Online cooking show, lifestyle blog encourage #Indigenous ingredients in everyday meals

Anna Ehrick
April 3, 2025

PHOENIX – "Since she was 3 years old, #MariahGladstone says, she has had a passion for food.

"After graduating from high school in northwest Montana, she studied environmental engineering at Columbia University in New York. During summers, she returned to her Blackfeet Nation home where she realized how disconnected Indigenous communities were from their traditional food systems.

" 'After I graduated college, I would take vacation days from my real world job to go to food sovereignty conferences,' said Gladstone, who is Blackfeet and Cherokee. 'At one of those conferences, I said, ‘Someone really needs to start a cooking show about Indigenous foods. I think I’m just going to do that.'

"Indigikitchen was born. The online cooking show is a combination of content on YouTube as well as recipes shared on its website. The foods contain Native ingredients like berries, corn, squash and wild rice.

"#FoodSovereignty is a concept coined in 1996 by La Via Campesina, a global movement of farmers that recognizes the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods.

"On her website, Gladstone emphasizes the importance of the recipes for Indigenous people.

" 'I want to connect people with information about sustainable harvesting methods, planting knowledge, sustainable hunting and, of course, the recipes and the food that are ways of using our #AncestralKnowledge in our modern lives,' she said.

"Gladstone spreads this knowledge by working with Native farmers and fishermen in the hopes that it not only restores their businesses, but the #LandManagement and #TraditionalEcologies.

"While based in #Montana, Indigikitchen has made its way across the country. Gladstone is a popular speaker with groups in the Southwest and the Great Lakes region who hire her for educational lectures, cooking classes and school residencies. Gladstone also has ties to Canada, where she has formed relationships with other nations in the #BlackfootConfederacy.

"These connections have motivated Gladstone to continue her work with #Indigikitchen, and she said she’s grateful to use a tool like social media in order to reach the right audiences.

" 'Indian Country is small and Facebook is a digital telegraph, so it has a way of reaching a lot of communities very quickly where everyone shares my recipes and utilizes them,' she said. 'The more people I see using those recipes, the bigger difference it makes to support Native producers as well as healthy nutrition in our communities.'

"Among the recipes on her website are Three Sisters Soup, which uses corn, beans and squash; pemmican, a mixture of dry buffalo meat, dried cranberries and blueberries and grass-fed beef tallow; sunflower maple cookies; and mesquite blue cornbread.

"Connecting Indigenous people with the food they ate before European foods were introduced into their diets is a movement gaining popularity. According to the National Indian Council on Aging, Native foods included seeds, nuts, #corn, #beans, chile, #squash, wild fruits and greens, herbs, fish and game.

"People like Gladstone call these '#PreContact foods,' and they emphasize the importance for #IndigenousPeople to celebrate their food culture and improve their health by returning to a more traditional diet.

"That is especially important for the Navajo Nation, which the USDA classifies as a 'food desert.' There are only 14 grocery stores for a land mass of 29,000 square miles, forcing people to travel a long way to buy nutritious foods.

"Another Native food and lifestyle blogger who promotes #Diné, or #Navajo, recipes is #AlanaYazzie. On her website, thefancynavajo.com, she posts recipes for blue corn waffles, sumac berry smoothies and blue corn oatmeal from her cookbook, 'The Modern Navajo Kitchen.' "

Read more:
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2025/04/03/indigikitchen-founder-navajo-blog-connects-with-native-communities/

#IndigenousFood #NativeAmericanFood
#CookingShows #IndigiKitchen #Decolonize #TraditionalFoods #TraditionalDiets

#Diné Coalition Opposes #Navajo President's Push for #CoalMining and #Uranium Transport

Dine' Coalition Press Statement, #CensoredNews, April 17, 2025

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- "A coalition of grassroots groups released a statement in response to recent announcements and actions by #NavajoNation President #BuuNygren regarding coal development, carbon market deals, and potential new mining projects.

"The coalition will host a Press Conference from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (MDT) on Monday, April 21, 2025, outside the Navajo Nation Council Chambers during the first day of the Navajo Nation Council’s Spring Session. Please bring a folding chair, water, hats, and sunscreen, and dress appropriately for the weather to keep yourself safe and comfortable during the Press Conference.

"Summary of full statement:

● We call on the Navajo Nation President to stop making deals that degrade our land, water, and future.

● We urge tribal leaders not to repeat historical mistakes with respect to uranium extraction: Leave this Nayee’, Łeetso, in the ground. The cleanup and remediation of hundreds of abandoned mines must be completed, prioritizing public health safety and ecosystem health.

● We stand against the transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation because it is inconsistent with the intent of the Navajo Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Persons and Materials Transportation Act of 2012, regardless of jurisdictional limits on our highways and roads.

● We steadfastly OPPOSE coal development, which negatively impacts the lands, water, and health of the Navajo people and contributes to #ClimateChange.

● We stand in protection of our water, health, traditional lifeways, Earth bundles (#Jish), and #MotherEarth.

"We call on all Diné #LandDefenders, #WaterProtectors, healers, young leaders, #matriarchs and warriors to stand together at WINDOW ROCK on APRIL 21, 2025. Together, we will make our voices heard and remind our Navajo Nation government that they are entrusted to make decisions that protect our People and protect our sacred homelands.
Statement from Diné Coalition of Grassroots Organizers in response to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren’s recent statements and actions regarding uranium, carbon markets, coal, and
other harmful extractive processes.
We are a coalition of Diné organizers, land defenders, water protectors, traditional knowledge holders, matriarchs, and young leaders. We are calling on our Diné people to stand united in protecting Mother Earth and our sacred homelands and waterways.

"The Nygren Administration’s recent statements and actions do not reflect the
will of the Diné People, and we call on our Navajo Nation Council to ensure that such actions are not taken in violation of our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

"With the Trump administration’s announced intent to ramp up production of 'mission-critical' uranium,
the private energy offenders are again targeting Diné lands with no intention of ensuring public health, safety, or environmental health. Diné land and water protectors understand that energy offenders operate through systematic #racism that does not adhere to
#PinyonPlain uranium mine,
radioactive haul trucks, in #GrandCanyon."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/dine-coalition-opposes-navajo.html

#WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #Dineteh #NukingTheNavajo #Havasupai #UraniumMines #EnvironmentalRacism #PinyonPlainUraniumMine #AirIsLife #UraniumMine #NoMiningWithoutConsent
#DontNukeTheGrandCanyon #DontNukeThePlanet #WeAreTheFuture #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #DontNukeTheFuture #ReaderSupportedNews