Blackfeet Author Advocates Healthy Native Lifestyles

Montana tribal author and artist,
Marietta King
(Photo by Ron Selden)

"We now know that the typical food pyramid is resulting in the fattening of America," the slender King said from her modest home, which also doubles as an office and studio for completing her distinctive artwork. "The life force of the plant we eat or the animal we eat becomes part of us. If we’re eating out of the can, there’s no life in that. It's dead."

Along with knowledge, changing behavior means altering a mindset. King, who holds an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice, a master’s degree in Counseling and Psychology and formerly served as the academic dean at Blackfeet Community College, is acutely aware that breaking old habits is tough work.

But times are changing, she said. The federal government is rethinking its outdated food pyramid, and commodity programs now include buffalo and fresh fruits and vegetables - if your community has the proper refrigeration in its storage areas. She also noted that the main grocery store in Browning, the Blackfeet Reservation’s capital, has been willing to stock a variety of different, more-healthful items. The same can be true elsewhere if customers prove that’s what they want.

"Having access to those types of food on most reservations is a big issue," King explained. "If you’re in poverty, you often have to eat macaroni and cheese. And that’s killing us. But we can focus on the problems if we want, but that’s not going to change the problems. When we focus on moving forward, when we look at the things in our community that are working, then we can move ahead."

King also doesn’t blame modern Indian families for the food dilemmas they’re facing. Many of their unhealthy eating habits were introduced in the boarding school system and other foreign places Native peoples were forced to go.

"We learned to drink milk and eat sandwiches and frozen food, things like that," she said. "But when we take time to make our food in a loving and caring way, that gets passed on to our food. Compare that to going to McDonald’s or any other restaurant. Then we usually don’t know who made the food or where it came from. Fortunately, there’s a new awareness going through Indian country about health. I see nothing but going forward for that."

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