Translator: Rhonda Jacobs Reviewer: Ellen Maloney
I'm going to talk to you guys about the colonization of the Americas.
Now, when we talk about this, we normally talk about Columbus,
and small pox, and Indian wars, and broken treaties, and reservations ...
I don't want to talk about that stuff.
I want to talk about the colonization of food.
We rarely hear about the systematic eradication of the bison
as a means to starve Natives.
And we hardly ever hear about how the damming of rivers
cut fish from the diets of upstream tribes.
And we rarely hear about the movement of nomadic, hunter-gatherer people
into farming communities on arid, unfarmable land.
By the late 1800s, most Western tribes
were 100 percent dependent on government rations.
Government rations turned into the commodity food programming,
issuing a limited number of staples like flour, sugar, lard -
thus was born fry bread.
Delicious!
And absolutely devastating to Native people.
To be clear, this was a radical shift from our traditional diets.
As a Blackfeet person,
my people have lived in Montana for over 12,000 years.
We thrived on things that come from the land.
Before the decimation of the bison populations,
the average Blackfeet man consumed seven and a half pounds of bison per day.
Keep in mind that this was measured in fresh meat weight,
and we were consuming it dried.
Nevertheless, our diets were 90 percent meat.
And though supplemented by roots and berries,
our bodies evolved to digest protein-rich foods.
We were able to store fat for a slow burn later.
In times of food uncertainty, this was beneficial;
now, it's dangerous.
Studies have consistently shown
that Native people are facing sky-high levels of obesity, malnutrition,
and the diseases that accompany them.
The CDC estimates that one in every two Native children born today
will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.
That's 50 percent.
The life expectancy for Native people
is 20 years less than the general population.
No longer can we blame Indian wars and small pox.
Now, a lot of our health problems are stemming from our diets.
Indian nations around the country are asking themselves,
How do we fix this?
The solution lies in food sovereignty, and the re-indiginization of our diets.
Food sovereignty, if you're not aware, is the right of people
to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food,
harvested through ecologically sound and sustainable methods.
To give you an idea of the type of problem this is,
let me tell you about my home.
I'm from the Blackfeet Reservation, next to Glacier National Park.
It's an area about a million and a half acres -
it's about the size of Delaware, for comparison.
In that space, there are two grocery stores
that carry fresh fruits and vegetables, both located in the same town.
In most places, it's a lot easier to find a bag of chips or a can of spam
than it is to find "healthy" food.
We've been on this land for over 12,000 years,
and my community struggles to feed itself.
In the words of Anishinaabe activist, Winona LaDuke,
"How can we call ourselves sovereign if we can't feed ourselves?"
What's amazing, is that all of the foods that my people traditionally ate
are still accessible, and healthy.
The problem is that we don't talk about it.
Just what is traditional food anyway?
What classifies as pre-contact?
Well, obviously, Native people had meat.
Bison, moose, elk, deer, fish, squirrels.
For farming tribes, there were the three sisters:
corn, beans, squash,
as well as tomatoes, sunflowers, wild rice.
Most Indian nations also supplemented their diet with roots, berries and nuts -
all of these foods, and we don't know what to do with them.
To combat this problem,
I started an online cooking show called Indigikitchen -
a linguistic blend of 'indigenous,' 'digital,' and 'kitchen.'
The goal is to get Native, and hopefully non-Native, people,
excited about food sovereignty and indigenous foods.
It shouldn't be too hard, after all, Paleo diets are already popular
among everyone from CrossFit bros to hippies.
(Laughter)
Pre-contact eating is just locavore Paleo, anyone can do it.
It's no secret that your body fares better when you avoid processed foods.
Preservatives are meant to keep foods from breaking down on the shelf,
and our bodies require extra energy to digest that in our stomachs.
That's energy denied to the rest of our beings -
our brains, our muscles, our organs.
Ultimately, your body fares better, physically,
when it switches to an indigenous-based diet.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to imply
that traditional foods from other continents are not healthy,
but there is an additional spiritual aspect
to Native people eating the foods of our ancestors.
Native people recognized their dependency on the cycle of the earth,
and our diets consequently reflected that.
Harvest ceremonies were done, songs were sung,
dances were danced, and thanks were given
to every life form that gave up its own life
in order to nurture our existence.
Ultimately, we can strengthen the health of individuals, families, communities,
villages and nations by decolonizing our diets.
Ultimately, this strengthens the relationship
to the spiritual tie to Mother Earth.
For Native people, re-indiginizing your diet
recognizes the wisdom of our ancestors
as well as seeing the inherent value of our identities.
For non-Native people, adopting an indigenous diet
recognizes the thousands of years of civilization that have come before,
and the contributions of indigenous peoples.
Together, indigenous diets help allow
for a stronger, more elevated lifestyle, both physically and spiritually.
So the next time you sit down to eat, think about where your food came from.
How far did it travel to reach your plate?
Would your ancestors recognize it as food?
And most importantly,
will it nourish you, both physically and spiritually?
The true measure of wealth is by health,
so eat for longevity, and restore the spiritual tie to real food.
(Applause)