The Osage Nation is using food sovereignty to rebuild lost Osage traditions through farming and ranching.
Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said his plan was not a vision.
“It was panic.”
Standing Bear recently attended a food sovereignty panel and traditional meal during the University of Tulsa’s Sovereign Futures event. Food sovereignty is the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food, produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, in a way that reclaims cultural ties to food.
The panel included panel leader Amy Warren, Standing Bear, artist Tahila Mintz, Native Farm Solution’s creator Travis Andrews and Dr. Rodney Clark, owner of Clark-Asbury Ranch in Tulsa.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Osage Nation struggled to access fresh produce, which was already difficult since it was in a food desert, with few grocery stores nearby.
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“The last time we had a buffalo hunt was in the 1860s … That whole culture we had involved with the buffalo is pretty well past,” he said. “We still have buffalo clans, but we don’t have buffalo dances, and we lost so much … So what we’ve been trying to do is bring those activities and try to rebuild our culture.”
Buffalo dances are ceremonial dances performed at festivals, believed to assure the return of the buffalo and food provisions for the season.
After having no bison for 150 years, the Osage Nation now has 250 buffalo roaming the 43,000-acre Butcher House Meats Ranch in Pawhuska to help bring back a staple in the tribe’s diet and culture.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Standing Bear’s staff told him the only food left was in everyone’s refrigerators, because the slaughter houses and grocery stores were shutting down. They had no more food supply for the food distribution programs the Osage Nation offered.
Standing Bear and Assistant Chief Raymond Redcorn drove out to a spot of land that the chief knew was owned by the Osage Nation but has been unused for years.
When they arrived, a man came out to greet them on a tractor. They soon worked a deal and then tried farming techniques to care for the land.
Oklahoma State University, Kansas State University and the United States Department of Agriculture worked with the tribe to turn it into a working farm called Harvest Land. Butcher House Meats was created next as an effort to purchase and keep bison.
“Every community needs to do this,” Standing Bear said. “You need to be able to take care of yourself. Because whoever is going to be controlling the food during the crisis has way too much power.”
Mintz encouraged the panel-listeners to find food sovereignty for themselves, by planting their own plants, even if it’s just “one blade of grass, or the fresh lemon balm that’s behind you.”
“So for me, the teachings that I received was that our primary responsibility was (to be) guardians of the natural world,” she said. “That we are cared for by the natural world. We are nurtured, and we are in beautiful harmony through this relationship through our ups and downs.”
Andrews is an urban farmer and founder of NFS, an Oklahoma grassroots organization formed to grow the foods and medicines needed within the local ceremonial community. His work is focused on encouraging native youth to revive and regenerate cultural practices for ceremonial food preparation and language preservation.
“It took me a while to figure out what (food sovereignty) means,” he said. “And what I’ve come to figure out is that there’s food sovereignty and food security. A lot of people mix them up. So food sovereignty to me is when you have total control over foods out of your food system. And food security is when you measure how much food you actually need.”