How to Honor Indigenous Peoples This Holiday Season
A meal featuring O’odham Peas from San Xavier Cooperative.
The end of the year, and holiday season, is dedicated to celebrating, reflecting, and giving thanks to family, friends, loved ones, and the glorious spread of food that sits at your dinner table. While many may point to Thanksgiving as the kickoff to holiday festivities, many in our local Indigenous community don’t. We reached out to them to learn how to honor Indigenous Peoples and Native foods this holiday season — learn more about how to prepare a traditional Native meal celebrating the fall harvest and the winter solstice and a more mindful approach to your turkey day spread.
EAT LOCAL, INDIGENOUS, AND IN SEASON
Chef Maria Parra Cano of Sana Sana Foods. Photo taken by Perla Farias.
“This season is one of nourishment and acknowledgements to the land for our foods,” said Maria Parra Cano, Indigenous Foods Chef for Sana Sana Foods. “In terms of food, fall is a time to celebrate and thank our ancestors for the harvest. This is a special time when the moon and the earth are in sync to provide us with sustenance and nourishing foods. This is also why you see so many Indigenous foods being used to celebrate "Thanksgiving," she added.
“The fall season is a time to prepare for traditional hunts, as well as the harvest of a variety of squash, corn, sweet potatoes, and wild rice,” Chef Maria added when speaking about Indigenous foods of the season. “There are also many other items that are commonly seen at the dinner table that are considered staples during this time, but it does really depend on where you live and how accessible it is to you.”
Choose foods of the season that are rooted and grown in your area; you can find what’s currently in season by visiting a farmers market or a local farm near you. You can also see what’s in season on the Good Food Finder website. By using in-season produce and ingredients from your local producers, you’re giving thanks to the actual farmers who grow, harvest, and tend to the land in the areas in which we live.
Chef Maria shared how she and her family celebrate: “During this time of year, we celebrate those who have passed on to the spirit world, the fall harvest, and the winter solstice. Each celebration is different but similar in the Indigenous foods we make. For us, ‘Thanksgiving’ is Turkey Day since turkey is an ancestral food from where our family is from. Instead of eating it with gravy, our family prepares it in molli or molé. We also gather to make tamales de molé the next day. Molé is a sauce dish made of a variety of dry chilies, cacao, and roasted seeds. It is all blended and cooked into a spicy chocolate sauce... it’s the best!!”
“A mindful approach this holiday season begins with focusing on food that is native to this continent and state,” said Brandy Button from Ramona Farms. “These can include squash, pumpkin, persimmons, cherries, corn, peppers, beans, grapes, cranberries, berries and herbs. Also, consider the ‘what grows together goes together’ approach for an even more traditional spread, such as sage with rabbit, to really honor the foods of the season.”
Katie Hilbert of San Xavier Cooperative Farm, which is located in Tucson, noted that Ha:l is currently in season at their farm. “Translated as Big squash, Ha:l weighs on average 15 to 25 pounds and stores for a long time, providing a winter squash vegetable for the cold winter months,” she said. “It has the texture of pumpkin with a sweeter flavor and is traditionally made into a pudding.”
PURCHASE FROM INDIGENOUS GROWERS AND PRODUCERS
Ramona Button of Ramona Farms.
It’s a delicate dance for many Non-natives who want to stand in solidarity and support the Indigenous movement. Paris Merk, president of Green on Purpose and a PhD scholar of Indigenous literature and culture, advised non-Natives to be respectful and mindful of their activities on Native land, specifically foraging. “As non-Natives, we’ve become accustomed to being the colonials who want to celebrate in the Indigenous way, but we can’t do that anymore,” he said, regarding the tendency toward Indigenous cultural appropriation. “Instead, we have to respect Indigenous Peoples for the things they do, how they do it, and support their culture and their growers.”
Katie from San Xavier also shared these thoughts: “Learn about your roots and culture, investigate your own ancestry and traditions, and acknowledge your own uniqueness. By learning and valuing one's own cultural traditions, it will hopefully curb the urge to culturally appropriate from others,” she said. “Everything starts within yourself and then translates into the outer world. Learning to love and appreciate your own culture translates to a greater appreciation of our differences and the beauty of all people.”
She added, “Visit your local Indigenous community and support the local businesspeople and farmers with your wallet. One of the most rewarding and direct ways to connect is through food. Support our local Indigenous farmers—buy produce grown by their hands and prepared foods made by our Indigenous community to connect with the land in which these foods were grown. “
We’ve compiled this list of some local Indigenous growers and producers who are doing the good work of making Native produce and products available:
TALK ABOUT IT AT THE DINNER TABLE
By serving a more local, seasonal dinner this holiday season, you open the door for a dinner conversation that sheds light on the real history of the day, Native traditions, as well as the connection between land and food.
“A great way to honor Indigenous culture during this time is to share your dishes and communicate at the family table,” Brandy said. “Give thanks to the Creator and thanks to the good intent that your food was grown in. Talk about the Indigenous ways and the People of the past. Educate the children.”
“This is also the time of year that is historically painful for most Indigenous Peoples as the genocide and mistreatment of Indigenous communities continues to be ignored.” ”
Chef Maria also offered this bit of advice: “Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples can mean different things, but it’s important to acknowledge the territory and traditional caretakers of the land you reside on. Being in Phoenix, an urban Indigenous city, I thank our O'Odham relatives, the Yoeme, and all the other groups of Indigenous Peoples that have a connection to and work these lands. Start off by having the tough conversations and acknowledge what has happened to the land, the people, and the healing that is much needed across the continent.”
Find out whose traditional lands you reside on with Native Land Digital’s interactive map; and get to know your local Indigenous community. An excellent resource is the Arizona Indigenous Foodways Yearbook 2020 that spotlights seven Indigenous leaders who are making strides in reclaiming and building Indigenous foodways in Arizona.
THE GIVING SEASON
Photo from Sana Sana Foods taken by Perla Farias.
The fight for justice for our Indigenous communities still remains an arduous one, especially when it comes to the issues of food sovereignty and food security. It’s a battle that requires awareness, support, and a stand in solidarity to make that change a reality and right to all. “Phoenix is an urban Indigenous city,” Chef Maria added. “There are community groups doing so much work around the issues that directly affect Indigenous Peoples.”
She recommended connecting with these groups as a way to support the movement:
Tribal communities are some of the hardest hit by the pandemic with heightened food insecurity and need. In addition to the groups listed above, consider donating and helping these organizations: