大象传媒

The main ingredients in the foods Indigenous people put up for winter are caring, sharing, and a big dollop of joy. Communities that work together to preserve the bounty of prairie, desert, forest, and garden thrive during challenging times. Sharing recipes with us here (see below) are the Pueblo of Zuni and the Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico; the Puyallup Tribe in Washington State; and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

鈥淔ood is at the center of our culture, of our gatherings,鈥� says Kenzi Bowekaty, food sovereignty leader of the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project. 鈥淭he goal is to fill our bellies and our souls. The Zuni word for this is 测耻鈥檡补蝉丑办飞颈, to sustain life and be nourished as a people.鈥�

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project offers classes in which the pueblo鈥檚 children delight in cooking up their ancestors鈥� crops and wild-gathered plants鈥攃alled yepnan 艂ash:ina, or traditional and sacred foods. In one recent class, a big, bright kitchen was filled with energetic third graders busily chopping, stirring, and tasting salsa that they ate on homemade blue corn tortillas. 鈥淵es!鈥� they replied when asked if they would share their new culinary skills with family. Bowekaty notes that when children do this, elders have stories about the foods to pass on.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a circle,鈥� Bowekaty says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all learning from each other.鈥�

Gathering From and for the Environment

For millennia, Indigenous people tended this hemisphere鈥檚 land, water, and inhabitants. They developed myriad varieties of corn, beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, chilis, and other crops now grown worldwide. They hunted vast buffalo herds and fished plentiful rivers and oceans. They gathered herbs, berries, and other wild edibles. The foods they produced sustained human and environmental health as well as rich and varied cultures.

As Europeans settled what is now the United States, tribal nations were forced onto reservations. This drastically shrank the tracts on which their citizens could acquire nutritionally and culturally appropriate foodstuffs. To make up the deficit, the U.S. government provided rations鈥攇enerally cheap, nutrition-poor items, such as lard and white flour. The quality of Natives鈥� diets plummeted, impacting their health.

But numerous tribal efforts aim to reinvigorate traditional foods and the health benefits they provide. Some tribes have developed their own buffalo herds. The Puyallup Tribe has monthly expeditions to gather berries and other wild-grown foods. A highlight of the year is Huckleberry Camp, when Puyallup families spend several late-summer days in the mountains picking the revered berries, their Creator鈥檚 final masterpiece. For thousands of years, they have maintained the fruits鈥� habitat with controlled burns that open sunny forest clearings for them.

鈥淲e make sure our traditions carry on,鈥� said Angeline Totus, cultural activities coordinator for the Puyallup, as she showed mother-daughter pairs how to turn plump, deep-purple huckleberries into luscious jam.

Gardening in Community

For Zuni and some other tribal nations, gardening is an age-old food source that鈥檚 especially valued today. 鈥淎s a culture, as a people, growing, preserving, and storing food have pulled us through for centuries,鈥� says Randy Chatto, project coordinator for the Indian Health Service at Ramah Navajo. His work includes encouraging household and community gardening.

Chatto is also part of a COVID-19 emergency response team that delivers food, water, medicine, and masks where needed. For the Ramah Navajo, the pandemic underscores gardening鈥檚 importance to their culture and to survival itself. Those closest to their gardening legacy fare best, says Chatto. 鈥淕rowing, harvesting, and preserving helps them physically, spiritually, mentally.鈥� Even better, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e eating healthier, not consuming less-healthy, non-Navajo food.鈥�

For the Lakota, gardening has been a welcome addition to their ancestral hunting-and-gathering foodscape. 鈥淵ou put seed in the ground, nurture it, love it, and harvest it, and it becomes something good for us,鈥� says Julie Garreau, executive director of the Cheyenne River Youth Project. The organization aims to embody a set of Lakota values called wolakota, which centers on generosity and ensures all relatives thrive.

For 35 years, the Cheyenne River Youth Project has provided children with healthy food and a safe place to have fun. 鈥淲e grow, eat, preserve, share, celebrate,鈥� Garreau says. 鈥淭he process is a beautiful full circle.鈥�

In addition to preserving garden crops they鈥檝e grown, Youth Project staff and students put up heritage foods, like chokecherries, wild plums, and wild grapes, purchased from local folks who gather them from the prairie. Garreau calls preserves a complex story: 鈥淗ealth, food sovereignty, and economic development鈥攊n a jar.鈥�

Buy or DIY

Enjoy Cheyenne River Youth Project鈥檚 mouthwatering preserves for yourself鈥攖raditional chokecherry syrup, fiery hot sauce, sweet-and-spicy pickled jalape帽os, and much more鈥攕old coast-to-coast to support its programs. Email [email protected] for availability and cost.

Or, try the recipes below, adapted from tribal preparations. Ensure food safety when doing so, stresses Garreau, even when making these small-batch preparations, stored in the refrigerator rather than on a shelf. Use very hot, soapy water to wash all equipment, including any jars, or run them through a dishwasher. Use heat-resistant jars. After filling them, wipe the rims with hot water before putting on the lids, she says.

Find more inspired recipes in The Sioux Chef鈥檚 Indigenous Kitchen (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), by Sean Sherman, a Lakota chef with a restaurant in Minneapolis, and Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations: Traditional and Contemporary Native American Recipes [A Cookbook] (Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House, 2002), by chef and food historian Lois Ellen Frank, a Kiowa descendant.

鈥淭he resources are all around us,鈥� says Bowekaty. Making and sharing these traditional foods鈥攁nd the recipes for them鈥攊s good for everyone. 鈥淲e take care of ourselves, each other, and the Earth.鈥�

Puyallup Huckleberry Jam

Makes three 6-ounce jars.

If you can鈥檛 find huckleberries, use blueberries, suggests Totus. Because jam-making is exacting, follow these directions precisely, she says. For example, don鈥檛 use less sugar or a sugar substitute, and don鈥檛 replace liquid pectin with powdered.

Ingredients
2 cups whole berries, fresh and rinsed or frozen and defrosted
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2陆 cups white sugar
One 3-ounce pouch Certo liquid pectin

Directions

• In a 2-cup measure, add the berries in 3 layers, mashing each layer to reduce to 1陆 cups.
• In a saucepan, mix lemon juice and berries. Add sugar, and stir 5 minutes.
• Over high heat, bring to a rolling boil. Boil, stirring, 1 minute.
• Remove from heat. Add liquid pectin, and stir 5 minutes.
• Using a large-mouth funnel, ladle into three 6-ounce jars. Cover, let cool 45 minutes, and refrigerate. Keeps 3 weeks or longer.

Zuni Breakfast Porridge

Serves 6.

鈥淏lue corn is a pantry staple we use throughout the winter in many preparations,鈥� says Zuni Youth Enrichment Program Assistant Coordinator Brittny Seowtewa. This dish highlights blue corn鈥檚 fine texture and subtle flavor. To watch a video by Bowekaty and Liam Simplicio of preserving blue corn鈥攈arvesting, drying, roasting, and grinding it鈥攙isit the . Buy blue corn meal from or .

Ingredients

3 cups water, divided
1 cup blue corn meal
录 teaspoon salt
陆 cup honey
录 cup berries, granola, or nuts (optional)

Directions

• In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring 2 cups of the water to a boil.
• Whisking to prevent lumps, slowly blend blue corn meal and salt into remaining 1 cup water; blend this mixture into the boiling water.
• Turn heat to low, and stir until well thickened, about 3 minutes.
• Stir in honey, and scoop into 6 bowls. Sprinkle each with berries, granola, or nuts, if desired.

Lakota Wasna

Makes ten 陆-cup servings.

This portable, high-protein snack is tasty and nutritious. Even its fat is good for you. Recent science finds that than is widely understood.

Ingredients

1陆 pounds buffalo or lean-beef roast, gristle and membranes removed
陆 cup yellow corn meal
陆 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons maple syrup, or to taste
录 pound buffalo or beef fat

Directions

• Slice meat thinly across the grain. Arrange slices in a dehydrator and, following its instructions, dry until stiff, about 10 hours.
• Snap slices into bits. Working in small batches in a blender, use about 10 pulses per batch to shred the meat finely; stop short of powdering it and destroying its texture.
• Chop the cranberries. In a bowl, combine berries, meat, corn, and maple syrup.
• , melting it and removing solids to yield 录 cup liquid fat. Sprinkle over meat mixture 1 tablespoon at a time. Toss gently with a fork. The mixture will become moist but retain its loose consistency.
• Divide among 10 small plastic bags, and refrigerate. Keeps 3 months. After opening a bag, eat contents鈥攂y hand or with a spoon鈥攚ithin 3 days.

Ramah Navajo Big Sagebrush Tea

Makes 2 teacups or 1 large mugful.

Made into tea, big sagebrush, or Artemisia tridentata (not to be confused with white sage, Salvia apiana), helps dispel the congestion of colds and flu鈥攁nd now COVID, says Chatto. To buy this Native medicinal, visit . (Note: Herbs are powerful and with prescription medicines; you must check with your doctor before using.)

Ingredients

2 cups water
1 teaspoon crushed leaves big sagebrush, gathered and dried or purchased
1-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon honey, or to taste
Juice of 陆 lemon, or to taste

Directions

• In a saucepan, bring the water, sagebrush, and ginger to a gentle boil. Boil 2 minutes.
• Turn off the heat, and let steep 15 minutes.
• Pour into a mug. Add honey and lemon juice, stir, and enjoy.