[Yale-forests-reading-group] Yale Forests Reading Group: November 2020 Food Sovereignty

Karam Sheban karamsheban1991 at gmail.com
Wed Nov 25 11:28:03 EST 2020


Yale Forests Reading Group, November 2020

Food Sovereignty

This month in the Yale Forests Reading Group, we are reading, watching, and
listening to resources about Indigenous food sovereignty here in the
Northeast. Andi Murphy's award-winning Toasted Sister Podcast
<https://toastedsisterpodcast.com/> is an incredible resource for learning
about Indigenous food and foodways in North America. We recommend listening
to any and every episode that you can, but to introduce today's topic,
we're going way back in the Toasted Sister feed and listening to Episode 6:
Food Sovereignty with Dr. Elizabeth Hoover, which first aired on March 16,
2017. Dr. Hoover is Mohawk and Mi'kmaq and an Associate Professor of
American Studies at Brown University.

Recommended Listening:

Toasted Sister Podcast Episode 6: Food Sovereignty with Dr. Elizabeth Hoover

https://toastedsisterpodcast.com/2017/03/16/e6-dr-elizabeth-hoover-food-sovereignty/


Dr. Hoover has traveled to Native communities across the continent to learn
how people define and approach food sovereignty. She shares the official
definition of food sovereignty developed by La Via Campesina beginning in
the mid-1990s: food sovereignty is "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
agricultural systems."

Dr. Hoover explains that being food sovereign does not necessarily mean
producing all of your own food yourself: "there was probably never a time
when each individual tribe only worked within its own population. People
have been trading among each other for eons in every part of the world….
Food sovereignty is also about to what extent do you have control over
where that food comes from that you're willingly trading for, that you're
acquiring from other places."

As Murphy points out in this interview, for thousands of years prior to
colonization, Native peoples on this continent simply were food sovereign.
Dr. Hoover outlines some of the mechanisms that have attempted to destroy
Native food sovereignty over the course of the settler colonial process of
the U.S. These have included scorched earth battle tactics employed by the
French and American colonial governments, which destroyed millions of acres
of Haudenosaunee crops in the 17th and 18th centuries; tribal relocations
and land allotments that separated Native people from their land and shrunk
the land base that remained, dividing people from their traditional ways of
cultivating and gathering food; and new and damaging relationships to food
imposed on Native children in the boarding school era. The common thread
running through all of these attacks on Indigenous food sovereignty is the
importance of land, and of relationships with traditional plants and
animals, to Native food systems.

"Traditional foods have this cultural context and meaning that's important
to maintain. So it's not just, are you getting enough of a certain
nutrient, but are you still growing these plants that have these stories
that are important to your culture. And so a decline in traditional foods
has led to language loss in some places, whether that's the names of
different plants or whether that's the interactions that people might have
had working together in the field that are important to bring back and
recover and reimplement … And for a lot of nations, the creation story
mentions food, and there's important connections to food."

There is a lot to look forward to as Indigenous people in North America
continue working to reclaim food sovereignty. For Dr. Hoover, gardening is
hugely important, not only in order to maintain a connection to traditional
foods and to preserve seeds, but also as a way to learn language. She
highlights the importance of tribal governments, not only in protecting
treaty rights and access to land for gathering and hunting, but also in
protecting habitats and supporting local food producers. Fighting pipelines
and other sources of water contamination is also important to food
sovereignty, as "you can't have healthy food if you don't have clean
water." In the following sections, we'll look at examples of both
challenges and exciting successes from across the continent to explore the
concept of Indigenous food sovereignty. And as always, we'll share
resources so you can learn more.

Tribal Sovereignty, Food Sovereignty, and Thanksgiving

Over the course of this reading group, we've learned about challenges to
Native sovereignty as well as the myriad ways in which it is upheld and
strengthened. From the PBS series We Shall Remain, we learned that the
Wampanoag tribe offered peace and diplomacy, food and resources, and
relationship building to colonists, to whom they extended the first
Thanksgiving meal 400 years ago. We know also that the Europeans responded
with colonial advancement and violence. We also learned from Dr. Lisa
Brooks' research that women's leadership and labor have always been central
to Wampanoag life. Women cultivated community-held intercropped mounds of
crops. Weetamoo, the Wampanoag saunkskwa during the time of King Philip's
War, was devoted to the survival and sustenance of the tribe located in the
Kteticut River basin and she directed distribution of food and resources
throughout the webs of communities and to every family via trails, canoes,
and kinship.

Recommended Reading:

The 'Thanksgiving Tribe' Is Still Fighting for Food Sovereignty by
Alexandra Talty, Civil Eats, June 26, 2020, updated November 17, 2020
https://civileats.com/2020/06/26/the-thanksgiving-tribe-is-still-fighting-for-food-sovereignty/


Earlier this year -- 400 years after the Mayflower arrived in Wampanoag
land -- the Bureau of Indian Affairs informed the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe
that their reservation in Massachusetts was de-established by the
Department of Interior. This meant that while the Mashpee Wampanoag could
still hold their land, they would lose sovereignty as a nation and no
longer have jurisdiction over the land their tribe has inhabited for over
12,000 years.

"They killed us off and took our land. . . . Talk about re-opening wounds
and repeating history," said [Cedric Cromwell, Chairman of the Mashpee
Wampanoag tribe], referencing how Pilgrims distributed diseased blankets to
the tribe, after the Wampanoag taught the Pilgrims to fish and hunt for
cod, sea bass, turkey, rabbit, and lobster
<https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/native-american-perspective-fast-turtle-wampanoag-tribe-member/>.
"When you think of our homelands being taken away, that would take away our
ability to farm our land as a sovereign nation," he added.

What is unique about the Mashpee Wampanoag is that they still inhabit and
farm on their ancestral land, which is uncommon in the U.S. because of
forced displacement. Therefore, the tribe has still had some access to
their traditional hunting and fishing grounds for deer and striped bass.
They also rely on Native and wild foods like "elderberry, blueberries,
beach plum, wild garlic, milkweeds or fiddlehead ferns." In addition to
these wild foods, the Mashpee Wampanoag have been strengthening their  food
sovereignty and security by building greenhouses. In a 3,500 sq. ft.
greenhouse, the tribe is growing traditional foods like beans, squash, and
corn to feed their elders.

The Mashpee Wampanoag filed a restraining order against the BIA. As of
November 2020, their reservation is still not federally established. A bill
was passed in the House and sits in the Senate to protect the Mashpee
Wampanoag's reservation and their sovereignty.

Supplementary Reading:

   -

   Interested in more about demystifying Thanksgiving - especially during
   COVID-19, which disproportionately impacts Native peoples? Read "The
   Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year
   <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/dining/thanksgiving-native-americans.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=>,"
   by Brett Anderson for the New York Times.
   -

   What can healing look like? A member of the Lumbee Tribe and a Scottish
   descendant who live on traditionally Lumbee land talk about building a
   relationship to deconstruct Thanksgiving history in "Healing from
   Colonization on Thanksgiving and Beyond
   <https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/11/27/thanksgiving-colonial-gap-heal/>,"
   by Edgar Villanueva and Hilary Giovale for Yes! Magazine.


Local Food Sovereignty

Across the country, Native peoples are connecting millennia of food
traditions to the global Food Sovereignty and local food movements. This is
happening in many places and in many ways, including by preparing and
sharing what the National Congress for American Indians called "First
Foods."
<https://www.ncai.org/resources/resolutions/urging-the-federal-government-to-safeguard-tribal-first-foods>

For example, take the story of Sean Sherman, The Sioux Chef. Sean is a
member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe. He grew up on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in South Dakota and began working in restaurants as a
teenager. He had gotten his first executive chef job before coming to a
realization: as an accomplished cook, he knew a lot about European cooking,
but little about the food traditions of his own Tribe. This led Sean to
found The Sioux Chef, an organization of many Tribes "committed to
revitalizing Native American Cuisine...re-identifying North American
Cuisine and reclaiming an important culinary culture long buried and often
inaccessible." In 2018 Sean won a James Beard Award for his cookbook, "The
Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen," and the following year he won a James
Beard Leadership Award for his social activism and drive to reimagine our
food system.

Recommended Reading & Watching:

Sean Sherman, The Sioux Chef: 'This Is The Year To Rethink
Thanksgiving' By Julie
Kendrick, Huffington Post, Nov. 17th 2020

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sean-sherman-sioux-chef-thanksgiving_l_5f904626c5b686eaaa0d36fb


The (R)evolution of Indigenous Food with Sean Sherman, Western Forestry and
Conservation Association's 2020 Empowering Tribal Culture, Ecology, And
Food Systems Recorded Webinar Series

https://vimeo.com/463609426

Similar efforts are also taking place locally. Early last year, Sherry
Pocknett, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe, purchased an abandoned bar in
Preston, Connecticut. Sherry is a lifelong cook. She was raised in
Wampanoag food traditions by her mother and father, and spent her formative
years helping her grandmother prepare food both outside and inside the
influential restaurant her grandmother owned with Sherry's uncle, called
The Flume. Sherry's uncle, Chief Flying Eagle, Earl Mills Sr., opened The
Flume
<https://www.capenews.net/mashpee/columns/the-magnifying-glass-the-flume-restaurant/article_a7718a91-8838-5287-9b75-c00f09ee3175.html>
in 1972. The restaurant overlooked the beach at Mashpee Pond in Mashpee,
Massachusetts. Until the restaurant closed in 2005 the restaurant served
food drawn from Wampanoag food traditions.

Now, Sherry Pocknett has plans to open a restaurant of her own. Called the
Sly Fox Den, a reference to her father, Chief Sly Fox. The restaurant and
bar will also feature a cultural center to celebrate indigenous culture and
cuisine. The restaurant, bar, and cultural center are being built, and in
the meantime Sherry is operating a food truck
<https://slyfoxdenrestaurant.com/menu>, which is serving a full menu.
Pocknett told the Rhode Island Magazine Motif
<https://motifri.com/chefsherry/>, "When I get this restaurant open, it
will complete my dream. I want people to leave with education about why
it's so important to take care of this planet. It's not about 'selling' my
culture — I want to teach my life ways. My life ways make my culture.
People have to stop eating out of boxes and recognize the bounty."

Recommended Watching:

Journey Cakes Cooking Demo with Sherry Pocknett (Wampanoag), First Foods
Facebook Live video, Nov. 18th 2020

https://fb.watch/1XG3y-Mnel/

Another group working to promote Indigenous Food Sovereignty is the
I-Collective <https://www.icollectiveinc.org/>, "an autonomous group of
Indigenous Chefs, Seed Savers, Artists, Activists, and Knowledge Keepers."
The "I" in the group's name refers to its four principles: Indigenous,
Inspired, Innovative, and Independent. The I-Collective recently partnered
with Belly of the Beast <https://www.bellyofthebeastma.com/>, a restaurant
in Northampton, Massachusetts. Seven I-Collective chefs are participating
in a residency at the restaurant, where they are serving precolonial and
"-Inspired" dishes.

Gather Film

Restoring and reclaiming Indigenous food systems looks different in each
part of the nation. Each place has a unique landscape, foods, seasons, and
traditional ways of knowing that Indigenous peoples are fighting to relearn
after centuries of displacement and disconnection from their land and
resources. The documentary film Gather, co-produced by First Nations
Development Institute, is a celebration of Indigenous resilience and the
reclamation of food sovereignty. The film highlights the stories of
Indigenous leaders who both honor the traditions of their ancestors while
making changes to their local food systems that empower and teach the next
generation. Gather weaves together the stories of a White Mountain Apache
chef who opens a restaurant in a former gas station to serve Native foods;
an aspiring scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation studying the
health benefits of grass-fed buffalo in Indigenous diets; a Yurok salmon
fisherman navigating the rights to fish and passing on traditional fishing
practices to the next generation, and a San Carlos Apache master forager
who shares her knowledge of plants with her young granddaughter and her
community. The film explores the connection between Native food systems and
both physical and mental health, bringing a new sense of hope that as food
systems are restored, so are the physical, mental, and spiritual health of
Indigenous peoples.

You can watch the film on Amazon
<https://www.amazon.com/Gather-Twila-Cassadore/dp/B08F5H8G69/> or Vimeo
<https://vimeo.com/ondemand/gather>. For more about the film, you can
register for this live talk and film streaming
<https://news.globallandscapesforum.org/48434/how-is-the-indigenous-food-sovereignty-movement-changing-global-food-systems/>
with Director Sanjay Rawal on Dec. 8th, and read articles written about the
film such as this one
<https://nativenewsonline.net/arts-entertainment/gather-film-showcases-the-revitalization-of-native-food-sovereignty>
by Monica White Pigeon in Native News Online.

Acknowledgements

We are immensely grateful to all those whose stories and knowledge we have
shared here. We also acknowledge that many other groups and individuals
have long been doing the work to share resources that celebrate Indigenous
food traditions; highlight important and exciting work by Native people to
strengthen food sovereignty; and interrogate the myth of Thanksgiving. We
would like to call attention to just a few that we have learned from:

   -

   November 2020 Issue of Indigenizing the News
   <https://mailchi.mp/90a0a6ef2d1f/november-2020-celebration-and-examination>
   -

   Seeding Sovereignty on Instagram: "What is Food Sovereignty?"
   <https://www.instagram.com/p/CHtppkzFuhx/?igshid=xzqkcesgqsou>
   -

   "Unlearning the History of Thankstaking"
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F2xOj_0IVTZCS0Dj-xdxcWKgvGRlN6qCrQLndpgyHqw/mobilebasic>
   resource list curated by I-Collective
   -

   List and map of Native-owned food companies across the country
   <https://toastedsisterpodcast.com/native-owned-food-companies/>,
   compiled by Andi Murphy and the Toasted Sister podcast
   -

   Indigenous People's Month Events <https://nacc.yalecollege.yale.edu/>
   from the Yale Native American Cultural Center
   -

   Yale Sustainable Food Program Newsletter (sign up here
   <https://www.sustainablefood.yale.edu/newsletter-signup>)
   -

   Yale School of Drama Newsletter: "The Prompter"
   <http://tracking.wordfly.com/view/?sid=MjExXzE5MjEwXzE2MzY3NF83MTkw&l=f59c9b39-c329-eb11-a829-0050569dd3d9&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=112320_Prompter&utm_content=version_A>


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We are immensely grateful to all those whose stories and knowledge we have
learned from and shared here. We also acknowledge that many other groups
and individuals have long been doing the work to share resources that
celebrate Indigenous food traditions; highlight important and exciting work
by Native people to strengthen food sovereignty; and interrogate the myth
of Thanksgiving.

Thanks so much for joining us. Have thoughts, comments, or resources you'd
like to share? Leave a comment, send us a message, or email us at
yale-forests-reading-group at mailman.yale.edu
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