Native Americans Gain More Say Over What Goes in their Grocery Carts

Under two century-old federal treaties, the U.S. government pays for the food given to certain displaced Native Americans. Until recently, however, indigenous groups had little say on what was delivered by USDA to their food distribution centers.

Gary Besaw, agriculture director, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: “Slowly but surely we saw that those foods were heavily salted or processed, and we went from being one of the healthiest tribes…and we started seeing that our bodies, the bodies of our ancestors, then reacted negatively.”

To address the problem, a provision in the 2018 Farm Bill provided $3.5 million for eight tribal nations to demonstrate their ability to purchase their own food, an idea known as self-determination.

Samia Hamdan, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Agency: “In our…traditional model, the USDA purchases those foods and…ships them to warehouses or facilities on the tribal reservations. With self-determination… USDA and Department of Interior worked together to collaborate on the demonstration project, which gives tribes more control over their food procurement.”

Many of the tribes awarded grants are using the added flexibility to support indigenous farmers, ranchers and fishermen.

Gary Besaw, agriculture director, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: “We want to contract and decide where we get our ground beef from, where we get our apples from, where we get other products.”

Two eastern Wisconsin tribal nations, the Menominee and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, partnered on one of the self-determination pilot projects. Although the experiment is ongoing, Gary Besaw, the top agricultural official with the Menominee nation, says area native producers have begun to benefit from the self-determination project and from another project known as the Tribal Elder Food Box program.

The new food box venture provides fresh meat and produce directly from area producers to Native Americans who are over age 55 at no cost. The program initially included just the Menominee, Oneida and Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, but now it benefits all 11 federally-recognized tribes in Wisconsin.

Gary Besaw, agriculture director, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: “We are trying to slowly build our economy, we’re trying to grow the vendors, we’re trying to understand the system better so we can do that purchasing and create our own fully localized food systems.”

The changes in purchasing practices have benefited Native producers, some who have seen sales increase since the start of the pilot projects, as well as non-Native farmers who can be used as a source if indigenous suppliers can’t meet demand.

Gary Besaw, agriculture director, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: “We looked at, for example, some of the catfish that we were getting in our food distribution… and we replaced that with some of the foods from Red Cliff. So we were able to use lake trout fillets, whitefish fillets and … herring.”

One community member says the Tribal Elder Box program was particularly timely when some tribe members were struggling financially in the wake of the economic slump following COVID.

Gilbert “Andy” Boivin, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: “Yeah, I’ve talked to several people that get ‘em and they like it. They think it’s great…. It’s probably two or three meals worth of food that they won’t have to buy.”

However, Boivin says the biggest challenge may be in convincing high school and college students they might enjoy a career farming, ranching or fishing.

Gilbert “Andy” Boivin, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: “A lot of it was just individuals doing individual farming in a garden, you know, but as a nation, our tribe has fell away from it over time…. As far as I know, there is nobody in the last 15 or 20 years that I know of that is interested in farming, you know, and that’s unfortunate.”

An hour to the southeast, the Oneida Nation has built a successful business raising Angus and buffalo, which puts more locally produced meat into the supply chain. The Oneida also raise fruit in several orchards.

Five hours to the north, near Bayfield, Wisconsin on Lake Superior, the Red Cliff Band is seeing the benefits of a fish processing facility launched in the fall of 2020. Because of the federal funds, the Red Cliff Fish Co. has not only added more employees but is paying Native and non-Native fishermen more for their catch.

Daniel Grooms, business manager, Red Cliff Fish Co.: “It kind of started out as an idea to provide an opportunity for Red Cliff fishermen, who weren’t always treated as fairly by other places... They would get, again, different pricing...Now that we are here, we technically have brought the market up on this area….As early as 2018 to the last record I've seen, most whitefish prices around here ranged around 30 to 40 cents a pound. Currently, with our buyers, we are at $1.25 to $1.35 per pound… The government funding of these programs is great because now it’s meeting a need where we are providing a healthier protein alternative to some of those other processed fishes or meats… Again, because of these programs, it’s provided an opportunity for a place like this to succeed.”

Tribal leaders across the country are hoping these allocations allowing greater food sovereignty will become permanent with the next Farm Bill.

Samia Hamdan, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Agency: We visited the Oneida tribe in Wisconsin, as well as the Menominee Indian tribe. And we did see some of the products. We saw the ground bison, the wild rice and the beef chuck roast, and it just looked amazing…We are fully committed to supporting the restoration of indigenous food and empowering the indigenous agricultural economies and improving indigenous health through traditional foods.”

By Colleen Bradford Krantz, colleen.krantz@iowapbs.org