Reviving Traditions of the Past: A Project Model to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes on Native American Reservations in South Dakota

Ashley Propes

Food and Foodways CSP620Rita Moonsammy

May 27th, 2013

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Children ran around the dusted sidewalks yanking on their parents, elderly

shuffled forward with their walking sticks and persevering mothers proved their

patience. All generations were aligned outside of a small abandoned building

waiting for boxes of commodities. The blistering sun beat down and the line leading

up to the building only grew longer into the late afternoon.

Every week I shadowed a counselor to the Crow Creek reservation and after

her sessions she would drive her clients to pick up their commodities box. Each

week she drove a woman coming from her dialysis treatment, a man who did not

have a home to put his food in, and two women who claimed their home among two

hollowed out trees. All of these individuals were also all coping with type 2 diabetes.

Upon receiving their commodities we would all look inside to see what was on the

menu. More often than not we found processed and canned foods with low

nutritional values. I wondered how it felt to stand in line waiting for a box full of

food someone else decided upon for you, decided you should wait in line for, and

decided you were eligible for. It was September of 2012 and as I looked at the line of

patient individuals I asked myself; is this progression, is this tolerable to the ideals

of freedom and justice for all?

The roads stretch just far enough out of sight to be out of mind for citizens

that encircle the lands around both the Crow Creek and Rosebud Native American

reservations in South Dakota. Having driven these roads week after week with the

intentions of providing assistance to a community in need, I found myself disturbed,

perplexed, and most of all in question of the spatial limitations placing the great

ancestors of our nation so far out of reach. Over the past two years I have spent

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numerous hours with both Lakota and Dakota communities of South Dakota and am

dazed by the shocking events their communities face on a daily basis. My exposure

has led to more questions with fewer answers of how, why, and what can be done to

stop such expansive issues of social injustice.

It is my intention to create a project model concerning the health issues of

type 2 diabetes found on reservations by acknowledging the physical complications

as well as the social issues that have interrupted the health of an entire nation. In

explaining and proposing my project model I seek to address the past, the present,

and the future of the communities of the Rosebud and Crow Creek reservations.

Through a revitalized relationship with food and tradition I believe it is possible to

prevent greater health issues and in return mend a disrupted social structure that

once thrived out of order and balance.

First I look to the concept of interrelatedness as a powerful and ruling theme

for the Great Plains reservations. Mitakuyue oyasin; a Lakota phrase meaning “to all

my relations.” The value of this relationship goes beyond human-to-human

relations; it is an interconnection to the plants, animals, earth, skies, winds, sun,

moon, and stars. Lewis Hyde’s discussion on the systems of cycles examines how

ecology is a natural cycle of life, encompassing plants, animals and the sun. Hyde

states, “widening the study of ecology to include man means to look at ourselves as a

part of nature again, not its lord.”1 The ideals of Native Americans are deeply rooted

in recurring life of all plants and animals together with respect for using all parts of

their borrowed food from the earth.

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Native Americans of the Great Plains never believed in owning land or

borrowing more from the earth than they could return. The reciprocal relationships

born from these cycles allowed for a self-sustained culture to endure the world it

participated in. Western perspectives failed to acknowledge the cultural differences

between the two nations. Nineteenth-century removal and reservation policies

placed Indians on remote lands with little economic value.2 This not only separated

them from the colonizing states, it separated them from their sacred spaces. Lakota

culture has an embedded relationship to the earth formed from the belief of sacred

places.3 Independent scholar and Dakota Native American, Angela Wilson states:

As a consequence of colonization, health conditions among Indigenous

populations have dramatically deteriorated, and we are suffering from an

onslaught of diet- and lifestyle- related diseases threatening to destroy us.

Loss of land base and destruction of ecosystems, combined with the

imposition of the colonizer's diet and lifestyle through government boarding

schools and commodities programs, have left Indigenous populations

debilitated with what scholars have termed "Western diseases.”4

One of the greatest concerns facing Native Americans on reservations today

is the ailment of type 2 diabetes. The U.S population is estimated to have 6.2 percent

of it’s population, or 17 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes whereas 30

percent of Native Americans are diagnosed with diabetes and are 25 percent more

likely to develop diabetes than non-Natives.5 Diabetes is a condition in which there

is a continued impairment of carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism due to a

lack or nonexistence of insulin.6 Symptoms of diabetes can include unsatisfied thirst,

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constant hunger, ulcers of the skin, walking pains, fatigue, a constant urge to urinate,

numbness or tingling of feet and hands, slow healing cuts or injuries, blurred vision,

headaches, and above average blood pressure.7

Diabetes was a rare diagnosis within Native American populations until the

1930’s, but is now diagnosed in epidemic proportions and is largely attributed to

the growing prevalence of obesity.8 Type 2 diabetes is not the only health risk

related to obesity. With the prevention of obesity issues of cardio vascular disease,

hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol and endometrial cancer in women,

colorectal cancer in men, and rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes are shown to

lower in Native Americans.9 According to evidence from research with the

Seminoles and other Native American populations, the epidemic of diabetes can be

reversed through modifications of behaviors and environments that predispose and

precipitate diabetes.10 The idea of completely reversing the effects of diabetes is

controversial and is most often described as preventing further complications and

implications of the disease rather than the disease itself.

In understanding how to create a project model to benefit and prevent Native

communities from developing type 2 diabetes, it is important to understand the

history of policies and health care systems surrounding them. Native American

scholar Edward Valandra researches Native worldviews as frameworks for

understanding modern complexities surrounding the underdeveloped nations. He

examines how contradictions toward Native sovereignty manifest within the

complexities of U.S. Indian policy; constantly creating unbalanced economic

environments for tribal self-government.11 Valandra uses the Lakota as a case study

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in his research to shed light on how Western standards are the primary models

placed on Native Americans when creating economic structures and policies.

Reviewing political trends within this arena of economic structure illuminates how

Western perspective negates to reflect on or promote the worldviews and

experiences of the Lakota community.12

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans were self-governed in

accordance to the values and customs of their culture.13 Policies placed on sovereign

nations have rearranged the systems of daily life for a nation that once freely

roamed the prairies in search of their center of life; the buffalo. Author of Indigenous

Nutrition: Using Traditional Knowledge to Solve Contemporary Health Problems

Michael Milburn states:

Indigenous nutritional knowledge emerges from Indigenous science with its

distinct “ways of knowing” and integrated, holistic worldview. Traditional

food- ways are based on an intimate and spiritual connection to the land and

entail a reciprocal relationship that must be actively maintained.14

Milburn’s connection to the distinct “ways of knowing” for indigenous

populations is a key factor in progressing forward with addressing such an immense

and invasive issue such as type 2 diabetes.

The General Allotment Act of 1887 was a key policy in the course of history

for Native Americans regarding food regulations and distributions that curved their

cultural traditions and diets drastically. The General Allotment Act or Dawes Act

was a push from the federal government for Native Americans to participate in

Western culture, including agriculture and developing allotted land into farms.

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Efforts to promote farming failed and the years following the passing of the Dawes

Act show consistent declines in the land available for future development on

reservations.15 The Plains tribes developed an economic system by the eighteenth

century based off the use of the horse in bison hunts, prior to the introduction of the

horse they were primarily hunter gathers.16 Bison herds were extinguished from the

Plains in the 1870’s, at the same time other traditional foods were eliminated by the

army, trappers, and white settlers.17 The switch from hunting to farming was an

extreme shift in livelihood for both the Lakota and Dakota and had little success

with the passing of the Dawes Act. The loss of the buffalo or tatanka (Lakota for

buffalo) is to this day a great sadness to the Great Plains Native Americans as it

represented their ancestor and a gift from the Great Spirit.18 They believed the

buffalo sustained all life and following the buffalo was important; permanence was

not.19 The Dawes Act disregarded the importance of following the seasons, the

animals and the cycles of the traveling nomadic tribes.

Today the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for

the food and nutrition polices in the United States and deals with inherent conflicts

between agribusiness and public health.20 Beginning in the 1930’s the government

began what are generally referred to as commodity programs, as a way to prevent

malnutrition and help American farmers after the Great Depression. Senate reports

from 1977 list the commodities that were distributed on all Native American

reservations that year. The items listed for Rosebud and Crow Creek were similar

and included corn syrup, beans, canned boned poultry, peanut butter, evaporated

milk, beans, butter, cheese, egg mix, instant nonfat dry milk, rice, prunes, apple juice,

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dehydrated potatoes, and other items that were far from traditional.21 Most of these

items are high in fat and carbohydrates with little traditional food for Native

Americans to use in their cooking. When I asked elders of the communities what

their commodities included when they were younger, they mentioned that it was

much the same as it was in the 1970’s and has most recently changed from the

beans, rice, and canned meat to packaged and instant foods. Access to grocery stores

and markets have been limited on both reservations until recent years, making it

difficult to access food outside of the food distribution programs. In the 1970’s food

stamps became a second option, however this did not mean a change in bettered

nutritional food choices, it merely meant a second option for dependence on the U.S

government. While the government phased out the rest of the countries

commodities programs in the 1970’s, reservations continued receiving them due to

their remote access to social services and eligible shopping centers. Currently

enrolled tribal members may only choose one of the two programs and can only

participate in the assistive programs if they are eligible.

Issues of limited food choice are important factors in both communities as

they have created their own form of suppression and cultural constructs throughout

time. Traditional foods and foodways have been lost through the reconstruction of

the way in which Native Americans nourish themselves and depend on their natural

ecologies. Systems that once worked together have been forgotten or unused and in

return an epidemic of health concerns have formed. For example one of the main

foods both the Lakota and Dakota communities claim as traditional is fry bread. Fry

bread can be more accurately described as fried bread because it is most often flour

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and butter (lard) fried in oil. Fry bread has been around for a few centuries but was

not a traditional food for Native Americans, as wheat was not brought to the New

World until 1602.22 Fry bread is high in fat and carbohydrates and low in nutritional

value, especially in the act of preventing diabetes.

My participation with both the Crow Creek and Rosebud communities has

proven difficult in many ways and often times felt like an entangled web of

dilemmas. Individuals rely on both commodity programs and food stamps to get

them through each passing week or month and most often are still hungry for more.

Having participated with a meals on wheels program last year I witnessed many

disconnects with nonprofit organizations aiming to help feed the community of the

Crow Creek reservation. Their intentions were good, but week after week they

would distribute frozen foods to the homeless, sugary sodas to children, and packs

of chips to the elderly. The question of hunger strikes you on reservations, but I was

stuck asking myself how is the community going to overcome diabetes when this is

happening? In trying to understand what the emotions were for individuals

standing in line I asked a community member how she felt about the nutrition of the

food as I handed her an egg salad sandwich from our meals on wheels program. She

expressed that she was thankful for food but realized she was often times eating

food that was not good for her diabetes, her heart, or her teeth.

The communities suffer with oppression from the outside world and

oppression from their own community. A personal friend, member of the Dakota =

and social activist stated, “We need people to understand that the oppression is so

severe the oppressed are oppressing one another.” She also describes the youth’s

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desire to be anything but native saying they are taking on identities of African

Americans and Hispanics before claiming their own. I look to this phenomenon as a

result of the misplaced policies and continued suppression of Native Americans

from the dominant culture:

Like colonized groups throughout the world, American Indian people learned

and internalized the discursive practices of the West --- the very codes that

created, reflected, and reproduced our oppression.23

Internalized oppression fosters co-occurring expressions within the

individuals who are oppressed. Pain, grief, depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol

abuse and suicide are all indicators of the internally oppressed individual.24 When a

culture is dealing with a whole community infected with internal oppression, it is

time for a revolution from within. Food and nutrition can be the starting point to the

inner most desires and expressions of transition in a nation ruled by the choices of

others. The New York Times states: “As American Indians try to reverse decades of

physical and cultural erosion, they are turning to the food that once sustained them,

and finding allies in the nation's culinary elite and marketing experts.”25

Policies are constantly modifying the terms for which Native Americans exist

within the United States making it harder and harder for communities to prosper on

their own terms. Fostering sustainable change within a community will need a

project model governed at a level encompassing all elements of a society. Policies

should be recognized as cultural just as much as they are social, environmental, and

economic.26

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Project Model:

The following is a proposed project model targeting issues of type 2 diabetes

with respect and regard to Native Americans on both the Crow Creek reservation

and Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. The strategy for this project model is to

lower the rate of diabetes and obesity within the communities while also building

on the traditional ways of living and nourishing the community both physically and

spiritually.

Project Objectives:

1. To promote youth leadership through positive mentorship and outreach

in healthy lifestyles

2. To build the community’s awareness of type 2 diabetes and develop

culturally relevant education and intervention strategies

3. To rely on traditional knowledge for revitalized food systems with an

emphasis on positive food habits

4. To create programs that are community driven and funded

The long-term goal of the project is to create a self-sustained community

pushing forward to lower the rate of diabetes within their community for future

generations with a gradual separation on the dependency of the U.S government for

food assistance and diabetes prevention programs.

Methods and Resources

In discussing sustainable development Jon Hawkes states, “The diversity of

mediums of expression and of cultural manifestations are both essential parts of

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life’s rich tapestry and invaluable tools with which to engage with challenges that

will inevitably confront us.”27 The challenges within the Great Plains Indians are vast

and co-occurring but must all be accounted for when understanding long term goals.

Flexibility is vital in calculating how to create a shift in a culture’s dominant lifestyle.

Focus groups will be built into the first year evaluation to maintain the community’s

best interest. Sustainable models have to be relevant to the personalities of the

culture.

One of the most concerning issues of type 2 diabetes is after an individual is

diagnosed with the disease their life is changed forever, because of this it is

imperative to look first and foremost at the youth of the community. Their decisions

are often times made for them when it comes to food choices and they may not be

aware of the true consequences of unhealthy food combined with poor physical

activity. From the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vincent M. Biggs M.D states:

Today the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes among Native children is higher

than any other ethnic group. Indian Health service data indicate the

prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among 15- to 19- year olds has increased

54 percent since 1996, which is a dramatic and overwhelming increase.28

Pediatric patients with type 2 diabetes are more likely to have early onsets of

heart disease, renal disease, vision impairment, and limb amputations.29

Understanding the levels of instability Native American youth encounter on a daily

basis, stabilizing their nutritional health is a crucial first step. Studies have shown

youth with chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk for

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behavioral disorders and depression.30 If the community’s youth are going to rise

above the layers of oppression they must foster a healthy relationship with food for

their mind and body without the constraints of behavioral disorders and

depression.

Reaching out to the schools and developing youth initiative programs is a

main objective of this project model. Nick Lowery of Native Vision recommends that

as we progress forward, the youth’s voice must be heard and from this we can move

forward. He states:

The single most effective way to develop a cycle that generates greater social

capital is by engaging youth at the earliest age in the problem solving of its

community by teaching involvement and service as the highest value. In so

doing, an education system unleashes the imagination and energy of its true

clients, its students.31

The model’s program will use the teachers as both mentors and models. Each

school will commit to engaging in healthy habits three times a week for an hour each

session. This will be a tribal wide activity and all teachers will be required to

complete a cultural awareness certification where they will learn the

interconnections of the community and begin to treat their students as a unit rather

than competing individuals. In order to respect and listen to the voices of the youth

there will be a focus group of students from each grade surveyed after the first year

of the projects implementation.

The following questions will be used to re-evaluate the needs and desires of

the youth to strengthen the in school programing according to their needs:

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How important is nutrition to you?

What are healthy foods?

What are unhealthy foods?

How often are you physically active in school?

How often do you wish you participated in physical activity in school?

What are your favorite foods?

Who is your role model?

What makes you want to eat healthier food?

The next level of the project model is to incorporate a community Circle of

Health group held at the community center. All generations will be encouraged to

gather here where all voices are equal and all members can share and speak of their

struggles, hardships, success, and triumphs in relation to diabetes and other

elements of their lives. It is important for the center of the community to be

accessible for all individuals on the reservation. Individuals who cannot walk to the

meetings will receive a public car pool or encouraged to participate in a group walk

to generate the positive experience in walking for health. Often times there is an

emphasis placed on the hardships of reservation life, however the weekly communal

meetings will be an open forum to engage in positive promotion of energy and

stability.

Many Native activists advocate educating Native Americans about their

histories in efforts to take a stand against colonization, including the ways their

ancestors use to eat.32 Weekly meetings will be a way to share distinct ways of

knowing that have been passed down from medicine men and elders of the

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community. Medicine men will be crucial in showing their community the

importance of the plants and animals around them used in healing and health for

their ailments and prevention of diabetes. Elders also play an important role in

teaching traditional knowledge that derives from empirical observation and

spiritual insight.33 The inclusion of layers of generations will weave together the

knowledge of everyone.

The medicine wheel is a sacred circle with equal parts red, yellow, black and

white. It represents balance in the four directions and seasons of life, with respect to

all phases of life and the food that prospers in each season. The symbol of the

medicine wheel will be used to relate once again to the importance of balance and

order in natural cycles of life. Concepts of cooking with seasonal ingredients will be

reinstalled as healthy options with high protein and low carbohydrate diets are

remembered. Each month the “Circle of Health” will lead their way through a

communal cooking night (held on Friday or Saturday evening) to promote healthy

alternatives to other unhealthy weekend functions. This event will be a communal

meal that will offer the flavors of the past such as squash, beans, corn, and buffalo

meat. Traditional dance, language, and drum practice will be encouraged for the

youth to learn from their elders.

Native members rather than an agency counselor or health service worker

will lead the meetings, displaying to the community their ability to lead and uplift

one another from within. Each meeting will include information on how to better

one’s health through traditional food and movement. In respect for the policies that

will be placed in the project model there will be a focus group of middle-aged and

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elderly tribal members who will answer the following questions to reevaluate and

recondition the programs based on what is most beneficial to their community.

How often do you have dinner with your family?

What is the greatest benefit of the “Circle of Health”?

What is most satisfying about eating and exercising?

How could the community support you to feel healthier?

One of the greatest hurdles in the promotion of connecting the Lakota and

Dakota back to their ancestors’ foodways is access to the appropriate foods. A

primary part of the project’s goal is to promote the voice of the tribal community in

advocating for their desire for a return to their original forms of nourishment. The

policies of the U.S government have been a back and forth sway misleading the

tribes into many great losses of their traditional ways. The project model will

promote the power of the Dakota and the Lakota through understanding their

rights. Pro bono lawyers already on each of the reservations will be asked to speak

once a month about individual’s legal rights on the reservation and off the

reservation. Within my year on the Crow Creek reservation issues involving food

have included families not receiving their commodities because they made one

hundred dollars more a month than they had before and were no longer qualified,

trying to return rotten meat after purchasing it the day before, and supermarkets

up-pricing items on the shelves during the first few days food stamp funds are

distributed. If each individual demands for issues such as these to be bettered and

they feel as though they deserve the right to good food then they will fight for it.

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The project model is a movement for the community to begin to re-

appreciate their ancestors’ community based efforts and move forward with

culturally sustainable methods for coping with their existing diabetes and future

preventions of diagnosis.

Concluding Rationale

Recognizing education alone is not enough to create an active difference in

the community when there are food barriers preventing the community from having

the options to eat what they are being advised to.34 Uncovering the meaning of

tradition unveils a culture’s future by looking to the past.35 Henry Glassie explains

tradition to be the people’s creation from their past; it’s character is that of

endurance and it’s contradiction is oppression.36 In holding value in this explanation

of tradition it is then understood that traditional Native American culture is masked

by oppression, preventing the community from seeing it’s own future.

The objectives of cultural sustainability review a holistic approach I view as

necessary in the preservation of traditions, generations, and resources of the world

in threat of great loss, if not total disappearance. My time spent with Dakota and

Lakota communities has proven how delicate a generation is, and time is of the

essence when it comes to gathering threads of the entangled past before untold

stories are taken and lives are lost to ailments as invasive as diabetes. I believe this

project model is a starting point for lifting up the voices of the community to help

one another mend their spirits and bodies. The importance of the food we consume

and the ways we move about this world have the ability to strengthen both the mind

and body.

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Notes

18

11. Lewis Hyde, The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, (New York:Vintage Books, 2007): 23.

22. David Rich Lewis, “Native Americans and the Environment: A Survey of the Twentieth-Century Issues”, American Indian Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1995): 423.

33. Kari Forbes-Boyte, “Respecting Sacred Perceptions: The Lakota, Bear Butte, and Land-Management Strategies,” The Public Historian 18, no. 4 Representing Native American History (1996): 104.4

4. Angela Waziyatawin Wilson, “Introduction: Indigenous Knowledge Recovery Is Indigenous Empowerment,” The American Indian Quarterly: Special Issue: The Recovery of Indigenous Knowledge 28, no. 3&4 (2004): 364.5

5. Devon A. Mihesuah, “Decolonizing Our Diets By Recovering Our Ancestors' Gardens,” The American Indian Quarterly 27, no. 3&4 (Summer/Fall 2003): 809.

66. Sandra K. Joos, “Economic, Social, and Cultural Factors in the Analysis of Disease,” In Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity, ed. Linda Keller-Brown and Kay Mussell. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press,1992), 218.

77. Mihesuah, “Decolonizing,” 809.

88. Mary Story et al., "The Epidemic of Obesity in American Indian Communities and the Need for Childhood Obesity-Prevention Programs." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 69, no. 4 (1999): 750S. 9

9. Story et al., “Epidemic,” 748S. 10

10. Joos, “Economic,” 236.11

11. Edward C. Valandra, “Rethinking Indigenous Underdevelopment in the United States,” Wicazo Sa Review 12, no. 2 (1997): 112

1212. Valandra, “Rethinking Indigenous,” 113.13

13. Jon Hawkes, The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s Essential Role in Public Planning (Australia: Common Ground Publishing Pty Ltd, 2001): 34.

1414. Michael P Milburn, “Indigenous Nutrition: Using Traditional Food Knowledge to Solve Contemporary Health Problems.” The American Indian Quarterly 28, no. 3&4 (Summer/Fall 2004): 421. 15

15. Leonard A. Carlson, Learning to Farm: Indian Land Tenure and Farming Before the Dawes Act (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, Publishers, 1992), 68.16

16. Carlson, Learning to Farm, 71.17

17. Carlson, Learning to Farm, 75. 18

18. “The Heart & Soul of the Lakota: The Buffalo,” Prairie Edge, accessed May 26, 2013. http://www.prairieedge.com/tribe-scribe/the-heart-soul-of-the-lakota-the-buffalo/.19

19. “The Heart.”20

20. Milburn, “Indigenous Nutrition,” 427. 21

21. Senate Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, Recommendations for improved food programs on Indian reservations, 95th Cong., 1st sess., 1977, 63.22

22. Mihesuah, “Decolonizing,” 823.23

23. Lisa Poupart, “The Familiar Face of Genocide: Internalized Oppression Among American Indians,” Hypatia 18, no. 2 Indigenous Women in the Americas (2003): 87.24

24. Poupart, “Familiar Face,” 89.25

25. Kim Severson,"Native Foods Nourish Again." New York Times, November 23, 2005, accessed May 13, 2013, http://www.tankabar.com/tankabarcom/NANF/NANF%20 Full%20Article.pdf.26

26. Hawkes, Fourth Pillar, 34.

2727. Hawkes, Fourth Pillar, 3428

28. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Problems facing Native American youths, 107th Cong., 2nd sess., 2002, 11.29

29. Senate Committee. Senate, Problems facing Native, 11.30

30. Senate Committee. Senate, Problems facing Native, 11.31

31. Senate Committee. Senate, Problems facing Native, 18.32

32. Mihesuah, “Decolonizing,” 827.33

33. Milburn, “Indigenous Nutrition,” 421. 34

34. Betty Geishirt Cantrell, “Access and Barriers to Food Items and Food Preparation among Plains Indians,” Wicazo Sa Review 16, no. 1 (2001): 72.35

35. Henry Glassie, “Tradition,” The Journal of American Folklore 108, no. 430 (1995): 395.36

36. Glassie, “Tradition,” 396.

Bibliography

Cantrell, Betty Geishirt. “Access and Barriers to Food Items and Food Preparation among Plains Indians.” Wicazo Sa Review 16, no. 1 (2001): 65-74.

Carlson, Leonard A. Learning to Farm: Indian Land Tenure and Farming Before the Dawes Act. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, Publishers, 1992.Forbes-Boyte, Kari. “Respecting Sacred Perceptions: The Lakotas, Bear Butte, and Land-Management Strategies.” The Public Historian 18, no. 4 Representing Native American History (Autumn 1996): 99-117.

Glassie, Henry. “Tradition.” The Journal of American Folklore 108, no. 430 (1995): 395-412.

Hawkes, Jon. The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s Essential Role in Public Planning. Australia: Common Ground Publishing Pty Ltd, 2001.

Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. New York: Vintage Books, 2007.

Joos, Sandra K. “Economic, Social, and Cultural Factors in the Analysis of Disease.” In Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity, edited by Linda Keller-Brown and Kay Mussell. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992.

Lewis, David Rich. “Native Americans and the Environment: A Survey of TwentiethCentury Issues.” American Indian Quarterly 19, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 423-450.

Mihesuah, Devon A. “Decolonizing Our Diets By Recovering Our Ancestors' Gardens.” The American Indian Quarterly 27, no. 3&4 (Summer/Fall 2003): 807-839.

Milburn, Michael P. “Indigenous Nutrition: Using Traditional Food Knowledge to Solve Contemporary Health Problems.” The American Indian Quarterly 28, no. 3&4 (Summer/Fall 2004): 411-434.

Poupart, Lisa. “The Familiar Face of Genocide: Internalized Oppression Among American Indians,” Hypatia 18, no. 2 Indigenous Women in the Americas (2003): 87.

Prairie Edge. “The Heart & Soul of the Lakota: The Buffalo.” Accessed May 26, 2013. http://www.prairieedge.com/tribe-scribe/the-heart-soul-of-the-lakota-the-buffalo/

Severson, Kim. "Native Foods Nourish Again." New York Times, November 23, 2005. Accessed May 13, 2013.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Indian Affairs. Problems facing Native American youths.107th Cong., 2nd sess., August 1, 2002.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Recommendations for improved food programs on Indian reservations. 95th Cong., 1st sess., April,1977.

Wilson, Waziyatawin Angela. “Introduction: Indigenous Knowledge Recovery Is Indigenous Empowerment.” The American Indian Quarterly: Special Issue: The Recovery of Indigenous Knowledge 28, no. 3&4 (2004): 359-372.