Native American
Contemporary
Food & Agricultural
Systems
Dr. Zoltán Grossman,
Geography / Native American & World Indigenous Peoples Studies,
The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz
Across Native America, a new "food movement" is growing and
distributing traditional indigenous foods, in order to reintroduce them
to tribal members' diets, and in the process strengthen tribal cultures,
improve tribal members' health and nutrition, and develop sustainable
agricultural economies on Native lands.
Liliget Feast House,
Vancouver
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National
Museum
of the
American
Indian
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Gary Paul Nabhan
“Cupping my two hands
together, I can hold a single seed
of each plant that grows on the
acres of desert land….
When pooled together, these
microcosms of life…contain more
Information than is contained in
The Library of Congress…”
(Nabhan, Prologue)
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Winona LaDuke
“Growing food is the centerpiece of
the Indigenous relationship to birth and the
land. By planting and nurturing seeds,
Native peoples call forth and honor life
through an intricate ceremonial cycle at the
heart of Indigenous cultures.”
Food allocation
as a weapon
Mr. Andrew Myrick, a trader…
had refused some hungry Indians
credit a short time before when
they asked him for some
provisions. He said to them:
“Go and eat grass.” Now he was
lying on the ground dead, with his
mouth stuffed full of grass, and the
Indians were saying tauntingly:
“Myrick is eating grass himself.”
--Jerome Big Eagle, or Wamditanka
Santee Dakota Uprising, MN 1862
Navajo livestock reduction, 1930s
Drought diminished rangeland, 1933-35
Government reduces 16-27% of Navajo livestock;
Jail herders or confiscate herd if not comply
From 1930 to 1952, Navajos had lost 80% of their per capita holdings
Navajo churro sheep
Native American
Farm Owners
Part owners
Full owners
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
22,000
14,300
1,700
5,000
4,700
0
Nabhan, 62
1910
1950
1982
Native American Farming, 20th century
Encroachment by non-Indians on Native
farmland/range
Non-Indian lease holdings on Native land
KeepsEagle v. Veneman:
Native American farmers suing USDA
for discrimination in access to operating
loans
Commodity Foods
Food assistance (commodity) programs, 1930s;
Run by states, then USDA with tribes
Introduced sugar, white flour, lard, cheese,
domestic meats into diet and culture
Refined foods nearly half of food energy
Created obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension (GAO 1989)
Diabetes Epidemic
Tribal sustainable agriculture is reintroducing traditional foods to
counteract the current tribal epidemic of diabetes, and the poor
nutrition resulting from the U.S. white flour and sugar diet.
1 out of 8 Native Americans
have diabetes—2X the rate
of the rest of the U.S. population.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Rare before 1940s, now 2nd most
common diagnosis for Native
hospital patients
Diabetes Epidemic
Indian Health Service (IHS) office in
Bemidji, Minnesota reported in 1995 that
the age adjusted diabetes mortality rate
was 4X higher for the Native community
than that of the general population.
Risk of leg amputation 15-40X more if
have diabetes (54,000 people a year)
Diabetes is “widely recognized that the
replacement of indigenous foods with a
diet composed primarily of modern refined
foods is the enterpiece of the (diabetes)
problem.”
Journal of American Diabetic Association
“Thrifty Gene”
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) has set point,
determines rate of processing and storing calories
Thrifty gene has a lower set point, allowing bodies to store more
food as fat (advantage in winter pre-industrial society;
disadvantage with high-fat/
carb commod foods)
Tied to seasonal wild foods
(set point lower in fall;
higher in spring).
Controversial:
Theory can be misused!
Responding to diabetes
Not inevitable because of gene; focus on lifestyle,
school lunch and elder food programs
Fitness programs (wellness centers);
Food programs in field to increase exercise
Gila River Study, AZ
A study in 1991 looked at traditional foods and Pima Indians on the
Gila River Reservation. In the study, 12 tribal members who were not
diabetic volunteered to eat the “traditional diet” of hominy, beans,
acorns, and other foods for two weeks, followed by the “modern diet”
for two weeks. Blood sugar and other values were charted
during each diet period.
The results were conclusive:
“the traditional high fibercomplex
carbohydrate and low fat diet
resulted in a slower release and
uptake of sugars from the intestines”
while the modern diet “soon produced
higher blood sugar levels.” (Hanson, 22)
Native Agriculture & Food Systems Initiative
• Providing financial and technical support to projects that seek to address the
agriculture and food sectors in Native communities.
• Undertaking research projects that build the knowledge and understanding of
Native agriculture and food systems issues, and inform Native communities about
innovative ideas and best practices.
• Participating in policy forums that work to develop legislative and regulatory
initiatives in support of Native agriculture and food systems.
• Building and supporting a regional and national network of Native food sector
and related organizations.
• Developing training materials and other resources to assist communities in
identifying the resources and strategies necessary to develop sustainable Native
agriculture and food systems.
www.firstnations.org/default2.asp?active_page_id=160
Native Food and Agriculture
Resource Manual
http://www.firstnations.org/
Publications/FARM_final1.pdf
Native Food Summits
Aims are to increase tribal
food security through
community food system
projects, and development
of agricultural business
enterprises. The Summits
built connections around
culture, food, diet and
health, and showcased
successful food system
projects in Indian Country.
Albuquerque 2002,
Milwaukee 2004,
Santa Fe 2007
Traditional Native American Farmers Association
* To reverse the decline in traditional, familyscale farming among the community by
developing educational programs that
demonstrate sustainable agriculture.
* To demonstrate and train communities and
youth in a holistic approach to sustainable
agriculture based upon community ethics and
traditions.
* To help the community access heirloom/
traditional seeds
* To educate the community on traditional seed
saving and the GE,GMO threat to our
traditional seed heritage.
* Identify local resources for agriculture,
compost materials, local plants, local herbs,
water supplies, local farmers, local markets, etc.
* Revive and restore a sustainable economic
base through organic agriculture for our youth
Traditional Native American Farmers Association
* Corn processing for home use
(traditional foods/nutrition)
* Community seed “library” workshops
(methods of storing and growing for seed)
* Seed distribution
(free seed and information about seed)
* Home gardening workshops
(garden design, composting, organic
methods, irrigation, drip irrigation, etc.)
* Traditional Ag/Permaculture Course
(12 days on sustainable community design)
* Youth in agriculture
(developing youth garden projects)
* Other workshops (marketing traditional
•crops, packaging, value added crops, herbs)
Intertribal Agriculture Council
http://www.indianaglink.com
* To provide a unified effort to promote change in Indian
Agriculture for the benefit of Indian People.
* Promote the Indian use of Indian Resources for the benefit of
Indian People
* Contracts and cooperative agreements with federal agencies.
Indigenous People's
Council on Biocolonialism
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http://www.ipcb.org
Center for World Indigenous Studies
http://www.cwis.org
White Earth Land Recovery Project
http://www.nativeharvest.org
Native Seeds/SEARCH
http://www.nativeseeds.org
“From the traditional perspective, these seeds
encompass more than just characteristics. They are
sacred heirlooms, which are ‘witnesses to the past.’
These seeds hold cultural value and cultural memory
that is a vital part of traditional culture and history.
A cultural community that persists in its farming
tradition does not simply conserve indigenous
seed stock because of economic justifications,
the seeds themselves become symbols, reflections
of the people’s own spiritual and aesthetic
identity, and of the land that shaped them.”
-- Rowan White,
Mohawk farmer and scholar
Desert crop adaptation
(Nabhan)
Hopi maize adapted to sand, deep roots to seek moisture,
clumping for protection; grows better /faster than midwest Bantam
Heterogeneity in variety, not as vulnerable to pests and diseases
Weedy Teosinte maize (Chihuahua) has hardiness in cold, drought;
Smaller but grows larger with cultivation
Wild crop advantages
(Nabhan)
Wild varieties have diverse and sophisticated adaptation systems
Mixture of wild and cultivated at untended field margins;
Wild varieties improve cultivated varieties (e.g., hotter chiles)
Wild beans harder (but not smaller) than cultivated varieties;
Have to cultivate to prevent spoilage
Wild crop
advantages
(Nabhan)
Heirloom varieties in
marginal lands have
better survival and quality
Cultural persistence from
shared symbols and values
Tohono O’odham Community Action, AZ
works with Native Seeds/SEARCH
http://www.tocaonline.org
Seed Saving
Cora Baker, a Potawatomi Native American from Wisconsin, spent a
lifetime collecting heirloom seeds; some of her stock are believed to
link back to plants that grew more than 800 years ago. “I had prayed
and prayed that someone would take this gardening up again,” she
wrote, with the help of her great-granddaughter, shortly before her
death in 2000 at the age of 94. “I feel that the Great Creator has
answered my humble prayers.”
Seed Saving
The answer came in the form of Dream of Wild Health, a gardenbased education program in St. Paul, Minnesota, the group to whom
Baker sent her collection. Now, Baker’s life savings of seeds are
flourishing into black turtle beans, Mandan blue flint corn, colorful
Arikara squash and Potawatomi lima beans. “We’re growing things
we’ve never seen,” says Sally Auger, executive director of the project.
“It’s an awesome responsibility to carry this on.”
--Sheila Mulrooney Eldred (EatingWell, June/July 2006)
Dream of Wild Health Farm, Hugo MN
Salt River Community, southern Arizona
(Pima-Maricopa)
Only 4 out of 60 families use native seeds
Sucker fish (o’omuni) virtually disappeared from rivers
5-acre test of 6 commercial vegetable crops, 26 desert crops;
Bugs overwhelmed commercial crops without touching desert crops
Salt River Pimas & Maricopas
The Onk Akimel Authum (Pima)
and the Piipash (Maricopa)
share a 53,600-acre reservation
They have one of the richest
nutritional histories with their
cultivated corn, beans, and
squash, and their wild foods.
Pimas have to learn dry farming
techniques from the Tohono
O’odham because they no longer
have a river and can no longer farm
using their traditional ways.
“We always had water; we didn’t
have to depend on the rain. We
always had food. Historically, we had
communal garden plots
along the floodplain of the river,
using the fine alluvial silt as
fertilizer.”--Jacob Butler
Salt River
Pimas & Maricopas
Pimas and Maricopas are now
surrounded by the sprawling
suburbs of Phoenix; 12,000
acres of reservation held by
non-Natives
World’s leader in diabetes; they have more people with diabetes
Per capita than any other community in the world.
One of the largest groups affected by the increase in diabetes is youth
Salt River
Pimas & Maricopas
Community course on
modern methods of
sustainable housing,
energy, food production,
and wild plant harvesting.
Over 15 gardens on the
reservation, including a
large community garden,
10 home site gardens, an
elders’ garden, a garden at
the Juvenile Detention
Center and gardens at the
elementary schools.
“We want to teach the kids that they can grow
these foods to feed themselves and have their
own enterprise at the same time. When
we first introduced this to the kids in the
schools, they asked, ‘Why should we do
this if we can just go to the grocery store?’ We
are teaching kids an introduction to growing and
their heritage. A lot of people don’t like to eat
these foods, so we have to reintroduce them…”
--Jacob Butler
Jacob Butler
“This was a way for me to reconnect with my culture. There was
no other way to learn about my people. So I started looking at
what they did on a daily basis: grow, gather, and hunt. Now
that I’m learning these things, more traditional people are
coming up and offering their knowledge to me, because they
know that I’m Authum and have something to offer them and the
community.”
Pima word for “wildness”
resembles words for
“wholeness,” “health”
Jacob Butler
“The kids are picking it up and going home and asking their
parents about the seeds, foods, and traditions. We asked them to
go home and find the traditional names, so they sit down with
their parents talking about seeds. For some of these kids, it’s
the longest they’ve ever talked to their parents, so we’re creating
family communication.
We’re bringing back the
traditional knowledge, and
then kids want to put a garden
at their house, so we’re
bringing back the foods too.”
Gitiganing
Ojibwe for “Place of the gardens,”
Bad River Reservation,
northern Wisconsin
“The concept is that food is
medicine. If we’re going to win, we
have got to change our whole
lifestyle. But you can’t eat what
you don’t have. So it’s a
long-term change.”
--Luis Salas
Bad River Reservation, WI
Gitiganing
Historic site of Spring planting
of corn, beans, squash, tobacco,
and sunflowers.
1 out of 8 tribal members has
diabetes and one out of four
dies from heart disease.
Gitiganing Restoration Project
strives to combat diabetes
by re-introducing highquality traditional foods
Into community diet, 1999
Gitiganing
“For me it’s spiritual and it’s
survival.”—Becky Lemieux
Project has helped 100
families start gardens at their
home, planted over 400 fruit
trees, created several
community gardens, started
an heirloom seed bank, and
brought gardening and
nutrition activities to Bad
River youth.
Pumpkin garden for Head
Start children/families,
planting heirloom seeds from
Omaha Tribe, 2002
Gitiganing Youth Garden Project
Five youths become leaders working on the whole gardening
cycle, from design to planting, care, harvest, and seed saving,
with elder mentor
Five new community gardens:
•Medicinal Teaching Garden
in the shape of a turtle
•Heritage Garden containing
traditional Ojibwe plants
•Diabetes Garden with traditional
and non-traditional foods
•Three Sisters gardens, one
for the Bad River Daycare
and one for Powwow Grounds.
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ONEIDA
WHITE FLINT CORN
"Corn is the kernel of the culture."
--Dr. Carol Cornelius,
Oneida Cultural Heritage Department manager
Photos and text by Michele Shaw
and Zoltán Grossman,
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2004
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The Oneida people have not only grown
the white flint variety of corn since
before European contact, but have relied
on it as their Tsyunhehkwa
("Life Sustenance").
The Oneida brought the white corn with them in their migration
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from New York State in the
1820s, and replanted it along with
their culture in Wisconsin soil. Traditionally, white flint corn was
grown by many Oneida families, and was seen as central to the
survival of the tribe and the community.
Maize was part of an integrated agricultural system called the
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"Three Sisters," growing
beans, and squash together in the same
mound, in a practice today called "intertillage.”
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The tall corn provided a structure for the beans to
grow upon. The beans, along with the nutrients they
provided, fixed the nitrogen in the soil, making more
nitrogen available for the corn to consume. Iroquois
farmers grew 60 varieties of beans in the early 1900s.
The squash spread out into the spaces
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between the mounds, and covered the
ground to suppress the weeds and
keep moisture in the soil.
It provides shade and covers the soil,
preventing small animals from
feeding on the corn.
Three Sisters
The Oneida still grow the Three Sisters today, using both traditional
and modern methods, as one example of a national Indigenous
trend to reintroduce Native foods back into tribal food systems as
healthy alternatives. The corn supplies carbohydrates, beans
contribute protein, and squash gives Vitamin A.
Three Sisters
Diohe’ko (”These Which Sustain Us”)
“The Three Sisters are our medicine. When we eat
them regularly, we stay in good health. Our bodies
are in balance. Our spirit is renewed since we are
fulfilling our Creator’s instructions. As we drift to
western or foreign diets we are no longer in
balance and disease develops.”
– Brenda LaFrance, Mohawk
Planting a
Three Sisters
Garden
1. Once the danger of frost has
passed, prepare the garden site by piling
soil into small hills about a foot high and
about 20 inches across. The centers of
your mounds should be about four feet
apart and should have flattened tops.
2. In the center of each mound, plant five
or six corn kernels in a small circle. These
seeds should be soaked overnight before
planting. Each mound will later be
thinned to three or four seedlings to
prevent overcrowding.
3. When the corn seedlings have grown a
bit (5-6 inches), plant seven or eight pole
beans in a circle about six inches away
from the corn kernels.
4. A week later, at the edge of the mound
a foot away from the beans, plant 7-8
squash or pumpkin seeds.
5. When the plants begin to grow, you will
need to weed out all but a few of the
strongest of the corn plants from each
mound. Keep the healthiest of the bean &
squash plants; weed out the weaker ones.
6. Be sure that the beans are supported by
cornstalks and that they wrap around the
corn. Add high-nitrogen fertilizer such as
aged manure or fish emulsion on the soil
surface near each corn plant.
7. The squash will spread out between the
mounds. Be sure that they stay on the edge
so as not to crowd out the beans and corn.
Once the fruits begin to show, add manure
or compost to add nutrients and help the
plant to grow.
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It is no short of a miracle that
white flint corn is still grown
today in Wisconsin, given the
formidable historical obstacles
presented to the Oneida.
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Within their village palisades, the
Iroquois grew white corn in
complex agricultural beds.
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The Oneida, or On^yote?a.ka
("People of the Standing Stone")
are originally from New York
State, where they were one nation
within the Six Nations Iroquois
Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee.
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After the Revolutionary War, American land settlement pressured
the Oneida to search for more secure land to the west. In 1823,
some Oneida migrated to land they purchased west of Green Bay,
where their 65,430-acre reservation was established in 1838.
During the past two
centuries of Migration,
Allotment, Depression,
Relocation and pollution,
the white flint corn has
remained with the Oneida
people, grown by families
on their farms and garden
plots.
Oneida Reservation
In 1823, some Oneida migrated
to land they purchased west of
Green Bay, where their 65,430acre reservation was established
in 1838.
Oneida agreement for
Wisconsin land in
Menominee territory, 1838
Oneida Reservation
The Indian Allotment Act
of 1887 divided Native
reservations into privately held
parcels, which left the lands
vulnerable to confiscations,
foreclosures, and fraudulent
acquisitions by non-Indians.
The fertile lands of the Oneida
Reservation, adjacent to a
growing urban area, were
particularly vulnerable. The
tribally held lands dwindled to
only a few hundred acres by
1924.
The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act established a federally recognized
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tribal government and stopped
the loss of tribal lands.
In 1937, 1,270 acres of land were placed in trust for the Oneida, yet
during the Depression (and through the 1950s), farming jobs were
scarce. Tribal members were forced to rely on a commodities diet of
white flour, sugar, and lard that led to a high rate of diabetes.
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The federal government's next attempt to assimilate Native Americans
was to relocate them to cities, often far from home. It was only in the
1970s-1980s that the Oneida and other tribes began to exercise some
self-determination over their education, health care, community
development, and the sovereign regulation of their own lands.
Oneida Reservation
After Congress in 1988 recognized
tribal gaming rights (in states that
already practiced gaming), the
Oneida built a successful casino
that jumpstarted their economic and
cultural programs. The tribal land
base within the reservation
increased to about 4,600 acres by
the 1990s, and the tribe built a new
school. Yet urban sprawl and the
pollution from Fox River Valley
paper mills still
encroached on
Oneida farmland.
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As part of the new resurgence of economic and cultural
development, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin has established a
new farm dedicated to production, processing and distribution of
white flint corn and other traditional products.
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The Oneida
farm is called
Tsyunhehkwa
("Life
Sustenance,"
or more
literally”
"It provides
life for us").
The Oneida name is pronounced Joon hey-kwa.
The Tsyunhehkwa program is part of the Oneida
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Community Integrated
Food Systems (OCIFS), and
consists of three divisions, covering Production,
Processing,
Distribution.
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Production Division
Agricultural and Community Services
Shakoh^ta?slu.níhe?
("He prepares the fields for them").
Education and outreach
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services,
garden workshops and a
traditional husking bee, a solar
greenhouse, seed bank and seed
saving circle.
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The Production Division
offers organic vegetables and berries,
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community seeds and plants, Heirloom Iroquoian white flint corn,
custom-raised grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and free-range eggs.
Oneida families
and youth are involved in every aspect
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of white flint corn production.
Husking Bee
Anyone may participate in
the preparation of the seed,
the green corn harvest, and
the Husking Bee.
The husking bee,
held after the Fall harvest
in October, is critical to
the selection of seed
for the next year's crop.
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After husking,
the white flint
corn is braided
The corn is then
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hung and dried
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Throughout the year, volunteers shell the
corn by hand, and store the kernels in bins.
Processing Division
Community Cannery, or
Tsi?tkutekhwa.y^hé
("Where they put
the food away").
Processing
Division
The Division includes food canning
and Indigenous food workshops,
and food preservation assistance.
The white corn is cooked with
hardwood ash to break down the
hard outer shell, and is then canned
or dehydrated.
The corn, canned either with or
without meat, is traditionally used
to make nutritious corn soup. The
dehydrated corn is either sold or
ground to make corn flour.
Community Cannery
Cannery products include canned
white corn soup, corn flour,
dehydrated corn, and Kan^stóhale
(traditional corn bread). Kan^stóhale
has a short shelf life, so it is baked
about 4 times a week.
The Community Cannery is a
significant attribute in Oneida food
systems not only by processing
white flint corn, but by offering the
facility to community members to do
their home garden canning, and buy
common Spring starter plants
Distribution Division
Retail and Community Services, or
Lutunhetsla?nikulale?
("They look after all living things").
Offers "Herbal Harmony" tea blends and bulk herbs, traditional
medicinal herbs, white corn soup, raw and dehydrated white corn, corn
flour and bread, wild rice, and other items. It provides workshops and
materials on preventative health and traditional foods or herbs.
Tsyunhehkwa has reintroduced
organically grown foods to the Oneida
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Nation to ensure a healthier diet and lifestyle for tribal members, who
had been dependent on unhealthy commodity foods.
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By doing so, it also seeks
to educate tribal members and the
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wider community about Native traditional food systems,
rooted in the ancient past, and updated to the modern age
with sustainable technologies (such as a solar-heated greenhouse).
Most importantly, the traditional farm also reintroduces a cycle
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of cooperation within the
community, with Oneida and their
neighbors of all generations working together to harvest, process
and distribute the crops. The white flint corn and other food
crops provide a cultural connection to tribal ancestors,
and a reason to rebuild a sense of community and nationhood.
Study Questions
• Discuss six motivations for the contemporary Native American
food movement, addressing the cultural, economic, political,
health, social, and ecological priorities of the movement, and how
each of these values can be seen as distinct from the mainstream
“organic” movement.
• How do Native peoples in the Northern Plains (such as the Lakota
or Western Sioux) view their identity and historical experiences as
parallel to the bison?
• Describe the cultural and ecological aspects of the “Three Sisters”
to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).
• Discuss food as cultural symbology, comparing at least two
historical examples, such as pomegrantes, bison, white flint corn,
or the Three Sisters.