MacDonald 1

Kate MacDonald

Professor Beard

Critical Reading and Writing I

03 December 2023

Indigenous Food Insecurity: A Systemic Issue

Having to line up at a local food drive in order to get food for the week, was a practice

my family had to take part in when I was growing up. Experiencing this struggle myself, allowed

for my eyes to widen at a young age and recognize that not only was my family experiencing

food insecurity, but so was a great number of American citizens. The Food Justice movement can

be defined as a cultural, economic, and social movement that tackles issues such as workers

rights, land ownership, indigenous rights, etc., in relation to the accessibility and production of

food. However, a key issue that has plagued many American citizens, including myself and my

family, is the topic of food insecurity and the harsh reality that it brings to people across the

nation. Times such as the Great Depression and the financial crisis of 2008 brought great stress

to Americans, however, indigenous groups have been facing food insecurity far longer than most

majority groups as they have experienced historical pressures that pigeonholed them into the

disruption of cultural practices. In response, there has been a rise in indigenous food sovereignty,

which is defined as the push for individual food sustainability within indigenous groups. Native

cultures have been left to fight food insecurity as a result of historical displacement that has

plagued cultural traditions, long-term health, and economic stability, thus leading indigenous

groups to push for food sovereignty as colonial imposition is forcing a vast population of

indigenous people to face hunger and poverty in the United States today.
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Western colonization has impacted indigenous food systems, and has forced indigenous

groups to compromise cultural practices. Prior to the introduction and negative impact of

European colonizers, Indigenous Andeans developed their practices around their “kinship with

nature,” meaning that they respected their land and developed their culture in regards to that

respect (Malli). This directly impacted the way that they were able to produce and access food.

Traditionally, “subsistence activities, such as hunting, fishing, and gathering, have upheld

traditional Indigenous food systems for thousands of years, ensuring the components of a

nutritionally adequate and sustainable diet” (Malli). A typical diet would consist of protein from

hunted game and fish, but more importantly of crops that were cultivated and harvested from

specific areas of land that were inhabited by indigenous groups. Popular crops that helped

maintain a successful diet included yams, squash, beans, pumpkins, strawberries, as well as

many other crops that were known to first be successfully harvested by Indigenous Andeans.

However, this was forced to change when colonizers forcefully displaced native peoples to

infertile and unsustainable land for harvesting, causing “disengagement with subsistence

activities, including hunting, because of colonial policies has resulted in increasingly sedentary

lifestyles and an inevitable push towards consumption of market foods with higher levels of

sugar, salt, and additives” (Malli). This complete alteration of lifestyle and diet affected their

culture directly, specifically seen through the shove into the capitalist marketplace rather than the

natural collection of food. In the book, Braiding Sweetgrass, author Robin Kimmerer discusses

an example of this shift when they state “I experienced the world in that time as a gift economy,

‘goods and services’ not purchased but received as gifts from the earth ” (Kimmerer). This idea

of a gift economy is explored further within the text when the author states that “they had given
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us a gift, an ongoing relationship opened between us,” the the subject being the strawberries and

the gift was fruitful sustenance in return for the harvesting of the plant (Kimmerer). Directory

showing a parallel the author then tells the reader that “farmers around us grew a lot of

strawberries and frequently hired kids to pick for them,” thus showing the introduction of the

capitalist market, cultivating goods for a direct profit rather than the natural benefit of the

harvest, of which was decaying the indigenous practice of receiving from the earth and giving

back to it without the intention of commerce (Kimmerer). The historical context of forcing

indigenous groups into infertile land directly relates to food insecurity and the deterioration of

cultural practices, as native peoples were forced to live somewhere that prevented the practice of

hunting and harvesting, and pigeonholed groups to partake in a Western market, which was not

typical to the indigenous lifestyle. Because of this forced change, getting access to food became

extremely difficult and their diets that previously contained natural nutrients, now possessed

processed foods and sugars that were for sale, not for trade, forcing indigenous groups into the

Western labor force, forcefully abandoning their way of life. With the imposition of

industrialization brought over by colonizers, indigenous groups have pushed to claim food

sovereignty which means that groups have now begun the push to control the way that they

receive and distribute food in relation to and respect of their cultural traditions.

Food insecurity has also affected the long term health of indigenous groups greatly. With

the exponential exclusion of cultural practices, focusing on hunting and farming, indigenous

groups have been exiled to face capitalist food markets as a result of historical displacement. In

the year 1830, former President Andrew Jackson approved the Indian Removal Act, of which

displaced indigenous groups to infertile lands, causing a cataclysmic shift in the daily lifestyle of
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indigenous peoples in the United States, transitioning their traditional diet down an unhealthy

path of processed foods. According to BMC Public Health, “Food security, and food sovereignty

are significant determinants of Indigenous health and wellbeing,” and recent studies have shown

that the lack of security has led to a great downfall within indigenous health. For example, a

study known as the THRIVE study, analyzed the amount of healthy benefactors found in food

distributed to convenience stores frequented by native peoples. It showed that “the frequency of

food shopping at six locations: grocery store, Wal-Mart, tribal convenience stores, small markets,

Dollar Stores, and farmers' markets,” which leads to a direct correlation between cheaper food,

and malnutrition (Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Develop Healthy Retail

Strategies in Native American-Owned Convenience Stores: The THRIVE Study -

ScienceDirect). It is proven in the United States that it is “the only country in the world where

malnourished kids are obese why because they're consuming unhealthy food” (Using

Community-Based Participatory Research to Develop Healthy Retail Strategies in Native

American-Owned Convenience Stores: The THRIVE Study - ScienceDirect). Foods that are

mass distributed, especially to smaller markets and convenience stores, typically lack proper

nutrients that sustain a healthy diet, and this can be directly correlated to the rise of health

conditions, specifically type 2 diabetes and obesity within indigenous groups today. “In fact, 48.1

percent of AI/AN adults are obese, and in some Tribal communities, childhood obesity rates

exceed 50 percent,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services. (Department of

Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, “Obesity and American Indians/Alaska

Natives.” See also Hipp and Pipestem.) In addition to poor access to healthy food from local

stores, tribes also have had historically poor access to food given to them from the government,
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shown in the Suak and Fox treaty which states the “the federal government emphasized ‘articles

of subsistence,’ not foods with cultural relevance and nutritional value. Rations consisted of

foods such as lard and wheat flour that were foreign to the diets of Tribal communities and

sometimes arrived ‘rancid and rotten’” (Maillacheruvu). The problem has been recognized and

the indigenous food sovereignty movement, defined as “a specific policy approach to addressing

the underlying issues impacting Indigenous peoples and our ability to respond to our own needs

for healthy, culturally adapted Indigenous foods,” has progressed to a great extent (“Indigenous

Food Sovereignty | Indigenous Food Systems Network”). This is important to recognize, as the

movement serves as a reclamation of culture shown through their diet in order to parallel the way

of life these groups have been displaced into.

Thomas Mantz, president of Feed Tampa Bay, stated that ““Everyone knows someone

that struggles having food on their table. Every single one of us” (Talks). However, the majority

of the United States population are blind to the hardships of those living on tribal lands, and why

they struggle to have food on their table. One of the reasons is economic hardship, as the price of

food in tribal reservations is exponentially higher than the rest of the United States. A data

collection performed by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities showed that reservation

prices were much higher than national prices, exemplified by an 85% increase rate on bread,

71% on chicken, 45% on eggs, 41% on apples, and so forth (Maillacheruvu) . The increase in

food prices stem from the cost of transportation to provide food to reservation territories, which

therefore reinforces the harsh conditions that colonial imposition and native displacement had

placed upon indigenous groups. In addition to far transportation for suppliers, indigenous people

also have to travel a great distance in order to reach markets to pay for their food, which is
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already at a higher price, creating an even more difficult accessibility to food, as many tribes

have limited access, if any, to vehicles. Poor access to vehicles also creates poor access to jobs,

which then results in a budget insufficient for buying groceries that are at a higher index rate.

The lack of equal access to foods that hold nutrition at a lower cost has created further economic

instability as a result of food insecurity across the native population of the United States.

There has been an overall lack of support for food sovereignty by the federal government,

which is why the food justice movement is so important to bring attention to. Although many are

affected by the issue of food insecurity, it is important to recognize the systemic problems that

have caused minority groups, specifically indigenous peoples, to have federally induced limited

accessibility, and it is even more crucial to highlight the food sovereignty movement in order to

combat the issues that these groups have been facing for decades. Further movement into the

indigenous food sovereignty movement would allow for groups to begin to practice culturally

relevant traditions that they have been forced to abandon as a result of the capitalist regime, and

reinstate their intended lifestyle as modern practice rather than forced compliance to current

standards for people living on reservations.

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Works Cited

“Indigenous Food Sovereignty | Indigenous Food Systems Network.” Indigenous Food

Systems Network | Indigenous Food Systems Network,

https://www.indigenousfoodsystems.org/food-sovereignty. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.

Joseph, Leigh. “Frontiers | ‘The Old Foods Are the New Foods!’: Erosion and

Revitalization of Indigenous Food Systems in Northwestern North America.” Frontiers,

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.596237/full. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.

Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and

the Teachings of Plants, Milkweed Editions, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/callutheran/detail.action?docID=1212658.

Malli, A., et al. “Impacts of Colonization on Indigenous Food Systems in Canada and the

United States: A Scoping Review.” BMC Public Health, vol. 23, no. 1, Oct. 2023, pp. 1–13.

EBSCOhost
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“Native Life and Food: Food Is More Than Just What We Eat | Helpful Handout Educator

Resource.” Home Page | National Museum of the American Indian,

https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/informational/native-life-food. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.

Talks, TEDx. The Story of Us, Not Them - Food Insecurity | Thomas Mantz |

TEDxSouthHowardAvenue. YouTube, 6 Apr. 2023,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyA17j-XCjo.

“Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Develop Healthy Retail Strategies in

Native American-Owned Convenience Stores: The THRIVE Study - ScienceDirect.”

ScienceDirect.Com | Science, Health and Medical Journals, Full Text Articles and Books.,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518301086. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.