Win an Indigenous Foods Gift Box filled with Wild Rice Blueberry Muffin or Scone Mix, Fruit Jelly, and 6oz of Red Lake Long Grain Wild Rice from Nawapo, fomrally known as Red Lake Nation Foods.
What is Food Sovereignty?
Food Sovereignty is the right of a people to determine their own policies relative to food and agriculturerather than having their food supply subject to market forces. 1
Why is food sovereignty important to Native communities?
Food Sovereignty empowers tribal communities to address hunger and health issues by growing healthy, fresh foods. It is vital for Indigenous communities' long-term health, economic stability, and cultural preservation. 2
Health
After removing Native Americans from their homelands to reservations, the U.S. military gave them rations of canned goods, flour, sugar, and lard to survive.4 Today, many reservation communities live in a food desert an hour or two away from the nearest grocery store.1 The reliance on outside food sources for survival and the lack of easily accessible, quality, and affordable foods are often connected to diet-related issues.
American Indian / Alaska Native individuals have a lower life expectancy and are affected by many more chronic conditions compared with other racial/ethnic groups.2 Tribal communities can help address these issues by growing their own healthy, fresh foods.
Economic Stability
Food sovereignty allows Indigenous peoples to continue practicing their traditions and culture while gaining economic self-sufficiency. Today Native American entrepreneurs are earning an income while sharing their culture and traditions with others.
#BuyNative and support Native American families and communities. Check out our list of Native businesses to support here: www.nativepartnership.org/buynative
Cultural Preservation
Restoring Native American traditions is also an essential part of food sovereignty.
In the past, tribal communities cultivated and ate a wide variety of food, including wild meats like buffalo, fish, venison, and various fruits and vegetables. After the forced relocation of tribes onto reservations and the hunting of buffalo to near extinction by westward settlers, tribal communities experienced the loss of their relationship to the land and their food source.1
Today, Tribal nations are restoring their cultural food knowledge and even working towards restoring their own buffalo herds. According to this article from the Guardian, "Some 82 tribes across the U.S. from New York to Alaska now have more than 20,000 bison in 65 herds and that’s been growing in recent years along with the desire among Native Americans to reclaim stewardship of an animal their ancestors lived alongside and depended upon for millennia."3
How PWNA is helping with your support:
With the support of generous donors and friends like you, we’re working to change these disparities and create self-sufficient Native American communities. We help meet immediate nutritional needs for thousands annually (especially Native American Elders) by working with local grocery stores to provide Native Elders with nutritious breakfast items, supplying food boxes to food pantries, distributing emergency food boxes to NAtive families, and more. Click here to learn more about our Food & Water Services.
Read past blogs about food sovereignty:
What is Food Sovereignty?
Native Food Sovereignty in the Wanblee Community
The Disconnect Between Philanthropy and Native American Food Sovereignty
Share this page with a friend to help raise awareness of Native American culture.
1 http://blog.nativepartnership.org/what-is-food-sovereignty/ 2 https://www.bia.gov/service/indigenous-tourism/why-food-sovereignty-matters 3 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/26/bison-spread-as-native-american-tribes-reclaim-stewarsdhip 4 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/native-american-cuisine-returns-to-its-roots 5 https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-sioux-chef
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