More Than a Food Fight: Intellectual Traditions and Cultural Continuity in Chilocco's Indian School Journal, 1902-1918

Bess, Jennifer

doi:10.1353/aiq.2013.0005

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…During this era, many Native youth were also sent to boarding schools, where they were encouraged to forget their tribal connections and where the staples of the standard institutional diet embodied Anglo ideals of foodways and nutrition, centering around starches and dairy for students who were previously used to diets centered around fresh and dried meats, fruits, and vegetables (Bess 2013). Urban relocation programs in the 1950s brought Native people from rural reservations to urban centers for employment opportunities, but this move often left families food insecure (Companion 2013; Jernigan 2012) and was another means by which Native people were dislocated from their traditional diets.…”

Section: Discussion: Native American Perspectives On Traditional Ecolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Isaac

Finn

Joe

et al. 2018

Environ Health Perspect

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Background: Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a conceptual framework that highlights Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems. Although scientific literature has noted the relevance of TEK for environmental research since the 1980s, little attention has been given to how Native American (NA) scholars engage with it to shape tribal-based research on health, nor how non-Native scholars can coordinate their approaches with TEK. This coordination is of particular importance for environmental health sciences (EHS) research exploring interdisciplinary approaches and the integration of environmental and human health. Objective: Our perspective on TEK arose from a series of Health and Culture Research Group (HCRG) workshops that identified gaps in existing EHS methodologies that are based on a reliance on Euro-American concepts for assessing environmental exposures in tribal communities. These prior methods neither take into account cultural behavior nor community responses to these. Our objective is to consider NA perspectives on TEK when analyzing relationships between health and the environment and to look at how these may be applied to address this gap. Discussion: The authors—the majority of whom are NA scholars—highlight two research areas that consider health from a TEK perspective: food systems and knowledge of medicinal plants. This research has yielded data, methods, and knowledge that have helped Indigenous communities better define and reduce health risks and protect local natural food resources, and this TEK approach may prove of value to EHS research. Conclusion: NA perspectives on TEK resulting from the HCRG workshops provide an opportunity for developing more accurate Indigenous health indicators (IHI) reflecting the conceptualizations of health maintained in these communities. This approach has the potential to bridge the scientific study of exposure with methods addressing a tribal perspective on the sociocultural determinants of health, identifying potential new areas of inquiry in EHS that afford nuanced evaluations of exposures and outcomes in tribal communities. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1944

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Section: Discussion: Native American Perspectives On Traditional Ecolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Isaac

Finn

Joe

et al. 2018

Environ Health Perspect

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“…The 1887 Allotment Act assigned small plots to nuclear families, which was not the basic unit of Native community structure, further limiting access to lands and preventing community farming practices (Carlson 1981 ; Hurt 1987 ). Assimilationist education policy sent Native children to boarding schools, where they had no opportunity to learn Native agriculture techniques or preservation and preparation of Native foods (Littlefield 1996 ; Bess 2013 ). By the 1930s, Three Sisters agriculture had been almost entirely eradicated from Native communities in the US Midwest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reuniting the Three Sisters: collaborative science with Native growers to improve soil and community health

et al. 2022

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Before Euro-American settlement, many Native American nations intercropped maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucurbita pepo) in what is colloquially called the “Three Sisters.” Here we review the historic importance and consequences of rejuvenation of Three Sisters intercropping (3SI), outline a framework to engage Native growers in community science with positive feedbacks to university research, and present preliminary findings from ethnography and a randomized, replicated 3SI experiment. We developed mutually beneficial collaborative research agendas with four Midwestern US Native American nations. Ethnographic data highlighted a culturally based respect for 3SI as living beings, the importance it holds for all cultural facets of these Native nations, and the critical impact the practice has on environmental sustainability. One concern expressed by Native growers during ethnographic research was improving soil health—part of the rationale for establishing the 3SI agronomic experiment. To address this, we collaboratively designed a 3SI experiment. After 1 year, 3SI increased short-term soil respiration by 24%, decreased salt-extractable nitrate by 54%, had no effect on soil microbial biomass (but increased its carbon-to-nitrogen ratio by 32%) compared to the average of monoculture crops. The overarching purpose of this collaborative project is to develop a deeper understanding of 3SI, its cultural importance to Native communities, and how reinvigorating the practice—and intercropping in general—can make agroecosystems more sustainable for people and the environment.

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“…According to this schedule, children ate three meals a day, which were breakfast at 6:45 a.m., dinner at 12:00 p.m. and supper at 5:45 p.m. (Hammond 1921). The exact menu and amount of food served at the OLBS is unknown, but in the early twentieth century the standard Indian boarding school fare included a diet high in starch and beef—including coffee, beans, white bread, potatoes, gravy, and beef (Bess 2013, 84). Despite receiving three meals a day, however, several students experienced hunger and starvation at Leupp, and as already mentioned bullying appears as one of the reasons for this (Billy 2016; Curley 2016; Denetsosie 1977; Machen 2016; Riggs 2016).…”

Section: The Old Leupp Boarding Schoolmentioning

confidence: 99%

4 Decolonizing Research for My Diné (Navajo) Community: The Old Leupp Boarding School Historic Site

Bears

2022

Archaeological Papers of the American

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The Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS) was a Federal Indian Boarding School in operation from 1909–1942 on the southwest Navajo Reservation. It currently exists as a historical archaeology site, and it is an important place to the local Navajos of Leupp and Birdsprings, Arizona. Due to the nature of cultural resource management projects on the Navajo Reservation, which occur prior to development, in‐depth research of Navajo archaeological sites and collaboration with the Navajo public does not usually occur. With the support of local Navajo communities, my decolonizing research documents the history of the OLBS from a Diné (Navajo) perspective, as I explore Diné survivance and resistance within the context of this school. I argue that children utilized their Diné traditional cultural foundations to survive and resist assimilation imposed upon them by the U.S. government at Leupp. In keeping with Navajo cultural norms, I incorporate non‐destructive research methods including oral history interviews with Navajo elders, who attended the OLBS in the early twentieth century, and archival research to investigate the history of the OLBS. My research contributes to decolonizing and post‐colonial anthropological/archaeological research, Navajo Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies.

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More Than a Food Fight: Intellectual Traditions and Cultural Continuity in Chilocco's Indian School Journal, 1902-1918

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Reuniting the Three Sisters: collaborative science with Native growers to improve soil and community health

4 Decolonizing Research for My Diné (Navajo) Community: The Old Leupp Boarding School Historic Site

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