Seed Rematriation with Shelley Buffalo

Speaker: Shelley Buffalo | Air Date: October 8, 2021 | Run Time: 41mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Seed Rematriation with Shelley Buffalo

Tama Flint corn picked at the green stage, with its great variety of colors.

In this episode, Shelley Buffalo talks with host Melissa Nelson about the healing power of ancestral foods, feeding the community with rematriated crops and medicines, and her work with Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Initiative, Red Earth Gardens and Seed Savers Exchange. They also explore the power of art and the beauty of seeds.

This is the second of three episodes focused on Seed Rematriation, and is a co-production of The Cultural Conservancy and Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s (NAFSA) Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN). These episodes are part of a collection of Seed Rematriation media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and Rowen White.

This conversation was recorded on March 4, 2021.

“Just embracing your ancestral foods really does give you that connection to your ancestors. You know, the boarding school era and the dispossession of land era and all of that, all of that just washes away. In one season and in one bite of that food, you regain that connection and it’s just an incredibly beautiful and powerful thing.”

— Shelley Buffalo

Tama Flint corn picked at the green (milky) stage being cooked over fire. The corn is processed by parboiling for about 15 minutes. This is the first step in processing for dry storage. Once cool, it is shelled from the cob and the kernels are dried in the sun over several days.

About Shelley Buffalo

Shelley Buffalo is an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Tribe, also know as the Sac & Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa. Shelley served her community as Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Coordinator and now offers consultancy for food sovereignty and local foods initiatives. She is an advocate for indigenous food ways, food justice, and rematriation. A mother of two sons, Shelley made a living as a house painter and artist before finding her passion in farming and seed saving.

The Meskwaki are unique in that their land based community is a settlement, not a reservation. Established in 1857 with the purchase of 80 acres near Tama, Iowa, the Meskwaki Settlement has grown to approximately 8,400 acres.

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Ruth Buffalo (Shelley’s mother) and Charlie Old Bear (Shelley’s stepfather) spreading out the parboiled Tama Flint green corn to sun dry

Additional Resources 

• Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Initiative

• Seed Rematriation fundraiser for Native American Food Sovereignty Association (NAFSA) and Indigenous Seed Keepers Network

• Indigenous Seed Keepers Network - webpage featuring a video filmed mostly in Meskwaki at the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Sovereingty Summit
  

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer and Editor: Mateo Hinojosa
Co-Producer: Sara Moncada
Special Co-Producer: Rowen White
Sound Recordist: Mateo Hinojosa, Cale Stelken
Sound Designer and Audio Engineer: Colin Farish
Photography: Cale Stelken, Shelley Buffalo, Mateo Hinojosa

Meskwaki Tama Flint corn picked at the green stage

Song Credits

Mohawk Women’s Dance
Sung by: Rowen White
Field Recording: Mateo Hinojosa

Opening Interlude
Drums, flute: Colin Farish
Cello: Premdip Ted Lasker

Closing Interlude
Colin Farish, Premdip Ted Lasker, & Alexandrea Oswalt

(c)(p)2021 Winds of the Muse ASCAP
Used with permission

All Other Music
Music by: Colin Farish

Sun-drying strips of winter squash in Meskwaki

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This short film, highlighting the essence of the Seed Rematriation movement, is part of the collection of media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and that includes this podcast episode. It features Shelley Buffalo and many seeds that have been rematriated.

Seed Rematriation with Jessika Greendeer

Speaker: Jessika Greendeer | Air Date: September 6, 2021 | Run Time: 34mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Seed Rematriation with Jessika Greendeer

In the first episode of Season 3 of The Native Seed Pod, our host Melissa Nelson talks with Jessika Greendeer of Ho-Chunk Nation, who is the Seed Keeper and Farm Manager at Dream of Wild Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jessika and Melissa discuss the growing Seed Rematriation movement, seed keeping and agriculture, and her work at Dream of Wild Health.

This episode is the first of three episodes focused on Seed Rematriation, and is a co-production of The Cultural Conservancy and Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s (NAFSA) Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN). These episodes are part of a collection of Seed Rematriation media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and Rowen White of ISKN.

This conversation was recorded on October 8, 2020.

“Being a seed keeper, it’s a big responsibility. It’s a heavy title to carry. Everything we do as Native people, we always think about our future generations: being able to hold the future in your hands and also being able to hold the past in your hands at the same time. It’s an amazing journey and I’m grateful to be on it. ”

— Jessika Greendeer

Red Beauty Corn

Additional Resources 

• Seed Rematriation fundraiser for Native American Food Sovereignty Association (NAFSA) and Indigenous Seed Keepers Network

• Seed Mother: Coming Home - this short film is part of the suite of Seed Rematriation media that we have co-produced with NAFSA, and which features Jessika Greendeer and other seed keepers

• Indigenous Seed Keepers Network

• Dream of Wild Health in Minneapolis

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CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Mateo Hinojosa
Co-Producer: Sara Moncada
Special Co-Producer: Rowen White
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Photography: Cale Stelken, Mateo Hinojosa

Song Credits

Standing on the Ridge
Music by: Colin Farish
Voice: Capomo
Keyboards, drums, sound design: Colin Farish
Violin: Savannah Jo Lack
Cello: Robin Bonnel
Oboe: Paul McCandless
Recorded and mixed by Colin Farish at Stillwater Sound, San Francisco CA, and at Forest Flower Studio, Mill Valley CA, recorded by Andre Zweers at Screaming Lizard Studio, Petaluma CA, and mastered by Sudhananda Paul Greaver.
(c)(p) Winds of the Muse ASCAP 2021. Used with permission.

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This short film, highlighting the essence of the Seed Rematriation movement, is part of the collection of media that includes this podcast episode. It features Jessika Greendeer and seeds that have been rematriated.

The Poetry of Sacred Food Culture: Conversations with Simon Ortiz

Speaker: Simon Ortiz | Air Date: March 2nd, 2020 | Run Time: 53mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

The Poetry of Sacred Food Culture: Conversations with Simon Ortiz 

In the final episode of Season 2 of The Native Seed Pod, podcast host Melissa Nelson sits down with famous Acoma Pueblo writer, poet, and storyteller Simon J. Ortiz at the Mesa Refuge writers retreat in Point Reyes, California. 

During their time together, Melissa and Simon touch on many topics of varying depths; from the intricacies of traditional tribal identities to the wonder of our traditional foods, to our role as Indigenous peoples in the future of ‘green’ urban development on our traditional territories.

Simon’s gentle ease and wise words amplify simple truths and ground large heady concepts, leaving us open to receive the immensity of his final gift a sharing of his poem, Deer Dinner.

We are honored that this episode was an official selection for the 2022 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

“Culture is knowledge and knowledge is the basic elemental resource that we have in conducting our lives. ”

— Simon J. Ortiz

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Woven Stone - book by Simon J. Ortiz

About Simon J. Ortiz

A tribal member of the Acoma Pueblo, Simon J. Ortiz became one of the most significant Native American writers of the twentieth century, being a major contributor to the Native American Renaissance in the late 1970s. Simon’s words and stories are infused with the presence and spirit of his first language, Acoma, and have been collected and published in over 25 collections of poetry and storytelling over the last 50 years. As a public speaker, author, and professor he has been recognized for countless awards and commendations. Ortiz is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University and resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Simon Ortiz at Amerind Museum with Linda Hogan and John Ware

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Culture and The Universe

Simon J. Ortiz – Out There Somewhere

(University of Arizona Press, 2002)

Two nights ago
in the canyon darkness,
only the half-moon and stars,
only mere men.
Prayer, faith, love,
existence.
                       We are measured
by vastness beyond ourselves.
Dark is light.
Stone is rising.
I don’t know
if humankind understands
culture: the act
of being human
is not easy knowledge.
With painted wooden sticks
and feathers, we journey
into the canyon toward stone,
a massive presence
in midwinter.
We stop.
                       Lean into me.
                       The universe
sings in quiet meditation.
We are wordless:
                       I am in you.
Without knowing why
culture needs our knowledge,
we are one self in the canyon.
                       And the stone wall
I lean upon spins me
wordless and silent
to the reach of stars
and to the heavens within.
It’s not humankind after all
nor is it culture
that limits us.
It is the vastness
we do not enter.
It is the stars
we do not let own us.

---

Additional Resources 

• Poetry Foundation

• ‘Simon J. Ortiz poetry is a road map to Indian Country’

• University of Arizona Press

• Simon Ortiz RED INK Indigenous Speaker Series

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Photography: Melissa Nelson, Andrew Preble

Songs (in order of appearance):

Music by Colin Farish
Drums, flutes, and keyboards by Colin Farish
Voice, Taos drum, and jingles by Eddie Madril
Drums by Glen Velez
English horn by Paul McCandless
Cellos by Fogtown Cello Quartet
Female vocals by Teresa Nelson

Kai Ora: Māori stories of life-giving foods across Moana

Speakers: Wikuki Kingi & Tania Wolfgramm | Air Date: January 18, 2020 | Run Time: 44mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Kai Ora: Māori stories of life-giving foods across Moana

Traditional umu (earth-oven) cooking, Tonga, 2019

Māori knowledge-holders Wikuki Kingi (Māori) and Tania Wolfgramm (Māori/Tongan) take us into the deep waters of Pacific Islander cosmologies, technologies, and foodways. 

On a sunny fall afternoon in the shadow of Mount Tamalpias, Seed Pod host Melissa Nelson and producer Sara Moncada sat down with Wikuki and Tania for a cup of tea to talk stories of land and foods across the Pacific. From the masterful Indigenous sciences of land and ocean, food and water (known to Māori peoples as kai wai), to the many foods of Aotearoa we explore the deep knowledge and nourishing relationships held across moana nui.

“Across the pacific we have the same word for our food, which is KAI. ‘KA’ is our word for energy, and ‘I’ infers our divinity. So we are actually talking about food as being divine energy. Kai means everything to us, without Kai we don’t exist. ”

— Tania Wolfgramm

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Wikuki with a Māori Pukaea

About Wikuki Kingi

As a Tohunga Whakairo/Master Carver, with over 40 years’ experience, Wikuki has created many heritage taonga (treasures), including the intricately carved masterpiece Pou Kapūa, the tallest Māori/Pacific carving in the world. Wikuki is a founding trustee of Pou Kapua Creations Trust and the HAKAMANA Virtual Reality Collective; convenor and founding member of Planet Māori and the Te Ha Global Alliance. Wikuki has many relationships throughout New Zealand and the Pacific and continues to learn and build on his passion for Mana Whenua and Indigenous community development, cultural resilience and robust futures, believing stronger identities make stronger people and families.

About Tania Wolfgramm

A creative producer, Native technologist, voyager, and storyteller, Tania hails from the Māori tribes of Aotearoa New Zealand and the beautiful island of Vava’u, of the Kingdom of Tonga. Following ancestral footsteps, she creates cultural taonga (treasures) in multiple media from stone and bronze to augmented and virtual reality. Tania is the founder of HAKAMANA Integrated System of Transformative Design, Development and Evaluation, which has been applied in technology, higher education, and healthcare. With her Global Reach Initiative and Development (GRID) Pacific Team, she captures incredible high-resolution imagery of Pacific peoples, places, cultures, and languages that (with their permission) is shared with the world.

Additional Resources 

• Hakamana - Integrated System of Transformative Design

• Pou Kapua Creations

• Maori Dictionary

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Photography: Mateo Hinojosa, Melissa Nelson

Songs (in order of appearance):

Station ID break music credit:  excerpt from composition for Ocean Trilogy Dance Production (Spector Dance) by Colin Farish. Piano by Colin Farish and Jasnam Daya Singh.

Te Aroha sung by Waikuki Kingi and Tania Wolfgramm

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 11, 2020 | Run Time: 42mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

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Redbird demonstrates ‘fired’ dogbane cordage.

Knowledge-keeper Redbird delivers a richly detailed message celebrating diversity and enlightening us with part of what he calls The Operating Manual for Taking Care of California, during The Cultural Conservancy’s annual Spring Planting Day.

Redbird teaches how Native Californians co-created the landscape using "mild disturbance," fire, seeding, and seasonal harvesting rotations to increase diversity and cultivate an ecosystem so vibrant and abundant that it was able to support huge populations of people and animals previously thought impossible without conventional agriculture.

““When the first settlers came to California, a lot of their comments were talking about how California looked like a park, a well-managed park…. and one of the big tools to make that happen was fire.””

— Redbird

About Redbird

Edward Willie, a true Native of California—Pomo, Wintu, Paiute, and Wailaki—is a native ecologist and Traditional Ecological Knowledge keeper in the realms of traditional skills, permaculture, basket weaving, herbalism, and regalia-making. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Native Studies, Redbird continued a self-education fueled by his desire to uncover and rekindle the cultural earth-based knowledge of California Indians. Also an artist—drawing, painting, and sculpture—Redbird has been a core organizer of the annual Buckeye Gathering, a gathering in support of ancestral arts held in Northern California.

For more information about the traditional Dogbane site discussed in this episode, and The Cultural Conservancy’s role in helping to protect it, see this short article by TCC co-founder Claire Cummings from TCC’s 1998 Newsletter

Additional Resources 

• Interview: Mindful Foraging

  May 2018, Pacific Sun

• Interview: Lessons from a Fire Ecology

  April 2018, Made Local Magazine

• Weaving Earth Staff Bio

• Buckeye Gathering

• “Fire Forward: Building Ecosystem Resilience Together” - Controlled Burning information for Sonoma County in Audobon Canyon Ranch’s Conservation in Action

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional photography: Leilani Clark

Songs (in order of appearance):

Final song credit: Grandmother Moon Song by Ayapish Slow, from Songscapes of Native America CD. Read about the details of this release here.

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 1

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 4, 2020 | Run Time: 36mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 1

After a full day of harvesting, teachings, and community during The Cultural Conservancy’s annual Harvest Day, Melissa Nelson catches up with knowledge-keeper Redbird (Edward Willie) on the beautiful back acres of our partner, Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden in Novato, California. Redbird walks us gently through the changes to this land, the importance of certain plants and animals to the first peoples of this area, and the realities, responsibilities, and roles immigrants to California must take on to be in good relation with native California.

Redbird weaving with Tule reeds

““When I come up to these spots, I just see everything that needs to be done. It’s just been mishandled and misused…One of the first things that comes to mind is:
this place needs a burn.””

— Redbird

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Redbird and Melissa Nelson oversee willow coppicing at Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden.

About Redbird

Edward Willie, a true Native of California—Pomo, Wintu, Paiute, and Wailaki—is a native ecologist and Traditional Ecological Knowledge keeper in the realms of traditional skills, permaculture, basket weaving, herbalism, and regalia making. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Native Studies, Redbird continued a self-education fueled by his desire to uncover and rekindle the cultural earth-based knowledge of California Indians. Also an artist—drawing, painting, and sculpture—Redbird has been a core organizer of the annual Buckeye Gathering, a gathering in support of ancestral arts held in Northern California.

The Cultural Conservancy’s Media Director, Mateo Hinojosa, prepares to record Redbird

Additional Resources 

• Interview: Mindful Foraging

  May 2018, Pacific Sun

• Interview: Lessons from a Fire Ecology

  April 2018, Made Local Magazine

• Weaving Earth Staff Bio

• Buckeye Gathering

• “Fire Forward: Building Ecosystem Resilience Together” - Controlled Burning information for Sonoma County in Audobon Canyon Ranch’s Conservation in Action

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional Photography: Melissa K. Nelson

Songs (in order of appearance):

• Californian Indian Songs by Kanyon Sayer-Roods (Mutsun Ohlone/Chumash)

• California bird songs by Tuvan Women Throat Singers

A Feast of Food Stories with Abalone, Salmon and Wild Rice

Speakers: Jacquelyn Ross, Marlowe Sam, Jeannette Armstrong, and Winona LaDuke | Air Date: December 27, 2018 | Run Time: 46mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

A Feast of Food Stories with Abalone, Salmon and Wild Rice

For this final episode of season one of the Native Seed Pod we featured the voices of four strong Native American food sovereignty leaders talking about critical food relatives: Jacquelyn Ross (Coast Miwok/Jenner Pomo) on Abalone, Marlowe Sam (Wenatchee) and Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan) on Salmon and Moose, and Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe) on Wild Rice. We are fortunate to work with these folks through many Indigenous networks and interviewed them about their traditional foods 15 years ago as part of an extensive project with Slow Food USA and others to record “Traditional Foodways of Native America,” documenting oral histories of Native food revitalization http://www.nativeland.org/oral-histories-native-food 

For this episode, we also brought in other special guests to talk about this project and these recordings—long-time TCC ally worker, Nicola Wagenberg, who was deeply involved with these oral histories 15 years ago, and local cultural artist and collaborator, Eddie Madril (Yaqui). Together with podcast co-producer Sara Moncada, the four of us have a conversation about the food stories shared in the four pre-recorded interviews. We explore the state of Native foods, including their traditional uses, changes over time, and the challenges to protect and access them today.

We hope you enjoy this multi-vocal conversation about the importance of Indigenous foods and foodways, from intertidal coastal gathering to moose hunting to wild rice gathering. This intertribal conversation demonstrates the diversity of Indigenous foodways and their critical cultural and nutritional significance to Native peoples, historically and for today.

Featuring pre-recorded interviews used with full permission.

Jacquelyn Ross

Our Guests

Jacquelyn Ross is Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok. She comes from a long line of fisherpeople, hunters, plant helpers, and farmers. Tending Native plants, seed gathering, and communal food processing are annual activities. She is urgently concerned with ocean changes and the declining health and habitat of key food species. She works in university outreach and admissions and is also a writer, artist, and jewelry maker.

Marlowe Sam and Jeannette Armstrong

Marlowe Sam is descended from the Salish-speaking Wenatchi people from Eastern Washington State, Sam now resides in Penticton, BC, Canada but remains a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington. He is one of two indigenous students to earn a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, where he now teaches Indigenous Studies. Marlowe has been a tireless Indigenous rights activist for decades working nationally and internationally. For more information:

• University of British Columbia - https://ourstories.ok.ubc.ca/stories/marlowe-sam/

Jeannette Armstrong is one of the founders of the En’owkin Centre in Penticton, BC, Canada, the institute of higher learning for the Syilx Okanagan people dedicated to the recovery of Syilx language and protection of Syilx cultural identity. She currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Knowledge and Philosophy at University of British Columbia Okanagan and writes and speaks widely. Jeannette is a Language Keeper and an award-winning writer (fiction, poetry) and cultural activist. For more information:

• University of British Columbia - https://ourstories.ok.ubc.ca/stories/jeannette-armstrong/

• “Human Relationship as Land Ethic,” presentation at Bioneers Conference - https://youtu.be/qwNoX3MNisE

• “Grandmother Jeannette Armstrong: Syilx Okanagan Author, Educator, Artist & Activist” - https://youtu.be/BYEqF_enfuw

Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke is an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy, and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice-presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party. Winona is an environmentalist, political activist, writer, and speaker. She is the founder of Honor the Earth and the White Earth Land Recovery Project and its  Native Harvest. For more information:

• http://www.honorearth.org/speaking_engagements

• http://welrp.org/

• https://nativeharvest.com/

• https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-life/wild-rice-moon

• https://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark-item/anishinaabeg-manoomin-wild-rice

 

Other Special Guests

Eddie Madril (Pascua Yaqui) teaches American Indian studies at San Francisco State University, College of Marin, and is the Artistic Director for Sewam American Indian Dance. He is currently the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of World Arts West, producers of the acclaimed San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and previously served for 17 years on the Board of Directors for The Friendship House of American Indians, Inc. in San Francisco. He has worked nationally and internationally in Native American Arts and Education, has served on the advisory committee for Native programming at the de Young Museum of San Francisco, is a monthly host for KPFA Radio’s Bay Native Circle program and author of the new book The Dance of Caring.

Nícola Wagenberg is a clinical and cultural psychologist, artist, film producer and educator. Nícola has worked for over 20 years with diverse individuals, communities and organizations on personal and cultural transformation. Since 2005, Nícola has been working with TCC directing media projects, developing and implementing arts and cultural health programs and helping with the operations and development of the organization. She is the co-producer of “Traditional Foodways of Native America,” “The Salt Song Trail Living Documentary,” co-directed TCC’s Friendship House Urban Garden Project and is the director of the Native Youth Guardians of the Waters project.

Laurita Baldez was TCC's first Native Foodways Coordinator between 2002 and 2006. She was instrumental in helping with these Native food oral history recordings. We asked her to reflect on this work years later, now that she is a nurse practitioner and still a major advocate for Native health and wellness:

“We recorded these stories about 15 years ago. It’s hard to believe how much has happened since that time. Most significant perhaps is that I went back to school to become a nurse, and later, a nurse practitioner. As happy as I am with the path I choose, I’ve always felt that something was missing. The question I continue to ask myself is this: What does it take to restore someone back to health, in every sense of the word? My education has provided me with some answers, but my understanding remains incomplete. When listening to these recordings again, however, I begin think to myself, ‘Perhaps what I’m looking for has been with me all along. Perhaps it is encoded in these stories that we recorded all those years ago.’ ”

And a special thanks to the original project that led to these historic recordings, the Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) project of Slow Food USA. Special thanks to Gary Paul Nabhan, Makale Faber, Laurita Baldez, and all the funders and sponsors of the gatherings we attended and recorded at as part of this work to highlight Traditional Foodways of Native America.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Assistants: Yvonne Martinez, Luke Reppe

Songs (in order of appearance):

• “Interlude” by Colin Farish and Enrique Salmon

• “Chasing Dreams” by Marcos Size

• “Shadowland” by Colin Farish featuring SoVoSo

• “Song for Justice” by Woableza LaBatte

Nourishing the Spirit in Native California

Speaker: Sage LaPena | Air Date: November 9, 2018 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

Nourishing the Spirit in Native California

Dive deep into agroecology and the Native plant wisdom of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Keeper and medical herbalist Sage LaPena (Nomtipom Wintu) in this autumn new moon episode. This episode is unique in that it is based on the public lecture and hands-on teachings of Sage LaPena earlier this year during The Cultural Conservancy’s (TCC) Spring Planting Gathering at TCC’s Ethnobotany garden at the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden at the College of Marin in Novato, California.

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We learn about the sacred Oak and Peppernut trees of the North Coast landscape along with many of the cultural foods, medicines and craft plants native to the woodlands, grasslands, and riparian ecosystems of Coast Miwok territory.  Sage eloquently shares ethnobotanical knowledge about trees, shrubs, grasses, and underground rooted plant parts such as mahogany, manzanita, elderberry, soap root, and Calechortus, among others. Sage reveals the life cycles and unique characteristics of these beautiful Native plant relatives, along with the high-TEK tools used to gather with, such as digging sticks and baskets.  Additionally, we learn about traditional fire management and cultural burning and California Indian tribes historical and contemporary use of fire as a land-care practice.  

Ben Shleffer—who teaches about soaproot and manzanita in this episode—weaving tule with his son.

 Sage’s teachings demonstrate the power of applied Indigenous environmental education, the importance of Native peoples as agroecologists and biocultural restorationists, and the spiritual ecology of relationships between human, plant, and planetary health. 

Additional Resources 

• Interview: Oneness With That Place: A Chat With Native Herbalist Sage LaPena, December 6, 2016, KCET

• Video: Sage LaPena on Traditional Native American Herbalism in KCET’s Tending the Wild.
  

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Assistants: Yvonne Martinez
Additional photography: Loren Risley

#CafeOhlone: Language, Food, Community

Speaker: Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino | Air Date: October 12, 2018 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

#CafeOhlone: Language, Food, Community

For this episode we sit down with California Native chefs and educators Vincent Medina (Muwekma Ohlone) and Louis Trevino (Rumsen Ohlone), to talk about their journey revitalizing Ohlone languages and foods in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area community and across the globe. Tucked into the quiet corner of a busy Berkeley bookstore we joined Vince and Louis at the site of their new “permanent pop-up” restaurant, Café Ohlone.

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This unique Native California Indian food gathering place is the first of its kind as it focuses on the traditional Ohlone foods of the East Bay and creates a safe space for community to gather and share food and stories. From the delicious menu featuring seasonal foods like acorn bread and quail eggs to their recent work sharing these foods at the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto gathering in Turin, Italy, they talk about reconnecting with the values, respect and love their ancestors shared with the land, plants and foods of their traditional homelands.

Additional Resources

• mak-’amham / Café Ohlone - contemporary Ohlone cuisine by Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino.

• Article, “Coming Home – Revitalizing Native California Culture in the East Bay,” Flora Magazine, California Native Plant Society, October 8, 2018.

• Article “Behind the Scenes With the Creators of the First Ohlone Food Café,” Bay Nature Magazine, Fall 2018.

• Article “Acorns in Italy: Strengthening Our Traditional Foods Thousands of Miles Away,” News from Native California, Fall 2016.

• Café Ohlone 
  2430 Bancroft Way, xučyun (Berkeley, California)
  Open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays

• CafeOhlone.com

• Twitter: @makamham

• Instagram: makamham

• Hashtag: #cafeohlone

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Assistants: Yvonne Martinez