Most people in the world have little to no relationship with their food. Food has become something that you can simply buy to fuel your body. Try walking around your shopping market. There are more and more ready-made meals for you to heat up and watch in front of your television or consume while working late hours on your computer. This is due to the fact that food has become commodified. In order to get away from this ever growing, consumer driven paradigm it is very helpful to look at the food that has been grown and consumed in the past. Here in America trying to emulate the way Native Americans treated the land and produced food could change the industrial farming techniques used to feed the ever-growing population globally.
Erik Burke, who wrote his thesis on Food Systems In The Marys River Region and Reinhabitation, gives reinhabition the definition of “ learning to live-in-place in an area that has been disrupted and injured through past exploitation. It involves becoming native to a place through becoming aware of the particular ecological relationship that operates within and around it. It means “… evolving societies and behavior that will enrich the life of that place, restore its life-supporting systems, and establish an ecologically and socially sustainable pattern of existence with in it” (Burke, 2002). Reinhabition is also the way Native Americans relationship with the land works. Tribes have historically used the land for their subsistence while simultaneously making sure they aren’t depleting resources.
The Karuk Tribe, whose land is in the Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California, has always relied on fish as their staple food source along with acorns and bulbs (Norgaard, 2005). Because of this the Karuk people have a ceremony that honor the Salmon-people. The First Salmon Ceremony is held in the early spring to celebrate the beginning of the fishing season, and fishing season does not open until the ten-day ceremony is complete. These ten-days are also to ensure that the fittest fish make it back to their spawning ground to lay eggs and start the process all over again (Ojibwa, 2012). Native people have respect for their food and understand that they are only a part of the circle. If any part of the circle is disrupted the other pieces become unbalanced and the circle will eventually fall apart. Most of the world does not know what it means to live so close with nature. There is never a shortage of food where I live, as long as you have money. For tribes and other people living off the land a poor season can cause famine throughout their community. In regards to the Karuk tribe the instillation of damns on the Klamath River have “blocked access to 90 percent of the Spring Chinook salmon spawning habitat” (Norgaard, 2005). The need for power and food for the growing population has continuously out weighed the past food systems that have worked for hundreds of years.
Although I realize there are places around the world that are not as fortunate as the Willamette Valley with all the nutrient rich top soil and suitable climate for growing most things, these practices can be adapted for use worldwide. Natives would dry some of their salmon to have food until the next salmon run in the spring.
Past food systems are much more frugal and conscious about where their food is coming from. Americans and the rest of the world could learn a lot from the past (and current Native cultures) if they take the time to try and slow the food process, and find that connection to the food we get to enjoy.
References
Burke, Erik. “Food Systems in the Marys River Region and Reinhabitation.” (2002):142. Abstract. Web. 21 October 2013.
Norgaard, Kari, Ron Reed, and Carolina Van Horn. “The Production of Unequal Access, A Continuing Legacy.” (2005): 12. Web. 21 October 2013.
Ojibwa. “The Klamath River Salmon War.” Native American Netroots. 2012. Web. 21 October 2013.
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