Native Roots

Celebrating Native Food

The Food Summit brought together Native people from 26 states that are in some way involved in the emerging "Native Food Movement." Consider that just in the lower 48 states alone, tribes "own" 55 million acres, 47 million of which are in agricultural production. Of the acres in food production (including both crops and livestock), tribes and Native peoples do not "control" almost 70% of them, but leases this land to others, according to the First Nations Development Institute. But the potential of using this tremendous asset to more directly benefit Native people economically and in restoring health exists and is gradually being realized by tribal communities and organizations. Some of the organizations present at the summit who are helping tribes realize this potential are: Intertribal Agricultural Council, Native American Culinary Association, Traditional Native Food Systems Project, International Indian Treaty Council, Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, Intertribal Bison Cooperative, and Traditional Native American Farmer Association. Some non-Native groups present at the conference that are involved with this movement were: Heifer International, Southwest Marketing Network, Center for Sustainable Environments, and Community Food Security Coalition.

The conference also emphasized the need to fight diabetes and childhood obesity in Native communities. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, (NHANES) an estimated 40 percent of Native youth are overweight. Native Americans experience the highest rates of diabetes of any minority group in the United States, with diabetes affecting one in five adults over the age of 20 in many Indian communities. Restoring traditional food systems and Native agriculture are seen as a part of the solution in the fight against diabetes and other degenerative diseases.

Some of the shining stars among the profiled programs at the summit include a program started by Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe) – the White Earth Land Recovery Project. This project maintains a program called Mino-Miijim, which delivers wild rice and other traditional foods, such as hominy and buffalo meat, to elderly tribal members who suffer from Type 2 diabetes. This program is meant to substitute traditional foods for high fat fast foods and government commodities that contribute to diabetes.