The Historical Determinants of Food Insecurity in Native Communities
End Notes
[1] Sara Usha Maillacheruvu was a 2020-2021 Emerson Hunger Fellow, completing her field placement with the Native American Agriculture Fund (fall 2020, spring 2021) and her policy placement with CBPP (summer 2021).
[2] Settler colonialism “destroys to replace” and occurs when the colonizing nation or group remains in the land that it has invaded. See Patrick Wolfe, “Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native,” Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2006, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623520601056240. Settler colonialism “operates on the logic that Indigenous peoples must be erased (physically or through assimilation) so that settlers’ legitimacy to settle, occupy and control Indigenous lands and resources is secured.” See Lana Ray, Lloy Wylie, and Ann Marie Corrado, “Shapeshifters, systems thinking and settler colonial logic: Expanding the framework of analysis of Indigenous health equity,” Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 300, May 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621007541.
[3] National Congress of American Indians, “Tribal Governance,” https://www.ncai.org/policy-issues/tribal-governance.
[4] An 1871 federal law ended formal treatymaking with Tribal nations, but Tribal-federal government relations continue via acts of Congress, executive orders, executive agreements, and contracts and compacts. National Congress of American Indians, “Tribal Nations and the United States: An Introduction,” February 2020, https://www.ncai.org/tribalnations/introduction/Indian_Country_101_Updated_February_2019.pdf. See also U.S. Department of the Interior, “Does the United States still make treaties with Indian tribes?” November 15, 2019, https://www.bia.gov/faqs/does-united-states-still-make-treaties-indian-tribes.
[5] First Nations Development Institute, “Roots of Change: Food Policy in Native Communities,” 2016, https://www.firstnations.org/wp-content/uploads/publication-attachments/Roots%20of%20Change%20-%20Food%20Policy%20FINAL.pdf.
[6] Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, “Treaty With the Cherokee: 1791,” https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/chr1791.asp.
[7] Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, “Treaty With the Wyandot, etc.,: 1789,” https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/wya1789.asp.
[8] Northern Illinois University Digital Library, “Treaty with the Sauk and Foxes, 1832,” https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-lincoln%3A35073.
[9] Dana Vantrease, “Commod Bods and Frybread Power: Government Food Aid in American Indian Culture,” Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 126, No. 499, Winter 2013, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.126.499.0055.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Janie Simms Hipp and Wilson Pipestem, “Feeding Ourselves: Food access, health disparities, and the pathways to healthy Native American Communities,” Echo Hawk Consulting, 2015, https://seedsofnativehealth.org/echo-hawk-consulting-releases-feeding-ourselves-food-access-health-disparities-and-the-pathways-to-healthy-native-american-communities/.
[12] Vantrease.
[13] Dawn Satterfield et al., “Health Promotion and Diabetes Prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities — Traditional Foods Project, 2008–2014,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Supplement, 2016, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/su/su6501a3.htm#suggestedcitation.
[14] Hipp and Pipestem.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan et al., “Food Insecurity among American Indians and Alaska Natives: A National Profile using the Current Population Survey–Food Security Supplement,” Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2017, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28491205/.
[17] Toni Stanger-McLaughlin et al., “Reimagining Hunger Responses in Times of Crisis,” Native American Agriculture Fund, Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, University of Arkansas, and Food Research & Action Center, 2021, https://nativeamericanagriculturefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reimagining-Hunger-Responses-in-Times-of-Crisis.pdf.
[18] Stanger-McLaughlin et al.
[19] Sonya Acosta, “Tribal Housing Funding a Critical Component of Build Back Better,” CBPP, December 9, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/blog/tribal-housing-funding-a-critical-component-of-build-back-better; Elizabeth Hoover, “Native food systems interrupted by COVID,” Agriculture and Human Values, Vol. 37, Issue 3, May 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10089-7; Danilo Trisi and Matt Saenz, “Economic Security Programs Reduce Overall Poverty, Racial and Ethnic Inequities,” CBPP, updated July 1, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/economic-security-programs-reduce-overall-poverty-racial-and-ethnic.
[20] Bryan Leonard, Dominic P. Parker, and Terry L. Anderson, “Land quality, land rights, and indigenous poverty,” Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 143, March 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387818315402?via%3Dihub.
[21] A-dae Romero-Briones and Raymond Foxworth, “Indian Country Food Price Index: Exploring Variation in Food Pricing Across Native Communities – A Working Paper,” First Nations Development Institute, 2016, https://www.firstnations.org/publications/indian-country-food-price-index-exploring-variation-in-food-pricing-across-native-communities/.
[22] Yadira Rivera and Raymond Foxworth, “Indian Country Food Price Index: Exploring Variation in Food Pricing Across Native Communities – A Working Paper II,” First Nations Development Institute, 2018, https://www.firstnations.org/publications/indian-country-food-price-index-exploring-variation-in-food-pricing-across-native-communities-a-working-paper-ii/.
[23] Romero-Briones and Foxworth.
[24] Nancy M. Pindus et al., “Study of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 2016, https://www.fns.usda.gov/fdpir/study-fdpir-8.
[25] Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, “Diabetes and American Indians/Alaska Natives,” 2021, https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=33; Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, “Obesity and American Indians/Alaska Natives,” 2020, https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=40.
[26] Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, “Obesity and American Indians/Alaska Natives.” See also Hipp and Pipestem.
[27] Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, “Diabetes and American Indians/Alaska Natives.”
[28] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, “Profile: American Indian/Alaska Native,” May 21, 2021, https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=62.
[29] Donald Warne and Linda Bane Frizzell, “American Indian Health Policy: Historical Trends and Contemporary Issues,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 104, Suppl. 3, June 2014, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4035886/.
[30] National Congress of American Indians, “Fiscal Year 2021 Indian Country Budget Request: Healthcare,” https://www.ncai.org/resources/ncai-publications/indian-country-budget-request/Healthcare.pdf.
[31] Describing its Tribal Food Sovereignty Initiative, the National Congress of American Indians defines food sovereignty as “the right to freely develop and implement self-determined definitions of food sovereignty; cultivate, access, and secure nutritious, culturally essential food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods; and design and maintain food systems and enact policies that advance tribal priorities for ensuring that tribal citizens have the sustenance they need to thrive physically, mentally, socially, and culturally not just today, but for the generations to come.” See: National Congress of American Indians, “Tribal Food Sovereignty Advancement Initiative,” https://www.ncai.org/initiatives/partnerships-initiatives/food-sovereignty.
[32] At present, trust land can be held by Tribes, by individual Tribal members, leased by Native people, and leased by non-Native people. Unlike trust lands, which are held by the federal government on behalf of Tribes or Tribal members, restricted fee lands are owned by individual Tribal members or Tribes, but have restrictions against them, such that they may not be “alienated” (e.g., sold) or “encumbered” (e.g., leased). Fee simple lands are owned outright and can be sold, leased, transferred, etc. without BIA approval. Notwithstanding significant cost and red tape, lands can be converted from fee to trust and vice versa. See: Tana Fitzpatrick, “Tribal Land and Ownership Statuses: Overview and Selected Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, December 23, 2020, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46647/2.
[33] Indian Land Tenure Foundation, “Land Tenure History,” https://iltf.org/land-issues/history/.
[34] Indian Land Tenure Foundation, “The Message Runner, Vol. 1,” November 2002, https://iltf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Message-Runner-1-lowres.pdf.
[35] Northern Plains Reservation Aid, “History and Culture: Allotment Act – 1887,” http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_allotmentact.
[36] Tom Holm, “Indian Lobbyists: Cherokee Opposition to the Allotment of Tribal Lands,” American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 2, May 1979, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1183752?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A46408aeced6627a62f4547678972fd96&seq=9#page_scan_tab_contents.
[37] Holm.
[38] Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, “Miskwaagamiiwi-Zaagaiganing / Red Lake Nation,” https://mn.gov/indianaffairs/redlake-iac.html.
[39] Indian Land Tenure Foundation, “The Message Runner, Vol. 1.”
[40] Ibid.
[41] Indian Land Tenure Foundation, “Land Tenure History.”
[42] Bureau of Indian Affairs, “Real Estate Services,” https://www.bia.gov/regional-offices/alaska/real-estate-services.
[43] Congress of American Indians, “Indian Country Demographics,” https://www.ncai.org/about-tribes/demographics.
[44] We use the term producer, as opposed to farmer, here to reflect a wider array of agricultural production, including fishing, gathering/harvesting, farming, ranching, etc.
[45] David Listokin et al., “Mortgage Lending on Tribal Land: A Report From the Assessment of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Housing Needs,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, January 2017, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/NAHSG-Lending.pdf.
[46] U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Indian Issues: Agricultural Credit Needs and Barriers,” May 2019, https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/699447.pdf.
[47] U.S. Department of Agriculture, “2017 Census of Agriculture Highlights: American Indian/Alaska Native Producers,” 2017, https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017Census_AmericanIndianAlaskaNative_Producers.pdf.
[48] Richard H. Pratt, “Official Report of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of Charities and Correction (1892),”
reprinted in Richard H. Pratt, “The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites,” Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the “Friends of the Indian” 1880–1900, Harvard University Press, 1973. Accessed online: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/.
[49] Valerie Segrest and Janie Simms Hipp, “Traditional Food Knowledge Among Native Americans,” American Federation of Teachers, 2020, https://www.aft.org/hc/fall2020/segrest_hipp.
[50] David H. Dejong, “‘Unless They Are Kept Alive’: Federal Indian Schools and Student Health, 1878-1918,” American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2007, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4138947.
[51] Stephen Colmant et al., “Constructing Meaning to the Indian Boarding School Experience,” Journal of American Indian Education, Vol. 43, No. 3, 2004, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24398535.
[52] Dejong.
[53] Soren C. Larsen and Jay T. Johnson, Being Together in Place: Indigenous Coexistence in a More Than Human World, University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
[54] Segrest and Hipp; Brenda J. Child, Boarding School Seasons, University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
[55] Donald Warne and Siobhan Wescott, “Social Determinants of American Indian Nutritional Health,” Current Developments in Nutrition (supplement), 2019, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31453425/.
[56] Child.
[57] Segrest and Hipp.
[58] Segrest and Hipp, quoting A-dae Romero Briones in “Fighting for the Taste Buds.”
[59] Larsen and Johnson.
[60] Ibid.
[61] Valerie Segrest and Janie Simms Hipp, “Traditional Food Knowledge Among Native Americans,” American Federation of Teachers, 2020, https://www.aft.org/hc/fall2020/segrest_hipp.
[62] Segrest and Hipp.
[63] Hipp and Pipestem; Rachel V. Vernon, “A Native perspective: Food is more than consumption,” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Vol. 5, Issue 4, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2015.054.024; Segrest and Hipp.
[64] Vantrease
[65] The Muscogee Nation, “Muscogee (Creek) Nation History,” https://www.muscogeenation.com/culturehistory/.
[66] Julia Darnton, “Foodways: When food meets culture and history,” Michigan State University Extension, December 12, 2012, https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/foodways_when_food_meets_culture_and_history.
[67] Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation, & Conservation, “The Ecology of Violence: The Swan Massacre, Treaty Rights, and Fire,” https://fwrconline.csktnrd.org/Fire/FireOnTheLand/History/19thCentury/SwanMassacre/.
[68] Vantrease.
[69] Vantrease, citing an 1832 treaty. For the text of the treaty see Charles J. Kappler, ed., “Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. 2,” U.S. Department of State, 1904, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=015/llsl015.db&recNum=2.
[70] Vantrease.
[71] Megan Mucioki, Jennifer Sowerwine, and Daniel Sarna-Wojcicki, “Thinking inside and outside the box: local and national considerations of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR),” Journal of Rural Studies, Vol. 57, 2018, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016717304199.
[72] Vantrease.
[73] Edwards and Patchell.
[74] Mucioki, Sowerwine, and Sarna-Wojcicki.
[75] Thomas K. Welty, “Health implications of obesity in American Indians and Alaska Natives,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 53, No. 6, June 1991, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2031495/.
[76] Ibid; Michelle Chino, Darlene Haff, and Carolee Dodge-Francis, “Patterns of Commodity Food Use Among American Indians,” Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health, Vol. 7, Issue 2, 2009, https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=env_occ_health_fac_articles.
[77] Vantrease.
[78] Pindus.
[79] Chino, Haff, and Dodge-Francis.
[80] Jernigan et al.
[81] Pindus et al.
[82] Ibid.; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, “2016 Poverty Guidelines,” https://aspe.hhs.gov/2016-poverty-guidelines.
[83] Pindus et al.
[84] Ibid.
[85] Ibid.
[86] Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, University of Arkansas, and Native Farm Bill Coalition, “2018 Farm Bill Implementation Tracker: Where the Specific Provisions Stand at USDA,” October 20, 2020, https://indigenousfoodandag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IFAI-2018-Farm-Bill-Tribal-Tracker.pdf.
[87] U.S. Department of Agriculture, “USDA Invests $3.5 Million to Provide Food Purchasing Options to Tribal Communities,” November 1, 2021, https://www.fns.usda.gov/news-item/fns-0010.21.
[88] The USDA defines food deserts as “low-income census tracts with a substantial number or share of residents with low levels of access to retail outlets selling healthy and affordable foods,” with criteria of high poverty rates (20 percent or greater, or median family income at/below 80 percent statewide or metro area median family income) and low food access (areas composed of 500 people or more, with 33 percent or more of population more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store, or in rural census tracts, 10 miles). See Michele Ver Ploeg, David Nulph, and Ryan Williams, Mapping Food Deserts in the United States,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, December 1, 2011, https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011/december/data-feature-mapping-food-deserts-in-the-us/.
There has been movement away from “food desert” terminology in favor of “food apartheid” or “retail redlining.” This is because the former naturalizes low food access through an ecological metaphor. This runs counter to the fact that low food access is rooted in decades’ worth of social, political, and economic history and decision-making that racially disinvested communities.
[89] Pindus et al.
[90] Pindus et al.
[91] Phillip Kaufman, Chris Dicken, and Ryan Williams, “Measuring Access to Affordable Food in American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Areas,” Economic Information Bulletin, No. 131, December 2014, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/43905/49690_eib131_errata.pdf.
[92] Pindus et al.
[93] U.S. Department of Agriculture, “USDA Invests $3.5 Million to Provide Food Purchasing Options to Tribal Communities.”
[94] Janie Simms Hipp, Colby D. Duren, and Erin Parker, “Building Indian Country through Food, Agriculture, Infrastructure, and Economic Development in the 2018 Farm Bill,” Journal of Food Law & Policy, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2018, https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=jflp.
[95] Patrick Canning and Brian Stacy, “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Economy: New Estimates of the SNAP Multiplier.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, July 2019.
[96] Pindus et al.
[97] Steven Garasky et al., “Feasibility of Tribal Administration of Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, July 2016, https://impaqint.com/sites/default/files/project-reports/TribalAdministration.pdf.
[98] Hipp and Pipestem.