Indigenous Foodways Research Articles

Food Sovereignty and Health: A Conceptual Framework to Advance Research and Practice.

Settler colonialism disrupted traditional Indigenous foodways and practices and created high rates of diet-related disease among Indigenous peoples. Food sovereignty, the rights of Indigenous peoples to determine their own food systems, is a culturally centered movement rooted in traditional Indigenous knowledge. This approach directly intervenes upon systems-level barriers to health, making it an important strategy for health equity. While food sovereignty initiatives can be found within many Indigenous communities, the conceptual linkages between food sovereignty and health have not been well documented within the public health literature. We present a practice-informed conceptual framework developed as part of the Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity (CIIHE) initiative, a community-academic partnership with the goal of strengthening Indigenous food systems and practices to promote health and well-being. The framework emphasizes connectedness, including the transmission of knowledge across generations and the restoration of relational responsibilities, as central to Indigenous concepts of health and wellness.

Growing in relation with the land: Experiential learning of Root and Regenerate Urban Farms

The food landscape of Calgary, Canada, is sown with an abundance of polycultures. Alongside place-specific Indigenous foodways are food rescue, banking, and hamper programs, food studies scholars, a City of Calgary food resilience plan, and a growing number of alternative food network producers. Within the local alternative food network, there has been a boom in advancing indoor growing for our colder climate, including container, aquaponic, vertical hydroponic, and greenhouse growing. Situated as an agrarian ethno­grapher and an urban regenerative farmer, we seek to highlight the viability of agricultural techniques that are in relation with the land to grow more socially and ecologically sustainable food and farm systems in and around Calgary. From this posi­tion, we formed a collaboration between the University of Calgary, Root and Regenerate Urban Farms, and the Young Agrarians to document the cultivation process for a production urban farm. Over the course of one growing season—May to September, 2021—we harvested approximately 7,000 lbs (3,175 kg) of produce across nine urban spaces totaling 0.26 acres. The 48 vegetable varie­ties were distributed to 35 community supported agriculture shareholders, weekly farmers market customers, restaurant chefs, and members of the YYC Growers and Distributors cooperative. More­over, we donated 765 lbs (347 kg) of surplus pro­duce to the Calgary Community Fridge, Calgary Food Bank, and the Alex Community Food Cen­tre, which work to mitigate food insecurity. Through a reflexive practitioner approach, our reflective essay discusses the benefits and limita­tions of Small Plot Intensive Farming methods and urban land-sharing strategies, as well as the viability of land-based urban agriculture in a rapidly chang­ing socio-ecological climate. Our paper also demonstrates the potential for transcending siloed approaches to knowledge-making vis-à-vis experi­ential learning partnerships between graduate student researchers, farmers, and agricultural organizations.

Indigenous Foodways as Persistence in the Alta California Mission System

AbstractThis article investigates Indigenous persistence within Mission Santa Clara de Asís in central California through the analysis of animal food remains. The Spanish colonial mission system within Alta California had a profound social and ecological impact on Indigenous peoples, altering traditional subsistence strategies and foodway patterns. Past research has highlighted the continued use of precolonial foods within the Alta California mission system alongside the daily consumption of colonial-style beef stews. This article expands on that literature to consider how Indigenous and colonial residents differentially acquired ingredients and prepared daily meals within the Alta California colonial mission system. This assessment demonstrates a sharp divergence between Indigenous and colonists’ daily diet, manifested in the continued use of wild food resources by Indigenous people as well as the maintenance of precolonial culinary practices in the preparation of cattle meat for daily stews. These findings complicate our understanding of foodways within the Spanish mission system and expand our understanding of Indigenous autonomy within conditions of colonialism.

Traditional ecological knowledge and non-food uses of stingless bee honey in Kenya’s last pocket of tropical rainforest

BackgroundStingless bee honey (SBH) is a natural remedy and therapeutic agent traditionally used by local communities across the (sub-)tropics. Forest SBH represents a prime non-timber forest product (NTFP) with a potential to revitalize indigenous foodways and to generate income in rural areas, yet it is also used in a variety of non-food contexts that are poorly documented in sub-Saharan Africa and that collectively represent a significant part of the local traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) passed on across generations. Documenting TEK of local communities in African tropical forests facing global change is a pressing issue to recognize the value of their insights, to evaluate their sustainability, to determine how they contribute to enhancing conservation efforts, and how TEK generally contributes to the well-being of both the natural environment and the communities that rely on it. This is particularly important to achieve in Kenya’s only tropical rainforest at Kakamega where SBH production and non-food uses have evolved and diversified to a remarkable extent.MethodsWe used ethnographic techniques and methods, including semi-structured questionnaires and recorded interviews. We used snowball sampling, a non-probability sampling method where new interviewees were recruited by other respondents, to collectively form a sample consisting of 36 interviewees (including only one woman).ResultsOur results indicate that local communities in Kakamega were able to discriminate between six different and scientifically recognized stingless bee species, and they provided detailed accounts on the species-specific non-food uses of these SBH. Collectively, we recorded an array of 26 different non-food uses that are all passed on orally across generations in the Kakamega community.ConclusionOur results uncover the vast and hitherto unexpected diversity of TEK associated with SBH and pave the way for a systematic survey of SBH and their non-food uses across a network of communities in different environments and with different cultural backgrounds in the Afrotropics. This, along with parallel and more in-depth investigations into honey chemistry, will help develop a comprehensive understanding of SBH, offering insights into holistic ecosystem management, resilience and adaptation while in the mid- to long-term promoting cross-cultural exchanges and pathways for the revitalization of cultural practices and traditions.

The cause and effect of the nutrition transition in Nigeria: analysis of the value of indigenous knowledge and traditional foods in Enugu State, Igboland

The objective of this study is twofold: one, to analyze the presence of the nutrition transition in Nigeria through assessment of national food consumption trends, obesity, and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) data over time, and two, to assess the role that indigenous knowledge and foodways can play in promoting healthy diets in the country through the case study of Enugu State, Igboland. A mixed-methods approach was utilized with quantitative data from the Nigerian Living Standards Survey and Demographic Health Survey to measure changes in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and food consumption across Nigeria from 2003 to 2018 using Natural Language Processing and Trend Analysis. Primary qualitative data in Enugu State were collected through semi-structured interviews in 2021 with a random sampling technique undertaken to analyze the status of indigenous Igbo foods and traditions to curb the negative effects of the nutrition transition, as well as to document the motivations behind using or abandoning traditional foods in the present generation. The findings of the study depict the nutrition transition in Nigeria in multiple forms. The combined overweight and obese population in the country has experienced a 29% increase in the 15-years study period, while the NCDs hypertension and diabetes have experienced a combined 21% increase. Consumption patterns have shifted, though not always in the ways predicted from the literature, with statistically significant increases displayed in the consumption of Breads and Pastries, Starchy Roots and Tubers, Legumes, Plant and Animal Fats, Seafoods, Milk and Dairy Products, Beverages, Non-alcoholic Drinks, Vegetables, and Red Meats. The primary data analysis displayed that the traditional Igbo foodscape is defined by local, nutritious whole foods. The data depicted significant recent trends toward using ultra-processed seasoning cubes instead of local herbs as spices, with a huge shift from 0% frequency usage identified in the parents’ generation to a 35% frequency in the current generation. Eighty-three percent of the community surveyed stated that they believe that the diets of the younger generation are changing, with the majority stating that the change is for the worse. Participants from the community provided recommendations for curbing the nutrition transition and empowering indigenous foodways through policy, investment, and mindset change. Though consumption patterns are changing and Nigeria’s obesity and NCD rates are increasing, it is still far behind the rate of obesity in countries farther along in the nutrition transition such as its former colonizer Britain. Interviews conducted around Enugu State show how the indigenous food system is centered on fresh, healthy foods, primarily local tubers, legumes, vegetables, and spices. There is extensive knowledge and pride in the indigenous food system, even though there was a consensus that Igbo food culture is currently undergoing immense changes in part due to some of the younger generation’s new tastes in processed foods and convenience.

From slow food festival to fine dining table: politicized foodscape, gastronomy, and social sustainability in eastern Taiwan

ABSTRACT This article examines how and why Taitung’s slow foodscape, a process and outcome of simultaneously bottom-up and top-down governance, has provided opportunities for residents to reinvent foodways. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork in Taitung’s indigenous community and food network, this article shows a farmer’s case study to examine the emergence of the gastronomic network of fine dining chefs, gastronomic and local food intermediates, and farmers. Considering factors of ethnic/local identities, alternative food politics, and marketing/branding of smallholders’ products, I analyze how the slow foodscape celebrates and interacts with indigenous foodways, which become hybridized and are included in Taiwan’s glocalized culinary art, agri-food branding, and gastronomic tourism. I argue that the residents’ reinvention highlights their multiple identities and practices; it also empowers Taitung, widely regarded as “a less developed and socially unsustainable county,” to embrace cultural diversity, livability, and hence more feasible social sustainability, to respond to the mainstream development discourse and practice of Taiwan and global capitalism.

This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions

The playful title of this book, This is the Plate, is an allusion to the famous Brigham Young remark identifying the Salt Lake Valley as the place Latter-day Saints would end their westward migration and settle. The title provides an effective tonal introduction to the writing presented on its large, glossy pages and amongst its colorful photographs—an accessible and lively exploration of Utah foodways contributed by people who live in the state. The topics and treatments are wide-ranging, honoring the diverse peoples who have lived and grown food in this land, from camas lily cultivation techniques to the practices of Italian immigrants who so cared about their fig trees that they were willing to dig them up and overwinter them in their cellars.Three of the seventy-four chapters focus on Indigenous food habits. Danille Elisa Christensen's chapter provides a strong overview of Great Basin foodways, especially before intensive settlement by Anglo migrants. Already in the first paragraph, Christensen complicates traditional understandings of hunter-gatherers by pointing out that they did more than find and harvest food. She describes “a variety of agricultural techniques suited to the wide range of climates and soils within the present state boundaries, including irrigation, terracing, crop rotation, installment of windbreaks, and stewardship of so-called wild plants” (98). The second Indigenous foodways chapter, written by Northwestern Band of Shoshone historian Mae Timbimboo Parry before her death in 2007, details the flora and fauna hunter-gatherers traditionally consumed, including techniques for harvesting and preserving. She observes that at the time of writing, Native Americans experienced sickness from their non-Native food sources while “the clothing and tools needed for traditional harvesting, hunting, and cooking are also endangered” (107). While Christensen relies predominantly on sources such as tribal and government websites, journal articles, and reminiscences, Parry's assertions come from lived experience and information passed generationally through oral transmission according to carefully dictated standards to retain accuracy. The different approaches complement each other well.Essays that include formative food memories are particularly evocative, including one from Elizabeth Archuleta, whose chapter shows how “food keeps us connected to our roots, helps us maintain ties to one another, and, in doing so, helps nourish who we are” (184). Her description of tortillas from the grill makes it difficult to keep reading instead of running to the kitchen to follow her recipe. Additional chapters highlight several of the immigrant cuisines that enrich the table experiences of Utahns, including specific countries such as Greece and Italy or larger geographical areas, including Polynesia and Asia. Other episodes highlight homegrown traditions, such as Pie and Beer Day, a parodic celebration that provides connection for those who feel alienated by the state's official but religion-specific July 24 Pioneer Day.Allusions to Latter-day Saint foodways flow throughout the book, and some chapters study them explicitly. In “Compassionate Service Casserole,” Ronda Walker Weaver explores the connections between food and service for female church members, asserting, “It is not about the food, but about the love that delivers it” (245). Love is also a theme in Randy Williams's chapter, subtitled, “A Performance of Worldview,” which explores food storage practices and narratives. Williams discusses tales of sacrifice on behalf of food storage (including selling an engagement ring!), happy childhood memories of canning food together, and millennialist questions about how to best prepare for the needs and appetites of future neighbors. Williams conveys a multifaceted picture of this prominent practice for Latter-day Saints in the United States, a picture of self-sufficiency, sharing, and faith.Historians will be particularly interested in fascinating source materials and rich anecdotes worthy of further inquiry. Occasional small inaccuracies may disappoint them. For instance, George D. Watt invented the Deseret alphabet, not Brigham Young. This utopian effort at spelling reform was intended to help children and immigrants to more easily read and write and not, as claimed, “a coded, secret way of communicating” (36).1 Nonetheless, there are few secondary treatments of Utah foodways, and this book makes progress toward filling a large gap.Historians, journalists, and, predominantly, folklorists contributed to this volume. Some chapters have a more historic tone, with extensive and rigorous source materials, while others read more as inviting encyclopedia entries. This Is the Plate will particularly appeal to readers wanting to think about the stories and lives behind the food and drink in Utah. An engaging read, it will interest specialists and nonspecialists alike.

Growing Community Sustenance: The Social Economy as a Route to Indigenous Food Sovereignty

While the social economy can achieve many positive outcomes, one recent benefit is that it can be a route to Indigenous food sovereignty—a restorative framework for feeding communities and engaging in decolonization. This article examines how some Indigenous groups in Canada use the social economy to build food sovereignty, beginning with an overview of cultural relationships with food, its place in an Indigenous worldview, and the effect of colonization on Indigenous foodways. After introducing food sovereignty, and in particular Indigenous food sovereignty, it focuses on how some Indigenous communities are using the social economy to build food sovereignty, using the example of the Northern Manitoba Food, Culture, and Community Collaborative. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of community and food sovereignty, not only for Indigenous Peoples but also for the social economy itself.

Indian Time: Temporality, Gender, Mobility

Indian Time: Temporality, Gender, Mobility

“I don’t remember any of us … having diabetes or cancer”: How historical oppression undermines Indigenous foodways, health, and wellness

Past and present structures of settler colonial historical oppression aimed to erase and replace Indigenous peoples have profoundly disrupted U.S. Indigenous foodways. The purpose of this article is to use the Indigenous Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT) to understand U.S. Indigenous peoples’ experiences and perceptions of how (a) foodways have changed within the context of settler colonial historical oppression and (b) these changes have affected wellness and cultures of Indigenous peoples. Critical ethnographic analysis focused on data from 31 interviews with participants from a rural Southeast reservation and a Northwest urban context. Results revealed participants’ descriptions of changing foodways situated in a system of historical oppression, with themes including (a) historical oppression and changing values and foodway practices; (b) settler colonial governmental programs interrupting foodways through commodities and rations; and (c) changing foodway practices: from homegrown and homemade to fast food and premade. Participants described the aftermath of settler colonial governmental policies and programs undermined foodways, connectedness, cultural knowledge, family and interpersonal relationships, ceremonies, and outdoor activities—all of which promote health and wellness. To redress historical oppression, including settler colonial governmental policies, decolonized decision-making, foodways, and Indigenous food sovereignty are recommended as approaches to inform policy and programming that affirms Indigenous values and worldviews.

Subsistence and Persistence: Indigenous Foodways Within Mission Santa Clara de Asís

ABSTRACT This study explores the subsistence strategies and dietary practices of Indigenous people who resided in Mission Santa Clara de Asìs (1777–1836). Through the analysis of faunal remains from recent archaeological work of the ranchería, the housing location of Native families, this research reveals the persistence of Indigenous foodways within Mission Santa Clara. While colonization efforts by the Spanish impacted both local environments and traditional foodways, Native Californians continued to procure and utilize a high diversity of traditional wild fauna throughout the Mission Period. These findings provide evidence for the rearticulation and continuation of Indigenous foodways within the Mission despite social and environmental restrictions that limited access to wild resources.

Regional, Regenerative, and Indigenous Foodways: A Review Essay

Regional, Regenerative, and Indigenous Foodways: A Review Essay

"It's Always About Sharing, and Caring, and Loving, and Giving": Decolonized and Transcendent Indigenist Foodways Fostering Health and Resilience.

Centuries of historical oppression have targeted and undermined Indigenous foodways, which fundamentally disrupts the culture and wellness, yet decolonized, resilient, and transcendent Indigenist practices persist. The purpose of this research was to use the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) to understand foodway practices among Indigenous Peoples. Given a limited understanding of how foodways may promote health and wellness the focal research questions for this critical ethnographic inquiry were: (a) How do participants describe Indigenist foodways? (b) How do Indigenist foodways reflect decolonized values and practices? and (c) How may Indigenist foodways be promotive for health and wellness? Data were drawn from 31 participants across a rural, reservation-based Southeast (SE) region and an urban Northwest (NW) region. Reconstructive data analysis revealed the following emergent themes: (a) Indigenous Values of Generosity Expressed Through Foodways: "It's Always About Sharing, and Caring, and Loving, and Giving"; (b) Gardening, Subsistence, and Food Sharing: "You Bring Enough for Everybody to Share"; (c) Decolonized Feasts and Foodways: "Everybody Pitch in and Help as Much as They Can." Despite centuries of historical oppression, participants reported decolonized values, worldviews, and foodways that reflected unity, cooperation, sharing, and social cohesion and caring, which were promotive factors for family resilience, health, and cultural identification. This research provides promising pathways about how Indigenist foodways remain salient in daily and cultural life, reflect decolonized values and practices, and may be promotive for health and wellness within the natural world.

Berries as a case study for crop wild relative conservation, use, and public engagement in Canada

Societal impact statementPlant biodiversity is fundamental to the future of food security and agriculture. Berries are the most economically important fruit crops in Canada. Within this article, we explore the nutritional, cultural, and botanical importance of berries, including crop wild relatives (plant species that are closely related to domesticated crops) and plants that are significant to Indigenous Peoples. Using berries as a case study, we explore opportunities for the conservation, use, and public engagement of crop wild relatives. Our objective is to lay the groundwork for future collaborative efforts across these diverse plants.SummaryConservation of plant biodiversity, in particular crop wild relatives including those tended and cultivated by Indigenous Peoples, is critical to food security and agriculture. Building on the 2019 road map for crop wild relatives, we examine berries as a case study for crop wild relative conservation, use, and public engagement. We focus on berries due not only to their economic, cultural, and nutritional importance but also because they are consumed fresh, providing a unique opportunity for individuals and communities to connect with plants. We outline health benefits, geographic distribution, and species at risk for Canadian berries. We describe practices, strategies, and approaches used by Indigenous Peoples to steward berries and emphasize the importance of traditional knowledge. We highlight opportunities for in situ and ex situ berry conservation and use of berries in plant breeding and Indigenous foodways. Our aim is to lay the groundwork for future collaborative efforts in these areas and to showcase berries as a useful case study for conservation of food plant biodiversity and public engagement.

BMI Status and Trends among Native American Family Members Participating in the Growing Resilience Home Garden Study

ABSTRACTThis research reports the BMI status of 176 adults and 134 children from 96 Native American families who are participating in a randomized controlled trial to assess health impacts of home gardens. Analyses include demographic associations with BMI using a novel approach of analyzing BMI status of children and adults together as one population by using LMS-based z scores generated from NHANES data. Results fit national data, with Native Americans more likely to be overweight/obese than other US demographic groups. This, in turn, makes Indigenous communities more vulnerable to chronic diseases. Ending these health inequities requires substantial public health nutrition investments in, for example, restoration of Indigenous foodways. This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02672748.

Hickory nut storage and processing at the Victor Mills site (9CB138) and implications for Late Archaic land use in the middle Savannah River valley

ABSTRACT Despite the ubiquity of charred hickory nutshell in archaeological contexts throughout the Eastern Woodlands, evidence for nut processing and storage is elusive and ambiguous. To the extent that hickory nuts factored prominently in Indigenous foodways – particularly as a storable resource – mass processing was possibly specialized at times and sited in places for that express purpose. One such place was Victor Mills (9CB138) in Columbia County, Georgia. Excavations at this site of Early Stallings activity (ca. 4350–4050 cal BP) revealed an assemblage of pits, fire-cracked rock, anvils, hammerstones, fiber-tempered pottery, and soapstone slabs indicative of large-scale nut storage and processing. Given the seasonal ecology of hickory production, visits to Victor Mills for harvesting and storing nuts took place in the fall, but also at other times of the year, when stores were tapped and nuts processed for transport to sites of habitation. Put into larger context, nut storage at Victor Mills fits the conditions for concealment as outlined by DeBoer ([1988] Subterranean Storage and the Organization of Surplus: The View from Eastern North America. Southeastern Archaeology 7:1–20), that subterranean stores were established in places subject to raiding when left unattended. Implications follow for the land-use patterns of Early Stallings communities and their relationship to neighbors upriver.

Etuaptmumk - two-eyed seeing: Bringing together land-based learning and online technology to teach Indigenous youth about food

In 2019 we began an intergenerational Land-based learning program with the goal of engaging a group of Mi’kmaw youth from a rural community in Nova Scotia with their Traditional Foodways. When COVID-19 and the physical distancing restrictions hit Nova Scotia, however, this changed how we implemented the project. We decided to bring youth together virtually and encourage self-directed Land-based learning. This paper describes the dilemmas we faced as we considered what initially seemed like a paradoxical relationship- using online technology to promote Land-based learning. Our aim is to not only draw attention to what we believe to be the centrality of the Land in understanding Indigenous foodways, but also the potential for online technology to enhance youth engagement on and with the Land. We begin by exploring Land-based learning and how it supports teaching about Traditional foodways and Indigenous culture, as well as the challenges and opportunities related to implementing Land-based pedagogy in a virtual environment. Using Etuaptmumk-Two Eyed Seeing as our lens, we argue that online technologies can support Land-based learning, providing principles of local culture are respected and the technology is compatible with community values.

Special Issue Introduction: Thinking Through “Being in the COVID‐19 World” and Bright Spots for our Food Futures

Special Issue Introduction: Thinking Through “Being in the COVID‐19 World” and Bright Spots for our Food Futures

Relative to the landscape: Producer cooperatives in native food sovereignty initiatives

• The Indigenous food sovereignty movement is working to reclaim Native foodways by developing cooperatives. • Features four case studies of Native-led producer cooperatives in the United States. • Cooperatives can be used to reestablish Indigenous trade routes. • Interspecies relationality is a core tenant of Native food systems and cooperatives. Across Turtle Island, Native communities are joining the Indigenous food sovereignty movement to reclaim their foodsystems, cultural practices, and economies. Cooperatives are a particularly viable organizational structure for these projects since Indigenous foodsystems historically depended on community cooperation and collective use of land and other resources. This paper is interested in the ways Native foodway initiatives are building producer cooperatives in the US as a method towards food sovereignty. To do so, authors conducted interviews, attended food sovereignty gatherings, and reviewed relevant literature to offer historical context, a theoretical framework for Indigenous food sovereignty producer cooperatives, and four Native-led food producer cooperative case studies that are working to increase access to fresh, local foods produced in accordance with the beliefs, behaviors, processes, and worldviews of their particular communities. The organizational structure and purpose of the four cooperatives differs, but they are united in a common commitment to stewarding the interspecies relationships foundational to Indigenous foodways. In doing so, these cooperatives are also expanding who, or what, counts as a “member.” We argue this offers a compelling model for ecologically and culturally integrated cooperative development in individual communities and a platform for (re)establishing foodways and trade relationships between Native Nations.

Brief Research Commentary: The US Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement’s Impact on Understandings of COVID‐19 in Indian Country

AbstractThis research commentary provides an overview of contemporary anthropological research regarding the US Indigenous food sovereignty movement and demonstrates how it informs the impacts of COVID‐19 on Indian Country. Past anthropological research on US Indigenous foodways, while useful, has lacked US Indigenous voices and in‐depth political context. Alternatively, many current Indigenous scholars prioritize integration of this crucial political landscape, thus increasing the relevancy and application of this work. For this review, I begin by coalescing a selection of these recent research developments, primarily focusing on research undertaken by Indigenous scholars currently in, and affiliated with, anthropology. I then connect the ways in which their ethnographic and community‐based findings shed insight into challenges that arose during the Covid‐19 pandemic in 2020. Finally, I critique anthropology’s lack of support for these research projects and offer suggestions regarding future US Indigenous food sovereignty research directions.