Last Wednesday, August 31, I attended the virtual presentation “Native Nutrition: A Conversation About Eating Indigenous on Turtle Island.” The presentation was hosted by Slow Food USA. The conversation focused on the consequences of the Western, processed food diet on Indigenous Peoples in America and the efforts to return to local, sustainable, healthy, and environmentally sound food systems and diets. I appreciated the content but also how well-organized the talk was. In one hour, a host and three speakers presented without any of the awkward pauses associated with virtual meetings. 

Slow Food USA is part of a larger food movement, Slow Food which is global and started in 1989. The goals are to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how our food choices affect the world around us. Slow Food USA focuses on diet, food systems, food justice, and Indigenous, peoples, people of color, and women.  
 
Brian Solem was the host. He is the director of communications for Slow Food Chicago. He kept the presentation flowing and focused on the unique accomplishments of each speaker. I found him inspiring. His skills could easily be used in the corporate world. Instead, he has a resume of working for non-for-profits focused on social justice. I connected to him because we were both from Chicago and he has worked on several agencies advocating for AIDS awareness and services. My first practicum in Chicago was at the Howard Brown Clinic. I felt we had much in common. He is also grounded in working with food sustainability. 
 
Brian introduced three speakers, Danielle Antelope Denisa Livingston, And Shannon Reina. There backgrounds and programs differed. They shared a common commitment to helping communities return to healthier food systems. They emphasized the consequences of Indigenous Peoples eating not just a Western diet, but a poor person’s Western diet. Processed foods, fast foods, food high in sugar, fats, and salt have led to a dramatic increase in health problems throughout Turtle Island (North America). They made a distinction between Traditional foods and Indigenous foods. Traditional foods included many of the food that today are recognized as “Indian foods” but in fact have incorporated many of the foods associated in Western Euro-American foods. Fry bread and Navajo Tacos are both loved “Indian comfort foods”. These would not be discounted as less-than. However, they do not exemplify the qualities of Indigenous foods. 
 
Indigenous foods would be the crops and animals associated with particular lands prior to Western colonization. These were the foods that survived and flourished in their unique environments and met the nutritional needs of the peoples living on those lands. So, the foods of the Pacific Northwest would differ from the foods of the plains, the woodlands, the deserts, and the rivers and coasts. These were also whole foods that required slow preparation.  
 
Daniella Antelope is a student at Montana State University. She is an advocate for indigenous food systems. She is the executive director of FAST Blackfeet (Food access and sustainability team). FAST Blackfeet is a nonprofit organization founded by a group of involved citizens who are dedicated to improving food security, providing nutrition education, and reclaiming & building food sovereignty within the Blackfeet Nation. Programs focus on healthy food, pharmacies, and general health. They work with several community agencies. They provide food sovereignty assessments, networking, nutritional information, and recipes. The agency provides both a food pantry and a community pharmacy. I was impressed with Daniella’s enthusiasm and knowledge, and the wisdom to listen to community members as opposed to attempting to pressure them into giving up familiar foods for Indigenous foods that they may not be initially familiar with.  
 
Denisa Livingston was an elected member of the Ashoka Fellowship. She has a Master of Public Health. She works to transition the focus on unhealthy people to advocating for food system change. A Navajo, Denisa has had an impact among the Navajo people but also nationally and internationally.  
 
Denisa is a member of DCAA (Dine’ Community Advocacy Alliance). DCAA works for Dine’ food social justice. This includes addressing food apartheid, nutritional trauma, and the diabetes epidemic. She has worked to eliminate taxes on healthy foods and increasing taxes on unhealthy foods in the Navajo Nation. Internationally she is the Slow Food International Indigenous Councilor of the Global North. She was also appointed a member of the Champions Network of the United Nations Food Systems Summit.   
 
Shannon Reina functions as a bridge between leadership and the front-line members. She is the Food Service Manager for the Salt River Pima Maricopa Community Schools in Arizona. The school focuses on integrating Native culture into the curriculum and school culture. The Salt River Reservation includes two tribes, the Pima and the Maricopa. Shannon stressed that Indigenous foods are healthier than processed food. However, they take longer to prepare, may be unfamiliar to some of the students, and may be more expensive. 
 
Food is one of the strongest markers of culture and not easy to change. To increase interest in Indigenous food as opposed to cheaper cafeteria food education is introduced at various levels. Recipes are shared, there is food distribution in the community, and there are food tastings. The goal is to educate and to make the project engaging and fun.   
 
Culture may be marked by language, ritual or ceremony, and food. All three of these components were taken from many native peoples. There are projects throughout Turtle Island to preserve languages and to teach it to the young. Many people have turned back to the rituals of their ancestors or integrated it into their current rituals. Finally, food, the selection of species, the caring for the land, iar and water, the preparation of food is adding to the strengthening of cultures that have been traumatized.  
 
There is no one plan fits all peoples. The Three Sisters method of planting is not universal and would not work in all environments. Maize is different not only from nation to nation but differs in each microenvironment. However, sharing the methods, the stories, the rituals, and cooking of indigenous foods is not only healthy, but it also helps reinforce community.  
 
As we face the many challenges of climate change the wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, around the world, are needed. Restoration of lands and waters, preserving species, and improving health may be just a few benefits of valuing such wisdom.  
 
The panel was organized, inspiring, and welcoming. They ended by reminding people to follow the upcoming White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. I look forward to attending future presentation by Slow Food USA.