So I like to be a little
bit more interactive.
So feel free to drop any
questions or comments
in the chat box. So
then we can all be in
solidarity with each
other in person and Zoom.
So thank you, everybody,
for joining me
today. I know it's
a lot to ask of you,
especially while
we're on winter break.
But thank you so much. My
name is Denae, and today
we're doing, again, honoring
tradition, advancing
care, the role of indigenous
food and nutrition health
care. So obviously this
is a huge subject, but
hopefully you'll glean some
helpful information today.
As Daniel had mentioned,
I'm the owner and founder
of Tumbleweed Nutrition,
which I started in 2021.
First, it used to be a side
hustle. Now it's
my main hustle.
And I was an outpatient
dietician when I started this
organization. And I realized
there was a huge gap in
having accessing dietitian
services, especially when
tribal organizations are
trying to look for nutrition
or dietetic services. And
so the company was a way to
provide that access point.
And so I work with clinics.
I work with hospitals. I
work with indigenous food
producers, indigenous farms,
and I help with some of the
back end dietitian, fun
dietitian stuff. But I also
do cooking classes as well.
That's something that our
community really enjoys,
is community classes in a
community setting, not on
hospital grounds, but like
actually in the community.
And those are, those are fun.
I've done cooking classes
on farms before. So
definitely, that's a
little bit more of the
fun stuff that I do.
But this is the pictures
that are all shown are
pictures that I've taken
or, you know, a member
of my staff have taken.
So I'll try to explain
them as best I can.
And this picture was
taken when we did
a cooking class on
Biddy Baby Foods, which
is located near
Shiprock, New Mexico.
And this event, we did
a corn pollen collecting
class as well as like a
breakfast, you know, have
some breakfast, go out
and collect some corn
pollen. And for Navajos,
that's a very sacred thing.
So by the end of
this presentation,
hopefully I'll be
able to give you some
points about indigenous
food sovereignty.
So hopefully participants
will be able to explain
the historical and
cultural significance of
indigenous food systems
and their role in promoting
health and sovereignty
in Native communities.
Two, evaluate how
healthcare professionals,
including those who identify
as Indigenous, can address
gaps in Indigenous
nutrition representation,
research, and training.
And then three, apply
culturally responsive
strategies in their academic,
clinical, and community
settings to support
Indigenous food knowledge
and nutrition practices.
So just a disclaimer,
as we all know,
there's many tribes
across the U.S.
And each state is
different. Each region
is different. So I
can only speak from my
own experience and my
own perspectives of
both being a Navajo
woman and a dietitian.
And so take what's
helpful, leave what's not.
So a quick poll here,
including those on Zoom.
What is your current
major or job title?
So go ahead and scan
this QR code and it'll
take you to a Slido poll.
where you can answer.
I just want to get a brief
overview to see
who's in the room
and who's online too.
And also while we're
waiting, I'll give it about a
minute for us to respond. I
completely forgot to say my
clans. I know Danielle said
it, but I'll say them in
Navajo just in case we got
any Diné people out there.
So also in the chat box,
let me know if I'm related
to you or if anybody in
here is related to me.
Okay, so we got about 36 people
who have answered so far.
Dementia care specialists,
we got an academic
program specialist,
Navajo student, PhD, human
ecology, dietitian student,
nutrition scientist.
Research coordinator,
MSW, educational
advising and support,
assistant professor,
retired biotech exec, fancy,
LGBTQIA2S, health
equity coordinator,
physician, social work.
Okay, we got a good mix. Wow.
Okay, great.
We got Annie Liu, an RD,
outreach specialist,
MPH student,
program coordinator, director.
All right.
So that gives me a
little bit of an idea.
Okay.
Thank you so much for
participating in that poll.
We will have a few more,
so keep your phone handy.
So first, let's get into
the background information
so I can set a good stage
for you all of Native
communities and why food is
important to us. So first and
foremost, we'll just go
over some basic, you know,
demographics um according
to the census the 2020
census there are 6.3 million
who identify as american
indian or alaska native
alone or in combination with
another race in terms of
diversity there are 540 that's
547 supposed to be 574
uh federally recognized u
.s tribes and can be divided
into nine general regions
i just um read recently
that lumby tribe finally um
got federal recognition so
yeah so I definitely got
to update my slides um in
terms of language in the
U.S. and Alaska there are
381 distinct non-English
language and just to give
you like an idea about um
the breadth of indigenous
languages half of that are
indigenous um so 381 distinct
non-English languages
spoken half of that are
North American indigenous um
and it's spoken that are
spoken in the U.S. However,
it's estimated
that only 20 will
remain fluently spoken by 2050.
In terms of food,
historically, we've been mixed,
obviously mixes of hunter
-gatherers and agriculturalists,
definitely influenced
by environment. So
for instance, you
know, up here where
there's a little bit
more biodiversity,
you know, tribes are going
to be foraging a little
bit more often, hunting.
Those are historical food
practices. Where I'm from,
which is the desert, we
have definitely a lack
of water, which out here,
there definitely isn't a
lack of water. So out there,
we lean more on agriculture.
We lean more on trying
to make sure that we are
very conservative with
water. And that's how our
crops grew alongside us.
So just some statistics.
Compared to white
households, Native Americans
are 19 times more likely
to live in a household
without indoor plumbing,
with running water.
In terms of food, 25% of
Natives, and I'm going to
flip between different
terms. So I'm going to say
Indigenous Natives, American
Indians, or the tribal name,
just so you know, sometimes
people get thrown off
by that and they get
confused, but I flip and back
and forth that's just my
preference but again other
people have different preferences
so if you're conversing
with a native person
especially in your practice
it's I think it's appropriate
to ask them like what
their preference is as
well and definitely when
you're working in specific
tribal regions I feel like
it's more appropriate to
refer to the specific tribe
and bonus points if you can
say it in their language
so for instance Navajo
versus Diné Navajo is more of
like a Spanish origin, and
Diné is our language for us.
So 25% of natives
remain consistently food
insecure, and we are
twice as likely to be food
insecure compared to whites,
the white population.
in terms of electricity
on native reservations 14
percent of households have no
access to electricity which
is 10 times higher than
the national average and
then in terms of economy as
of 2022 the national poverty
rate for natives was 25
percent while it's 11
percent for the general
population and so now that we got
that over with I'm just
trying to set a stage here
I'm not trying to depress
us but these are the things
that we have to work with
right When we understand
the health, we know it's
just not, you know, what you
eat or how you exercise or
your body size. It's all
of these different things.
And especially in a medical
setting, there's five
things we're thinking about.
And does anybody recognize
this pie, this wheel?
Do I got any guesses?
So this is based
on, oh, go ahead.
social determinants of
health right education health
care neighborhood and
environment social and
community and economic
stability so this is taken from
the centers for disease
control and this is what
also WHO also defines as
health it's just not about
the food we eat or our
specific physical condition
it's about our access
it's about our access to
health care It's about is
the healthcare inclusive?
It's about are the neighborhoods
safe to be physically
active? Or does the person
have resources to reach out
to? Does a person feel
connected to their community?
Does the person have the
economic resources to purchase
what they need to be
healthy? Can they purchase
healthy foods in a safe way
without having to go more than
an hour to a grocery store?
So out on my reservation,
it takes about an hour for
people to for many people
to get to a grocery store.
So that's definitely going
to affect what they purchase
in the actual grocery
store. Are they going to
purchase more of those shelf
stable items like spam or
canned foods? Yeah. Right.
Because it's going to last
longer versus like if they got
fresh foods like lettuce or
avocados. how long is that
going to stay in our fridge?
Like three days, right?
Avocados, like you blink
and then it's brown.
So and then education,
definitely education level
is paired with, you know,
health status. So the
higher the person, the
higher their education
level, the more quote
unquote healthier they are.
So again, determinants of
health, those what we talked
about were social determinants
of health. And so for
Native communities, you know,
those things we're looking
at that affect our health,
there's going to be higher
rates of poverty, lack of
running water, basic utilities,
inadequate access to
healthy foods, and health
care providers, and more
specifically, culturally informed
health care providers,
lack of access to broadband
for services such as telehealth
and virtual education,
lower rates of health
insurance, lack of reliable
transportation and there are
higher rates of sexual and
interpersonal violence and
so that's kind of like I kind
of think of social
determinants of health as like
an outcome of what has happened
before and so has anybody
ever heard of structural
determinants of health
okay so structural determinants
of health those are more
related to like the bigger
context the bigger environment
what are the policies
what are the laws what are
the like the ingrained
practices that have happened
to cause these social
determinants of health that makes
sense so when we're thinking
about native health and
specifically native food
and native health and native
food access you know things
that definitely impacted
our access was first contact
colonization of course
removal act of 1830, where
many tribes were forcibly
removed from their traditional
homelands to live in
another state where they didn't
know how to work with the
land or they didn't know
the resources in the area.
The Dawes Act of 1887, which
kind of split up
parcels of land,
which, you know,
further, you know,
decrease our ability to
access land, scorched earth
policy. So for instance,
In my Navajo community,
we, back in the 1800s, you
know, there was federal
efforts to kind of, in
order to kind of move us to
a certain piece of land out
in New Mexico, they burned
all of our crops and
restricted access to where
we would get foods. And so
they call that the scorched
earth policy, failed
treaty obligations, federal
oversight for health
care, boarding school era,
natural resource extraction,
and then practices of
forced sterilization and
infant separation policies.
So all of these have
to, you know, impact
in some way or another
how we get our food.
and so depending on which
tribe you're working with
we're going to have different
levels of impact and influence
so for me my primary you
know community I work with
is rural residents on the
Navajo reservation when you
take me out to an urban
setting like say Phoenix or
Albuquerque and I'm like
whoa who are these natives
definitely like I got to
kind of switch brains because
they're going to have different
issues that impact them.
And so it's important
that as health care
professionals, we recognize
that we're not all cookie
cutter, all the same.
We have all the same
priorities. We're going
to have different levels
of influence when it
comes to access to food.
So all of this, again,
trying to get over the
depressing part, But all of
this leads to some of the
highest rates of health
disparities in Native
communities. For instance,
diabetes, we're 3.2 times
more at risk. Alcohol-induced
events, 6.6 times. Liver
disease, 4.6 times more
likely to develop that.
Drug-induced events,
1.5 times. Kidney
disease, 1.5 times.
And suicide, 3.5
times more likely
to experience that.
so what i like to ask you
know when we're thinking all
all of all of these factors
that affect our food access
food issues um there was
some really great uh work
that's been done by tiara
madri and she talked about
and and one of the recent
articles that she published was
the four domains of nourishment
so when we're addressing
these social and structural
determinants of health
we have to address
everything. We can't just say,
okay, I'm going to give you
a fridge if you don't have
access to a refrigerator.
We also have to, you know,
address some of those upstream
things as well. And Tierra
Madre kind of talked about
these four domains of
nourishment and how we deliver
nutrition education in a more
culturally relevant way.
And so she talked about
physical, spiritual and
emotional domains of nourishment.
So when you think about wild
rice, give me an example.
What do you think about
when you think of wild rice?
Anybody?
I'm the queen of dead
silences, you guys.
Counseling technique. Pro tip.
How it's harvested.
Anybody else? Yeah.
Fiber. Anybody else?
Comfort. Anybody else?
Yes. Yes.
Long cook time. Very true.
Well, depending on where
you get it from, right?
And when it's harvested.
Threaten, spirit,
cultural touchstone. Okay.
Cultural touchstone, spirit.
So what I heard from those
answers addressed all four
of those domains. and so
somebody said fiber we're
thinking physical somebody
said spiritual somebody said
stories emotional somebody
said comfort relational
sometimes I when I think
of some of the practices
surrounding wild rice we
don't do it alone most
of the time right we do
it with other people same
way with my tribe you
know we use corn in a
similar way to wild how
wild rice is used out here.
The first time I
experienced that and didn't
realize that was when I
went out to Fond du Lac
community a few years
ago and they were like,
you know, making wild
rice cupcakes and what,
like all these really
cool wild rice baked
goods. And I'm like, oh,
this is like blue corn.
That's for us.
We use that in the same
way that we use our
wild rice is used out
here. And so my question
is, how do we weave
these four domains
of nourishment into our
health care systems?
And really, that's, we've,
we've come up to a point
like history has, you
know, we've seen history
show us that there was very
much a concerted effort
to make sure we're not
accessing our traditional
foodways. And now it's
really cool to see like so
much effort being pushed
at indigenous food
sovereignty because we're
recognizing and then as there's
more health native
health care professionals
we're recognizing no this
food is good for us this
food is healthy for us this
is how we address these
these um chronic disease
rates that we have um
so i do want to
address something a
little bit of an
elephant in the room um
indigenous foods
versus cultural foods.
So I'm on Instagram, I'm on
social media. And, you know,
there's like 10 million
different ways people describe
what's an indigenous food,
what's a cultural food.
And really, when people
say indigenous food, in
my mind, how I like to
kind of separate the two
is indigenous food is
harvested from the land, it's
plant or animal
resources, and it's local,
seasonal, nutritious, and
environmentally friendly.
However,
there's foods that are
important to us as natives
that aren't necessarily
like we can go pick it
off of a tree, right? We
can't go outside and pick
fry bread off a tree,
right? Unfortunately, we
all have to ask our mothers
to make the fry bread.
So there's certain foods
that are still cultural.
And so I like to view it
in more of a non-judgmental
way and kind of understand
that food is also the our
relationship to food also
recognizes that historical
impact so cultural foods
are going to be more like
representing current access
or the current environment
that the the person lives
in it can be a blend of
cross cultures and fusion and
it's also could be connected
to colonization or
globalization so again you know
viewing those in more of
like a non-judgmental way I
feel like that's the you
know one of my you know
recommended practices that we
should be taking when we're
working with indigenous
communities because if I go in
and tell grandma stop eating
fry bread that's bad for
you slap it out of her hand
is she gonna feel trust
is that a way to build trust
to be for lack of a better
term patriarchal telling
people what to do and
thinking that you know the
best for another person no and
that's a very much native
concept is that we need
to kind of be a little bit
more at the same level instead
of like i'm more powerful
this person's less
powerful and making sure we
you know level out that power
that power dynamic. And
so again, you know, I like
to tell people, you know,
there may be foods that you
feel are not quote unquote
healthy. But again, think
about those five of those
social determinants of health.
Everybody defines health
in a different way. Every
community defines health
in a different way. And I
feel like what's important
too, is making sure that
we're building a healthy
relationship to food as well.
You know, it's just not
about like the perfect eater,
because there is no such
thing as a perfect eater so
when it comes to what I'm
talking about is more like
interpersonal interpersonal
you know phases but when
we're thinking about okay
how do we apply this to
the larger context to a
community level I like to bring
up the socio-ecological
model who's heard of this
many of us public health people
that's very much ingrained
into us And so, you know,
just as a brief reminder,
the socio-ecological model
is a public health theory
in which we're kind of
viewing health in different
ways. There's the interpersonal,
where we're addressing
more like health-related
behaviors, income,
employment, attitudes and
beliefs about health, and then
life skills. If we're
looking at developing health
interventions in our
communities, if we're looking at
interpersonal, we're looking
more at relationships, so
family, healthy relationships,
and social stability.
At the community level,
we're looking more at
language, traditional values,
culture, breastfeeding,
social gathering spaces,
safe places to be active.
At the organizational
level, we're looking more
at training healthcare
professionals to come from
a person-centered care. And
I'm very much an advocate
for trauma-informed
care in our communities.
Our communities have the
highest rates of PTSD.
And so we should just, you
know, and obviously we have
a long history of historical
trauma. So I think it's
very important for healthcare
professionals to come
from this lens is making
sure we're trauma-informed.
Inclusive care, making
sure we're inclusive.
And we're increasing
clinic and hospital
access to those who
have less access.
Um, we're looking at, um,
you know, modifying schools,
work sites and neighborhoods
to make, make sure that,
um, you know, the healthy
choice is the easy choice.
And then lastly, um,
the last, uh, phase of the
SEM model is policy and
enabling environments.
So we're looking at
legislation, food access,
um, access to basic utilities
policies, which promote
food access, um, economic
development and breastfeeding
policies too. So what
I like to remind, especially
students, is that we
all have skills and
passions in different areas.
And so for me, I like to
talk about food. I like
to talk about nutrition.
I like to talk about how
food works in our bodies.
That's my skill. That's
my passion. But when
you're going to, you know,
pursuing your career,
thinking about building out
your how you're going to
build out your career, it
can seem overwhelming. And
so what I like to remind
students, and even if
you're like in your career,
I like to tell people,
lean into what makes you
excited, lean into what
makes you feel passionate.
And that's where we want
to, because that passion is
going to show in your work.
And so for me, I like to
do more interventions in the
interpersonal and community
side and organizational
side of things. When it
comes to policy, I'm like,
I'm headed out, you guys.
like this is not my thing
I'm gonna go now but it could
be you're really um you get
really passionate policy
and you get really worked
out worked up about I
don't know USDA more power
to you um and then uh so yeah
you know I just want to
remind us we all have skills
and passions in different
areas lean into what makes
you excited so quick um
let me check time so quick
question I'll give you guys
two minutes and those in
the zoom room feel free to
type in your thoughts to
this question in your community
how would you make the
healthy choice the easy
choice so when we're thinking
of the social determinants
of health maybe the
structural determinants of
health and the socio-ecological
model how do we blend all
of those theories and the
four domains of nourishment
how do we blend all of
that to make the healthy
choice the easy choice because
that's the whole point
of public health right we
our job is to make sure
that we're modifying the
environment so the person
feels that they've to have the
resources to participate
in health behaviors so I'll
give you guys two minutes
I'll put on a song and at the
end of the song we'll
regroup and I am asking for
one volunteer to tell me
about either their thoughts
if they can they come off
zoom can we get engagement
from zoom or somebody in
person actually we'll do one
of each yeah and then for
the ones in person I have
some prizes up here I like
to incorporate indigenous
food producers wherever I
go so I have some indigenous
food goodies up here um
all right two minutes music
so have them raise their hand
and then i'll unmute them
all right so it has been
One song. I don't know
if you guys heard it. I
walked away. I'm like,
oh, you can't hear it.
But pretend the song has ended.
All right. So let's
regroup. It sounds like we
got some good conversation
here, which I love.
All right. So does anybody
want to share? And I
have whoever wants to
share. I have a Takabi white
corn pancake mix they're
based out of denver
native restaurant if you
go through dia definitely
hit up their concourse a
and they sell food there
as well and then also
pemmican patties um bison
and beef bars we got a
volunteer here in the back
oh do we want to throw a
microphone throw
a microphone um
so i work with children
mostly And so what first
came to mind for me was
making healthy foods
available in the schools,
you know, because it sets
up really good habits
for kids going forward.
What we talked about were
that, you know, you can you
can offer some of these
foods later on, but then it
takes it takes time to
change kind of attitudes and
tastes and things like that.
And so maybe if we start
with when when they're
kids and build the habits
early, that might have a
more longer lasting effect.
Yeah. Yeah. And the
more we provide like a
diversity of foods to
kids, the more likely
they're going to
uptake it later on as
adults and skills to
which one do you want?
Oh,
pancake mix. I
knew I should have
brought one more.
That was the only one.
All right. But these
are really good snacks.
Okay. So thank you so
much. Does anybody want to
come on Zoom to share their
thoughts or discussion?
We don't have any hand
raised, but we have a couple
of people have shared
having traditional foods
on menus in tribal
businesses, or someone else
says, there are mostly
fast food restaurants in my
community, ways to find
healthy alternative when
eating out if cooking
is not an option. And we
have one person that would
like to come off soon.
Okay, Candy.
Hey, can you hear me?
Yes.
Hi, Candy Cornelius. I am
from the United Nation and
i work with prenatal clients
and this past year 2025
we have so each state probably
has like ours is called
great lakes intertribal
council so they apply for
like the big grants and
then share with the tribes
within the state excellent
setup because they have the
grant people to you know
apply get it and monitor it
but the one that they did
was indigenous foods so they
went just like you did and
collected throughout probably
the nation of all these
people that are producing
their own indigenous foods
and created these boxes.
And so each community in
Wisconsin got boxes and we
chose to share ours with
pregnant women or expecting
families. We had an event and
everybody was able to take
wild rice, maple syrup. And
I think the best thing of
that is it's great to get
the food but many people
in our community don't know
how to cook it um so they
sent recipes which were a
hit we had somebody make like
a beet uh smoothie and
wild rice casserole and so
then they were able to share
online um so i think that's
important key is the access
is so low and if we increase
the access do they know
how to cook with it so
just a tip to include recipes
there are very appreciative
thank you yeah yeah I think
uh same is sometimes so
like I said blue corn is like
a big deal in the southwest
and some families aren't
sure how to incorporate
it because maybe their
parents didn't teach them how
to use it or their
grandparents didn't and so also
pairing that with recipes or
food demos or cooking classes
and I'm reading through
the comments and there's a
lot of really great ideas and
especially for this session
today is one of my questions
is how do we incorporate
more traditional foods
and producers into our
programs because for me I
feel like that's a big lack in
representation is like how
do we get indigenous foods
into clinics into hospital
settings how do we make
sure we are making an inclusive
menu when we're feeding
our inpatients as well as
our outpatients so definitely
something to think about
all right so let's move on
in the in the slides um so
again that comes down to
this quote I like this quote
I saw in nature there was
another Maya Angelou quote
and what was what was that
quote yeah yeah the diversity
quote I have I took a
picture but my phone's way
over there And so Maya Angelou,
great woman, wise woman,
and so she had said that
I really took to heart is,
I learned a long time ago,
the wisest thing I can do
is be on my own side, be an
advocate for myself and
others like me. And so for
me, coming from, I grew up
on the reservation, I grew
up in a food insecure
environment, my family was on SNAP
and WIC. And so I'm just
being an advocate for people,
little Denise. And so
as we go into this work,
that's something important
to remember is use your
experiences. And that's what's
going to lead you into the
future is how do we, how do
we help our little selves.
so the way I do that is through
nutrition and
dietitian dietetics
um I okay funny story I
didn't growing up again like
I said I was in a food
insecure environment um I
didn't know how apples grew
until I was like 10 and
the reason why I found out
how apples grew was because
I watched Wizard of Oz
and you know where they're
like throwing apples at
Dorothy and I'm like is
that how apples grow and
so up until high school I
like romanticized this
version of like me picking an
apple off of a tree and
so that was like my adult
dream and I know that I've
made it as an adult if I
can pick an apple off of a
tree and so um again thinking
about relating that back
to nutrition and research
um you know when I was
growing up I did become
interested in nutrition,
and understanding how it
works in our body and how it
changes our body. I thought
that was really cool. I
read about vitamin C and
pineapple and how that can
affect like some of our
DNA, how it presents itself.
And so, unfortunately,
you know, there's
a lot of different
ideologies and
approaches to nutrition.
And it's exactly like this
going out into our community.
You know, people get
frustrated with us saying
like, well, last week, you
told me not to eat the egg
yolks. This week, you're
telling me to eat the egg
yolks. What's going on? I
heard that if you just eat
all meat, then you'll be
healthier. That's what we're
running into now with the
carnivore diet. There's all
these different approaches
and all these, especially
with social media. I think
there's a recent poll
where people said about 50
% of the general population
get their health information
from social media, there's
a lot of uncredentialed
people giving out really
scary information when it
comes to not just health, but
also, you know, medical
advice and also nutrition,
which can have real, real
impact on our communities.
So when, first question
for me, raise your hand
if you've ever met a
dietitian before today.
wow this was probably the
most the highest rate I've
ever had so yay so dietitians
especially if you're part
of the clinical team they're
part of the interdisciplinary
care team however
dietitians can also venture
out of the hospital we're
not just associated with
the hospital there's many
things we can do definitely
there's dietitian researchers
we create recipes and
menus we dabble in policy
development, we develop content,
we're starting to venture
more into social media.
Shameful plug, shameless plug,
but follow me on Instagram.
I'm also on there,
and I can proudly
claim that I am
the only Indigenous
dietitian with a
following above 40,000.
So yeah, so follow that.
Group education, cooking
classes, we can do recipe
analysis, and we can
train staff. And for me,
my brain, like I just
need to be doing different
things at all times. And
again, lean into that
passion. Don't try to
just stick yourself in one
niche. And for me, I like
doing all the things, which
is why I created my own
business, because I was
like, I need to do other
things. And so this
brings me to food sovereignty
work. As a dietician,
I'm thinking about food, I'm
thinking about nutrition,
and I'm thinking about how
my community is frustrated
with many, you know, that
stigma around these indigenous
and cultural foods, and
they get frustrated because
the nutrition advice that
they get from the hospital
doesn't reflect what they're
eating at home like and
doesn't you know the advice
that they're getting isn't
attuned to that their current
access and so as a dietician
our job is to think about
all of these you know
social structural determinants
of health and kind of base
our advice based on what
the person has access to
especially those skills and
so for me too I'm thinking
okay if people want to see their
cultural foods represented,
we can think about how do
we integrate these foods
into the clinical system.
And so that brings us to
food sovereignty. Food
sovereignty is the right for
communities to determine how
they get food and highlight
or, you know, highlighting
or strengthening the role of
community in food access.
And so why does this matter
so it matters because cultural
preservation it matters
because um it's it's going
to help our health and well
-being like this this picture
here is of us processing
nishji nishji is super high
in fiber and um and that's
definitely something that's
not talked about um and
so fiber is good for us
right we all know it's good
for our guts um it also leads
to economic empowerment so
again And remember, our ethnic
group or ethnic population
has the highest rates for
poverty. And so if we're
thinking about how do we
improve the economy, supporting
indigenous food producers
is a way to do that. And
then the next thing is
environmental sustainability.
These days, the
term, what is it?
That term, regenerative
agriculture, is
very much a buzzy
word among farmers.
However, indigenous
producers are like, we've
always been regenerative,
like, that's just our
thing. But now it's getting
more into mainstream,
because climate is a
concern. And so if you want
to support, you know, you
know, climate efforts,
climate change efforts,
definitely supporting
indigenous food
producers is a great way
to start. And then also
self determination,
right? We're our own
tribes, we should determine,
we should be able to
determine how we access our
food. And so I like to
pair, again, blend food
sovereignty, health care.
How do we make the two work?
So some of my work is
in food access and food
is medicine. You know,
I just finished up with,
we did a two-year study
on providing frozen
meal delivery, frozen
meals, highlighting
indigenous foods to
patients with heart failure.
And that's going to be
published in Journal
of Cardiology in the
next few months. We
just got approved.
So look out for that.
and so like all of these
different food as medicine
programs are coming out and
especially when it comes
to native communities how
do we how do we kind of
reclaim this concept of food
as medicine we know food
access is important and
especially from a clinical
standpoint you know making
my recommendations are to
make sure we're screening for
food access within cultural
context Um, so if you're
not, um, screening for,
um,
even like using a simple
screener, like the six question
questionnaire from USDA,
there's a lot of different
food screeners. There's
like a two question one. Um,
I would encourage you to
consider integrating that
into your clinic. Um, I
would also recommend to make
sure we're referring to
indigenous food programs when
available. If there's not
one available, opportunity.
third is we want to make
sure we're advocating for
food as medicine programs
that include traditional foods
and a lot of you know when
I go into food spaces or
nutrition spaces and we're
talking to indigenous
communities everybody kind
of trash talks commodity food
program or for dipper and
says like oh for dipper and
we were we just had cans
and it's like yeah I grew
up on that too however for
dipper is changing for the
better i feel like they
are understanding that yeah
maybe canned beef and juices
is the healthiest thing to
feed to our people yes it's
shelf stable however we
maybe we need to have a more
culturally informed approach
and so um the commodity
food program is recognizing
that they're pushing more
funding to um access or
provide indigenous foods
to their clients. And so
thinking about like, how
do we make sure traditional
foods are present in some
of these bigger programs?
The last thing is
in the clinical
aspect is we want to make
sure that we're training
staff on indigenous foods
and food systems, which
includes both historical and
current access. So that's
why I introduced all of those
demographics earlier on,
because it's like, yes, I
can talk about colonization.
I could talk about all of
that all of that you know
historical stuff that
impacted our access but what
about now what are we
doing now what programs are
out there right now that we
can help our patients with
where are there opportunities
for growth and so we
know that there's severe
underrepresentation of native
health care professionals
in our communities we know
that right with dieticians
There's over a hundred,
close to 110,000 dietitians
in the U.S., registered
dietitians. We went to
school, passed our exams,
went through the internship.
And when it comes to
representation of native
dietitians, it's less than 0
.5%. So there's like 400-ish
dietitians across the country.
and when we're thinking
about again our chronic
disease rates those diet
related diseases it's
like well we need to make
sure that we need to increase
representation as well
because that's also going
to impact the way we give
care to our community
and the way our community
trusts health care professionals
if you know health care
professionals aren't
versed in traditional foods
local cultures um it's it
it's um the community has
a history of distrust in
the medical fields right?
And so we want to make sure
that healthcare professionals
are culturally informed
to make sure that
we're building that trust
with our community as well.
So soapbox there, but
all right, next food
sovereignty and healthcare.
What's another step? So
like I said, remember
using the SEM model,
there's different avenues
we can take. The next
one is public health and
policy. So definitely
thinking about how do we
support tribal data
sovereignty, different tribes,
different regions are
going to have their IRBs,
they're going to have
their own review processes.
And again, there's a reason
why there's those set up.
And so understanding those
reasons, understanding
what happened in the past
for it to be so restrictive,
that's acknowledgement is a
huge thing, you know, just
acknowledging that there was
some trauma that happened
in the past that, you know,
makes us want to restrict
now. And also respecting
that approach. So second
thing is, how do we fund
Indigenous-led food initiatives?
Fund Indigenous-led food
initiatives. That's a hard
phrase. so how do we make
sure that we're just provide
or supporting food producers
how do we make sure
we're providing or creating
programs and initiatives
that incorporate foods indigenous
foods third again making
sure we're including tribal
consultation early and
not as an afterthought
especially when it comes to
nutrition research you know
leaning more into community
-based participatory
participatory research and then
incorporate the four domains
of nourishment from a public
health and policy standpoint?
How do we integrate?
What are those four?
Do you remember?
Spiritual, emotional,
physical,
relational, right?
And so how do we
incorporate those four modes
of thinking into our
public health, into our
programs, specifically
at the clinical level?
And that's definitely
not talked about in
like a, you know,
undergrad course, right?
Definitely. That's, that's not
talked about. I
didn't get that.
It wasn't until after working
in my community,
I was like, Oh,
how do we blend
all these things?
And to be honest, when I
went back to my community,
after I became a dietitian,
I was really scared.
Because I was like, I
don't, I wasn't taught how
to speak to my own
community. and I felt
disconnected. I was taught,
tell people to go vegetarian
or eat Mediterranean
or go on the DASH diet,
you know, and that's not
culturally conformed.
And so isn't that kind
of crazy that me as a
Navajo woman who grew up
on the res was nervous
to give nutrition advice
to my own community.
And that, you know,
tells us the level of
definitely relearning
we need to do at the
college levels. So again,
research and academia,
you know,
leaning into CBPR, making
sure tribes are involved at
the very start of planning
initiatives, planning programs,
especially with research,
making sure we're sharing
authorship and decision making,
and then also ultimately
asking who benefits from
this research. And again,
going further than that is
the research that is out
there looking at who is this
research for and what was
the sample of this research
and so in the dietician world
everybody's talking about
mediterranean diet and
dash diet and you know dash
diet definitely can be attuned
to make it more culturally
informed but with mediterranean
for my community where
where's where's the body
of water like there's no
body of water here where is
the Mediterranean near my
reservation there's not any
and I've had instances of
where elders would come to me
and be like what's they I
had an instance where I had
an elder come to me she
recently had a heart attack and
they had to fly her out
which was about a five-hour
drive so they flew her out
because that's faster and
when she came back they referred
her to me as a dietician
and she came up to me and
she's like, what's hummus?
And I was like, what? So
what she was referring to
was hummus. And she was
like, well, the doctor down
in Phoenix told me to eat
more hummus. And at our
grocery stores, we don't
have hummus. You can't
purchase it. You have to
make it. And yeah, they have
ingredients there, but I'm
not going to be telling
this 80-year-old indigenous
elder to go make her
own hummus when there's
other foods that you know,
provide the same benefits
as hummus. So hummus is
higher in fiber. It's higher
in omega-3 fatty acids.
There's indigenous foods
that can support that.
The anesthesia I was
talking about, beans,
pine nuts, those have
the more of the healthier
fats. And so how do we
kind of shift over to like,
how do we talk about these
indigenous foods and what
are the nutrition benefits
that it can provide.
So again, food sovereignty
and health care.
When it comes to
education administration,
we want to make
sure we're building
pathways for
Indigenous students.
Definitely, NACCP is one of
those great leaders in that.
We want to remove structural
barriers to entry and
retention. For my field, to
be a dietitian, when I was
going to school, you
just need a bachelor in a
dietetics program, and then you
could apply to an internship
and then sit for the
exam. However, recently
they started the master's
requirement where you need
a master's before you can
apply to internships. And
so how is that going to
restrict Native students? It's
definitely going to
restrict it because there's
financial barriers, there's
logistical barriers. There's
all of these different
things that prevent us. And
so it's just more of an
uphill battle for us trying
to get more representation
in the dietician world.
Last thing is, how do we make
sure that we're protecting
cultural knowledge from
extraction as well? Very
important when it comes to
indigenous food ways, making
sure that we are, you
know, being careful about
not commodifying or generalizing
these food practices
and food ways. So I think
it's important to have
representation. However, we
need to make sure that we are
respectful around that
cultural and food knowledge.
So almost there, we're almost
done. But last question.
um go ahead and scan the
QR code and there's gonna
there's gonna be an open
text box and the question is
what does honoring tradition
mean in your future or
current career and how will
you make that happen I'll
give you a few
minutes and then if
anybody wants to
share their answer
bison bar for you I
know it says future career but
you could say current career
as well okay so we got some
answers continual dialogue
protecting land culture and
community continual learning
dialogue humility working
together serving community
supporting community-led
initiatives respecting
the knowledge that was shared
with me and sharing it in
a good way and if you don't
have access to the slide
poll, feel free to drop it
in the chat box as well.
Supporting future generations
of Indigenous students
pursue higher education
and work for their tribe.
Ensuring our youth have
access to education, mentors,
and support as they are
on their health journey.
Developing more
culturally informed
mental health treatments.
Yes, yes, yes.
Respecting cultural
practices and
traditional healing
as evidence-based.
Honoring that tradition
can evolve as we do. Yes.
Protecting culture. Continue
conversations. Do
more listening.
All right. So we
got a good amount of
volunteers. Does
anybody want to share
in person what they
said and expand
on their idea or
their thoughts this
one is blueberries sage and
maple syrup it's really tasty
anybody want to share
the so the people on zoom
can hear you i think i'm
a medical student and i
feel like a large part of
it is just listening to
the patients and listening
to um what their traditions
are and what's most
important to them and
making sure that all of your
recommendations are kind
of contingent to what is
accessible for them and
then for us as physicians to
not be kind of stuck in
our old ways of thinking
and being willing to listen
to other other people
and you know their experiences
and traditions yeah
and it's it's hard you know
it's definitely hard to
sit back and listen because
when we get involved in
health care professions
like we we want to know all
the things right and we learn
all this information and
we we want to tell everybody
all the things we learned
and sometimes that can
that enthusiasm can can be
a I guess a point of
contention when it comes to
working with patients so
kind of taking a step back
being humble listening more
definitely important to
community care yes in the chat
rose baird don't walk says
As a Ph.D. candidate,
my work is focused on
collaboratively working with my
community on building pathways
for continuing our traditional
food plant knowledge,
which also means adapting
access to our food
plants for all demographics
of our people, elderly,
disabled, those who don't
live on the reservation, etc.,
while supporting their
preservation and protection.
Yes,
yes. And from what I
understand, three and four
people who identify as
Indigenous in the United States
don't live on reservations.
And so definitely
making sure that we are
continuing that access for
people who aren't living
near their traditional
homelands or in urban areas.
all right thank you so much
for that all right just
some more resources i
know we're at time thank
you for bearing with me but
definitely there's some
resources to increase your
knowledge feel free to
like take a picture if you
haven't explored any of
these how to watch gather
there's a video on youtube
braiding sweet grass
and then looking into
if you want to support
indigenous food producers
and want to know where to
start you can go to
indianagfoods.org they have
their trademark seal, and
then also shop Takabi.
And that white corn pancake
mix was from Takabi.
And they were actually the
ones that assisted with
that frozen meal program
that we that I talked about
earlier on. And so I like
to give a shout out to them.
And then also, if
you're interested in
creating your own
indigenous inspired foods
at home, there's these
cookbooks as well.
Um, so modern Navajo
kitchen, Alana,
she's Navajo. She's
her home is actually
like, you know, an
hour away from me. Um,
so Alana's there. Um,
Sean Sherman just released
a cookbook, um, the new
native kitchen, um, by
Freddie Batsui. Um, these
are definitely great
resources. There's more
coming out. Crystal Wapipa
is coming out with a new
cookbook pretty soon. I'm
super pumped for that.
But definitely think about
supporting our indigenous
chefs as well and
creating something at home,
maybe for the holidays.
So just in closing, I wanted
to share a video with you.
And I think that's
it. Hi, my name is
Danae Becks, and I
am the founder and
owner of Tumbleweed
Nutrition, LLC.
And I am a Navajo
registered dietitian, and I
offer nutrition education
consulting services
to tribal organizations
and native-owned farms.
When I was working
in the clinic, I
noticed there was a
lack of dietitians who
were available for
tribal organizations.
Often what would happen is
that tribal organizations
would request clinical dietitians
to do a lot of community
nutrition work. I created
the business because
there was a gap in accessing
dietitian services and
specifically dietitians who
are familiar with the Native
community. That's very rare,
actually. There are over
106,000 dietitians across
the nation and 0.4% identify
as Indigenous or Native.
And so that creates an issue
when you're trying to
analyze menus or do a recipe
analysis, especially for
Indigenous foods. And so I
wanted to provide those
services and be more accessible
to these tribal organizations
and to farmers as well.
I wanted to bring that
representation there in this
dietetic and nutrition spaces
saying like, hey, OK, we
can use what we have. We can
use these activities that
we do, these community
activities that we already
participate in. How do we use
that as a base to to build
from there? You know, I think
it's there's there's a lot
of power in eating good food
and not just physically,
but also socially and
communally. And that's what I
really enjoy about working
in Native communities is that
we we kind of innately
understand that in Navajo and
in other indigenous cultures.
It's like we've already
known this. We've already
known to give gratitude and
to to have that thankfulness
for our food sources and
for the people around us who
are preparing those foods.
yeah and that's that's
the thing is that you know
i i talk so much about
why it's important to
have representation because
i'm gonna start crying
because indigenous foods
matter it matters for
social well-being it's
not just about nutrition
it's it's about our strength
it's about our resilience
and for me to use my
knowledge that I got in
college and the reason why
I spent so much time in
getting my education was
because I wanted to give back
because so much has been given
to me so many experiences
have been given to me and
I wanted an opportunity
to provide that back to
my own community great
that's just a thank you
that was um that video was
created with one of the
closer indigenous food
producers that I work with
and so we developed some
promo videos so that was
fun and then we were we
were testing so that whole
video background behind
that is that we were testing
how we can adapt something
called kneel down
bread and now in schools
and like an urban setting.
And so we were just seeing
like the feasibility of how
do we kind of adapt that
recipe for like a standardized
kitchen. And that's kind
of what I some of what I
do is like, also working
with schools and working with
kids, is how do we make
sure there's indigenous food
representation in schools.
And the way we do that is
creating standardized
recipes that the kitchens can
offer to students on a regular
basis. For me, I feel like
it's not enough to say
to offer indigenous foods
only during November. I think
it needs to have, we need
to have access all year round,
and especially in schools
that have a majority native
students, um, to make
sure that we're reflecting
what they eat at home, um,
uh, reflect that in
school. And so kneel
down bread was one of
those tests testers.
Uh, we didn't convince
the school, but
I'm still thinking
of ways we can adapt
it to like smaller
settings as well.
Um, so thank you
so much. Um, feel
free to check out my websites,
tumbleweednutrition
.com. If you have more
questions, feel free to
email me and then follow
me on Instagram. You
can see more of my
work in the community
there and keep in touch.
And especially for those
students, if you want
more of like a one-on
-one, I'm always happy to
take appointments with
students if they, you know,
have more burning
questions about, you know,
their career and stuff.
So thank you so much to
University of Wisconsin
and NACCHEP for asking
me out to come speak with
you. I'm very honored.