The connection of indigenous peoples to the food they ate before the introduction of European foods into their diet is a movement gain in popularity.
Phoenix – Since she was 3 years old, Mariah Gladstone says, she has a passion for food.
After graduating from secondary school in northwestern Montana, she studied environmental engineering at Columbia University in New York. During the summers, she returned to her black black house where she realized how the abandoned indigenous communities came from their traditional food systems.
“After obtaining my university degree, I took a real work vacation to go to food sovereignty conferences,” said Gladstone, who is Black-Feet and Cherokee. “During one of these conferences, I said:” Someone really needs to start a kitchen show on native foods. I think I’m just going to do it. “”
Indigikitchen was born. The online kitchen show is a combination of content on YouTube as well as shared recipes on its website. Foods contain native ingredients such as berries, corn, squash and wild rice.
Food sovereignty is a concept invented in 1996 by via Campesina, a world movement of farmers which recognizes people’s right to a healthy and culturally appropriate diet produced by ecologically solid and lasting methods.
On his website, Gladstone highlights the importance of recipes for indigenous peoples.
“I want to connect people to information on sustainable harvesting methods, knowledge planting, sustainable hunting and, of course, recipes and food that are ways to use our ancestral knowledge in our modern life,” she said.
Gladstone offers this knowledge by working with indigenous farmers and fishermen in the hope that he restores their businesses not only, but land management and traditional ecologies.
Although based in Montana, Indigikitchen has made its way across the country. Gladstone is a popular speaker with groups in the Southwest and the Great Lakes region that hire her for educational conferences, cooking lessons and school residences. Gladstone also has links with Canada, where it has established relations with other nations in the Confederation of Black Feet.
These connections motivated Gladstone to continue her work with Indigikitchen, and she said that she was grateful to use a tool like social media in order to reach the right audience.
“The Indian country is small and Facebook is a digital telegraph, so it has a way to reach a lot of communities very quickly where everyone shares my recipes and uses them,” she said. “The more people I see by using these recipes, the bigger it makes the biggest difference to support indigenous producers as well as healthy nutrition in our communities.”
Among the recipes of his website are Three Soers Soup, which uses corn, beans and squash; PemMican, a mixture of dry buffalo meat, dried cranberries and blueberries and beef tif with grass; Sunflower maple cookies; and petty blue corn bread.
The connection of indigenous peoples to the food they ate before the introduction of European foods into their diet is a movement gain in popularity. According to the National Indian Council on aging, native foods included seeds, nuts, corn, beans, chili, squash, wild fruits and green vegetables, herbs, fish and game.
People like Gladstone call these “foods before contact” and highlight the importance for Aboriginal peoples to celebrate their food culture and improve their health by returning to a more traditional diet.
This is particularly important for the Navajo nation, which the USDA classifies as a “food desert”. There are only 14 grocery stores for a terrestrial mass of 29,000 square miles, forcing people to travel far to buy nutritious foods.
Another native blogger of cooking and lifestyle that promotes dinner recipes, or Navajo, is Alana Yazzie. On her website, thefancyynavajo.com, she publishes recipes for Blue Corn Waffles, Sumac Berry Smoothies and Blue Corn Oatmeal of her kitchen book, “The Modern Navajo Kitchen”.
On her Instagram, which has 29,000 subscribers, she encourages others to embrace their native culture by recipes, fashion and gardening.
It started its website in 2014 in order to show easy ways to mix the Aboriginal ingredients in everyday dishes.
“There is a little art because you can’t just throw things without knowing food science around him, but it’s not too difficult,” she said.
Yazzie, who was born in New Mexico, said that she had already stockings of ingredients like Blue Corn when she “returned home to Navajo Land”. She now lives in Phoenix and finds easier to buy online items due to the growing number of small native businesses that offer local ingredients.
Since the publication of his kitchen book in October 2024, Yazzie has been occupied at cooking events and demonstrations. “It’s really my passion,” she said. “I want people to implement these recipes in their daily life so that we can continue our traditions.”
In September, Indigikitchen Gladstone will be expressed at the Flagstaff Festival of Science at the invitation of Kelly Saganey, who is Diné, or Navajo, and member of the Festival Board of Directors.
Gladstone will talk about indigenous ecological stewardship, the cultural importance of native foods and the transition of native and Western sciences.
Saganey said she had found Gladstone through the Instagram account of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance and thought it would be advantageous to have a member of the Aboriginal community with scientific training to be a star speaker at the 10 -day festival.
“Since our community of Flagstaff has a high Native American population, I just want small children to see a scientist with an indigenous background. And I think it’s as cool as if you choose a diploma in the STEM field, you don’t have to work in a large business.
The Flagstaff Festival of Science begins on September 19, and Gladstone will be the first indigenous speaker that evening.
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