Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit: Building Native Food Systems through Community Based Research

Almost every tribal community in Western Washington has stories of relatives who lived to be over 100 years old. Often they are remembered for gathering their own food. This way of life both sustained people and created a rich culture.  Yet accessing native foods has become increasingly difficult. In the Traditional Foods of Puget Sound Project Northwest Indian College community-based researchers Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest worked with tribal elders, cooks, health-care workers, cultural specialists, archeologists and others to determine barriers to accessing native foods and solutions to those barriers. Recipes were documented at a 3-day tribal cooks camp, along with ideas on how to create a modern traditional foods diet. The project findings were compiled in a book entitled Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit: Revitalizing Northwest Coastal Indian Food Culture. Over 3,500 copies have been distributed to participating communities and a curriculum is being taught through several programs.