Indigenous Food Sovereignty

For thousands of years Indigenous Peoples have lived and thrived on the lands and waters of Turtle Island (North America). Indigenous food systems involve a combination of sophisticated agricultural and food production sites, strong trading relationships between Nations, and local harvesting from the lands and waters. It is only in recent centuries that Indigenous Peoples have struggled to practice food sovereignty as these traditional land-based food systems have been forcibly eroded by the impacts of colonization. Some examples of these impacts include the forcing of Indigenous peoples onto reserves, banning hunting practices and other food gathering practices such as wild ricing, and the banning of cultural celebrations and ceremonies associated with food.

Indigenous food sovereignty asserts the importance of eating foods that are not only nutritious but an essential part of cultural frameworks (that include spiritual and empathic relationships). Reflecting the importance of food sovereignty to Indigenous Nations, food sovereignty was often a large component in treaties negotiated with the crown. The fundamental right of Indigenous people to food sovereignty is reflected in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), specifically Articles 20, 24, 25, 26, 29.

Some important wild foods for Algonquin and other Indigenous communities in this region include wild rice (manoomin, kontatewenní:io oná:tsia), white-tailed deer (wàwàshkeshì, ohskenón:ton), moose (moz, ska’niónhsa), American eel (pimizì, ohstonhnéha kiawerón:ko), wild ginger (odjìbiki-tibweban, tsionehskwén:rie), wild garlic (wàbi-shigàgowinj, watatewenní:io  iokháhon), mushrooms (wazhashkwedoons, otskwà:rhe raókhwa), ruffed grouse (pàpàshke, ohkwé:sen), ducks (shìshìb, só:ra), geese (nika, káhon’k), wild turkey (misise, skawiró:wane), maple sap/syrup (onzibàn(sap)/shìwàgamizigan(syrup), wah:ta oh:ses), and many types of berries including strawberry (odeyimin, ken' niiohontésha), raspberry (miskomin, skanekwen’tará:nen), gooseberry (shàbòmin, tewénnnia’ke  aonáhi), blackberry (aditagàgomin, shá:ise), among many others. 

“Food sovereignty is an affirmation of who we are as Indigenous peoples, and a way, one of the most sure-footed ways, to restore our relationship with the world around us.”
-Winona LaDuke,  Gichi-ziibiwininiwag (Mississippi Chippewa)


“The land is our identity and holds for us all the answers we need to be a healthy, vibrant, and thriving community. In our oral traditions, our creation story, we are taught that the land that provides the foods and medicines we need are a part of who we are. . . . This is our medicine; remembering who we are and the lands that we come from."
​- Valerie Segrest, bəqəlšuł (Muckleshoot)