I advocate eating only seasonal ingredients. I bridge awareness to the understanding that partnering local and Indigenous farmers is a healthier way to combat inadequate processing, storage, facilities, and distribution systems that have eroded our relationship to food in urban cities across America.
My core values are focused on building healthy-empowering relationships which reflect our foodway systems and the need to share our Indigenous food knowledge in this ever-changing world.
Reflections:
Food Journey and Relationship to Native Food
In the United States of America, the modern world exists functioning under behemoth industries such as: fast food, television, social media, cinema, music, commodity trading systems, etc. A particularly invasive and damaging silo is seen in the capitalist agricultural model. Every time we obtain our sustenance from the capitalist mode of food production, we quietly reinforce social power structures that continually create restrictions on Native peoples. This is due to the elimination of access to resources by communities and prevents them from acquiring produce and nutrients needed to sustain traditional diets and lifestyles. The causation of these actions has led to epidemics of health disparities within Native American populations as they are forced to engage and survive on processed foods and other byproducts of the capitalist market.
However, in the face of these monolith enterprises, we as Native Peoples are collaborating and building networks by utilizing our traditional foods to reconnect tribal identities and express tribal sovereignty. These powerful acts demonstrate the resolve and ritual of positive intervention still thriving today.
Urban Native Philosophy:
Reclaiming our Local Food Systems
As the original guardians of North America, our Native peoples survived for thousands of years using earth-based functions such as harvest seasons. Food harvesting methods of our ecosystems, especially in the face of climate change, kept our tribal lineage central to the natural order of things here on earth and in symbiosis with the cosmos.
We as a species of Mother Earth are in relationship with our environment and should practice modern principles throughout our lifetimes which include reclaiming our Local Food Systems. In urban centers and neighborhoods, we truly find imbalance. To combat hunger and food related illness we need to invest efforts in the following:
- Continued research about cultural ecology
- Instruction on harvest calendar cycles
- Connection with Mother Earth when sourcing ingredients – Every region is unique
- Enhancing community health by supporting local, indigenous, and people of color farmlands
- Increasing access to fresh, healthy, nutrient rich foods
- Unbinding restrictions on foraging which prevents cultural sovereignty
- Invest in community gardening and education efforts with a focus on seasonal planting
Upcoming events
At this time, Shiloh is not taking any requests for food instructions (or events) in the coming months. For inquiries relating to Shiloh’s upcoming Cookbook, please contact Shiloh using the link below:
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