Food Reservations at the Reservation?

Abstract

The growing problem of Americans facing chronic health conditions—Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity—is exacerbated within the Native American population who live on reservations. Their rate of these chronic conditions exceeds those for all other races bringing forth a greater need for methods to improve health through the development of local food security. Fortunately, the indigenous food sovereignty movement has brought attention to their struggle for access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods that are grown and harvested in accordance with tribal agricultural practices. The Oneida Indian Reservation in Wisconsin provides a case study demonstrating how tribal government farm operations, backyard gardening, and agricultural cooperatives combine to reintegrate Iroquois white corn into diets to improve health outcomes. Collaboration between the Oneida Nation’s Tsyunhehkwa (life sustenance), Cannery, and Oneida Market and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program financially support the commitment to farming and food preservation that contribute to the development of informal agricultural cooperatives. Oneida families developed their own backyard gardens and formed Ohe∙laku (among the cornstalks). This chapter provides a historical overview of the external forces contributing to the current Native American health crisis, illustrates the growing strength of tribal governance and how the people have reconnected with the land to produce healthy crops and restore lost culture. Their resilience and spiritual revival demonstrates several methods that can be translated to other Indian reservations and communities to aid in the resolution of national health and food security problems throughout the United States.