest buffalo

    • The Lac Vieux Desert Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa - The GeteMiinikaanan (Ancient Seeds Project)

  • California - Salmon

    • The Karuk people are intimately dependent upon salmon bothphysically and culturally

    • Plays a role in identity

    • Many Yurok people believe that losing the salmon means losing their culture, and ultimately themselves

  • California - Acorn

    • Acorns were central to the diet of California tribes

    • Historically, an estimated 75% or moreof California Native communities ateacorns as a primary food source anda corns comprised an estimated 50% of their diets (Kroeber, 1925; Conti, 2006).

    • Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park

    • The largest collection of bedrockmortars in North America

    • The Miwok used the chaw'se for thousands of years to grind acorns for food

  • California – Pinyons (Pine Nuts)

    • Not only a food source, but provide cultural significance

    • Cultural preservation

    • Used for jewelry, regalia, and ceremony

    • Valued trade item

    • Harvests still happen to this day

    • Community gatherings

  • Reclaiming Food Sovereignty

    • Native communities are addressing the deep connections between food, health, culture, and identity.

    • Improving physical health, cultural revitalization, environmental stewardship, economic empowerment, and strengthened community connections

    • Strengthening tribal sovereignty

    • Controlling their own food systems = more autonomy in policies and decisions, making them less reliant on federal or state programs.

  • Native Americans provide 60% of all foods that are used in the world today

  • Representation:

    • Indigenous Food Markets: 3%

    • Indigenous Food Restaurants in the United States: 1%

  • Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo)

    • Wahpepah’s Kitchen – Oakland, CA

    • First Native woman owned restaurant

    • Objectives:

      • to acknowledge that we live on stolen land

      • how that acknowledgement connects to the reclamation of Native food ways (food sovereignty)

      • to educate communities and organizations on the health benefits of Native food ways using the knowledge passed onto her.

    • Menu is in Kickapoo language with English translations

  • Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota Sioux)

    • Owamni – Minneapolis, MN

    • Prioritizes purchasing from Indigenous food producers locally and nationally

    • Removed colonial ingredients such as beef, pork, chicken, dairy, wheat flour, and cane sugar

    • Majority Native American staff

    • Partnership with NATIFS to create the Indigenous Food Lab

    • Professional Indigenous kitchen and training center

    • Offers classes on Native American agriculture, farming techniques, seed saving, wild foods, ethnobotany, indigenous medicines, cooking techniques, regional diversity, nutrition, language, history, health and healing!

  • indigenous food lab

    • Minneapolis, MN

    • Better access to healthy foods, learning how to prepare and cook them

    • Working to improve the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)

    • Provides US senators and USDA officials with expertise shape and improve policies for tribal communities.

  • Tocabe

    • Tocabe – Denver, CO

    • Co-owned by Ben Jacobs (Osage) and Matt Chandra

    • Indigenized space with contemporary

    • Community-centered

    • Indigenous Online Marketplace </aside>