Native Roots

Restoring Traditional Food Systems

The Treaty Council survey goes on to ask what respondents would recommend that states, government programs and international agencies should do to better meet the food needs of communities in ways that protect and respect community’s traditional cultural practices. Some of the answers include: Limiting growth and resource exploitation (building dams along Columbia River devastated the salmon and other marine life); provide quality food through commodities, provide healthy cooking workshops, work with local tribes to understand cultural customs and traditions, continue to protect sacred foods, medicines, places, water, air, lands; give us control over our traditional lands.

The 16th and last survey question asks what communities can do to meet its food needs in ways that also protect and respect its traditional cultural practices. Some of the responses were: "I think elders should show us how we used to eat, what we ate, how to pick or harvest our traditional foods so we can in turn help ourselves and our kids. We need to be careful about how many animals, fish and birds we take; stop eating fast food and prepare healthier meals and exercise. Don't market our traditional foods; gather foods for elders who cannot do it themselves. Teach the youth cooking and preparation skills. We have to start our own programs to appreciating our heritage and positive aspects of our traditional foods, eating habits, programs that validate, honor and respect our systems and ways."

As a Native Nutritionist serving tribes in the Northern Plains region, I've observed some activities area tribes have taken to support the restoration of traditional food practices. Right here in western South Dakota are the headquarters of Inter-tribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC). Established in 1992, ITBC's vision was to bring back buffalo so that our tribal communities could be restored to healthy communities. Clearly, bison have been absent from reservation communities for over 100 years. Some of the milestones ITBC has reached are: Provided technical assistance and buffalo to assist 25 tribes to start buffalo projects where none had previously existed; increased the number of buffalo on Native American lands to approximately 10,000 head; and increased the acreage of tribal lands available for bison restoration by approximately 100,000 acres.

In returning buffalo back to the diet of the people we have seen buffalo being used in a number of our food programs. The USDA Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations introduced ground buffalo in its food package about five years ago. More school lunches in reservation communities are featuring ground buffalo in place of ground beef in favorite dishes. Buffalo has been available for purchase to community members at cost prices through some Tribal Game, Fish and Parks Departments.