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Indigenous Food Systems as Models for Conservation & Restoration

 

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Curriculum Level: 9-12

By Andrea Caruso, Durham Academy, Durham, North Carolina

OVERVIEW OF LESSON:
Globally, Indigenous communities currently, or have historically, relied upon and stewarded biodiverse ecosystems for food procurement. In this lesson, students will explore projects seeking to restore agricultural and wild harvest methods in various parts of the United States. They will learn the historical context of why such practices were prohibited, despite their ecological benefits. Moreover, they will explore how Indigenous communities serve as effective conservation agents for biodiversity, even in seemingly “extractive” food systems. Students will be able to engage other learners with data, visuals, and narrative information about what they learned during their research.

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVELS: Grades 10-12

SUBJECTS: Environmental Science (AP, full-year or semester electives), Earth & Environmental Science

CORRESPONDING NATIONAL AND/OR STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA STANDARDS:

NC Department of Public Instruction – Earth & Environmental Standards 
EEn.2.2. Understand how human influences impact the lithosphere.

EEn.2.2.1. Explain the consequences of human activities on the lithosphere (such as mining, deforestation, agriculture, overgrazing, urbanization, and land use) past and present.

EEn.2.7. Explain how the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere individually and collectively affect the biosphere.

EEn.2.7.2 – Explain why biodiversity is important to the biosphere.

EEn.2.7.3 – Explain how human activities impact the biosphere

EEn.2.8. Evaluate human behaviors in terms of how likely they are to ensure the ability to live sustainably on Earth.

EEn.2.8.1  – Critique conventional and sustainable agriculture and aquaculture practices in terms of their environmental impacts.

NMAI Essential Understandings  

#3 – People, Places and the Environment

Key Concepts:

  • The story of American Indians in the Western Hemisphere is intricately intertwined with places and environments. Native knowledge systems resulted from long-term occupation of tribal homelands, and observation and interaction with places. American Indians understood and valued the relationship between local environments and cultural traditions, and recognized that human beings are part of the environment.

#7 – Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Key Concepts:

  • Today, American Indians are involved in a variety of economic enterprises, set economic policies for their nations, and own and manage natural resources that affect the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services throughout much of the United States.

#8 – Science, Technology and Society

Key Concepts:

  • American Indian knowledge reflects a relationship developed over millennia with the living earth based on keen observation, experimentation, and practice.
  • American Indian knowledge allowed American Indians to live productive, innovative, and sustainable lives in the diverse environments of the Western Hemisphere.
  • American Indian knowledge allowed American Indians to live productive, innovative, and sustainable lives in the diverse environments of the Western Hemisphere.
  • Much American Indian knowledge was destroyed in the years after contact with Europeans. Nevertheless, the intergenerational transfer of traditional knowledge, the recovery of cultural practices, and the creation of new knowledge continue in American Indian communities today.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

  1. What are examples of Indigenous groups’ food sources, agricultural practices, and methods of procuring wild plant-based foods and game?
  2. What were some of the factors contributing to these practices being discontinued, prohibited, or only practiced on a small scale?
  3. What are examples of reinvigorated Indigenous food system practices in the United States, and how are they different from conventional agriculture practices?
  4. In what ways do Indigenous communities practice environmental stewardship within their food systems, and what can we learn from them?

LESSON OBJECTIVES:

  • Students will understand that communities rely on healthy, intact, biodiverse ecosystems for survival
  • Students will understand that, as indicated in Tauli-Corpuz, et al. (2020), Indigenous communities, “generally have strong ties to lands and forests they depend on, and many have developed locally adapted institutions that are positively associated with high biodiversity in lands and fresh-water systems managed by them”.
  • Students will understand, through exploration of examples of Indigenous food systems, how Indigenous methods of food procurement different from practices in conventional agriculture.
  • Students will be able to engage other learners with data, visuals, and narrative information about what they learned during their research

BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE EDUCATOR or RESOURCES TO EXPLORE FURTHER:

SPECIFIC STUDENT STRATEGIES & ACTIVITIES:

  1. Provide context for the unit’s activities by introducing common conventional agricultural and fishing practices; summarize their advantages and disadvantages (suggested timing: 30-minutes background reading, 45-60-minute class period to summarize concepts). As a class, students develop a summary of conventional agriculture practices’ potential impacts on biodiversity (e.g., monocultures reduce genetic and species diversity).
    1. Utilize Kew Gardens’ Green Revolution description as a reference. Define other practices such as Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Emphasize that the goal of many of these practices is to maximize yield, often with little regard for the well-being of native organisms, soil and water quality
  2. Introduce the idea of “sustainability” through an alternative approach and mindset to food procurement (e.g., picking berries), practiced by Indigenous people (suggested timing: 45-60-minute class period, ~30-minute reading & note-taking for homework)
      1. View the first thirteen minutes of Honorable Harvest as explained by Robin Wall Kimmerer. 
      2. Students will have three minutes of solo reflection to write as much as they can of what they learned or thought about the video.
      3. Identify the tenets of the Honorable Harvest.
      4. Discuss and summarize – is this the dominant model for producing or acquiring food? If not, what makes the Honorable Harvest different from the way we obtain food? How can these practices help to preserve food resources, reduce environmental impacts of food harvest, etc?
      5. Homework Assignment #1: for next class students will be reading Rewilding Tribal Lands with questions to address:
        1. Pick three examples of species conservation efforts from the text. What historical events created the need for the specific species conservation efforts?
        2. How were Indigenous people affected by the decline of these organisms?
        3. How were their populations being restored?
  1. Project pre-research reading, discussion & reflection (suggested timing: One 45-60-minute class period):
    1. Referencing reading from previous homework, and their completed summary questions, create a 3:2:1 with post-it boards in the classroom. Boards can be labeled with species identified in the text (e.g., sicklefin redhorse, bison, elk) and/or be organized by the following prompts:
        • Share three new things you learned
        • Share two questions you have
        • Share one thing that surprised you/that stood out
    2. Provide students with three minutes for a “gallery walk” to view their classmates’ responses.
    3. Come to a consensus on the most important takeaways, address additional questions
      Examples:

      1. humans’ relationship with the natural environment and wild organisms is more of a partnership or kinship than a relationship between resource and extractor
      2. returning land to Indigenous people is an essential part of efforts to manage herd animals
      3. protecting water quality protects fish
      4. wild prey species have kinship with Indigenous tribes and are part of their cultural identities.
    4. Develop a vocabulary list of new terms that came up in the text.
  1. Poster research project (suggested timing: Total of two class periods for introduction and in-class research, two ~30-minute homework periods)
    1. Divide students into research groups (2-3 students suggested)
    2. Introduction to the research project and selection of case study (listed below) by each research group.
    3. Review examples of posters and visuals that summarize restoration efforts. Assess each poster for effectiveness in providing details of the effort, and garnering public support:

Case study 1: Kelp farming on Long Island for coastal water quality and natural resources

Case study 2: Three sisters farming practices to restore soil, crop biodiversity, and health
Review from previous units: environmental impacts of conventional agricultural practices             

Case Study 3: Tribal Salmon & Steelhead Co-management 
Alternative: Lumi Nation Salmon conservation strategies

Case Study 4: Reviving local food production systems in Hawaii 

Case Study 5: Ojibwe Wild Rice cultivation and wetland restoration

*Additional case studies may be selected by student groups to broaden their choices; must be approved by teacher and demonstrate availability of robust suite of research resources for that case study

5. Class-time presentations and gallery walks (suggested timing: on 45-60-minute class & final homework assignment)

    1. Each research group will provide a 1 to 1.5 minute “elevator pitch” style presentation sharing key details of their research
    2. Students in the whole class will have 10-15 minutes for a gallery walk to complete individual graphic organizers and peer review (anonymously submit 1 point of praise, 1 point of polish for each research group (can be submitted via google form or submission boxes at each poster station)
    3. Final step in project: for homework, students complete and submit post-poster session reflection in the next class.
    4. End of sequence.

 ASSESSMENTS:

  1. Homework Assignment #1 Indigenous Food Systems: Submission of reading summary question responses from reading in STRATEGIES & ACTIVITIES step 2 as formative assessment/homework credit.
  2. Research project and poster description: Research and poster completed in small groups (2-3 students).  Summative assessment credit.
  3. Classwork/Homework Assignment #2: complete graphic organizer and peer review.

LEARNING EXTENSIONS:

Advocacy letter project: Students can write letters or emails to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians – Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources in support of conservation efforts for specific species researched and protected via the work of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.

Explore film and text resources from the Global Oneness Project. Relevant films include:
They Take Care Of Us – 10 minute Film about buffalo restoration
The Seeds are Our Children – 11 minute film about Hopi dry land farming practices

MATERIALS:

REFERENCES:

American responses to environmental challenges: Leech lake ojibwe [Video]. (n.d.). National Museum of the American Indian. https://americanindian.si.edu/environment/ojibwe/Strategies.cshtml

Boutsikaris, C., Palmer, A. (Directors). (2021). The seeds are our children [Film]. Kalliopeia Foundation and the Namaste Foundation. Retrieved April 30, 2024 from https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/seeds-are-our-children

Boutsikaris, C., Palmer, A. (Directors). (2021). They take care of us [Film]. Kalliopeia Foundation and the Namaste Foundation. Retrieved April 30, 2024 from ​​https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/they-take-care-us

Brewer, G. (2022, August 18). Back to the future: the green revolution. Royal Botanic Gardens: Kew. Retrieved March 15, 2024, https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/back-to-the-future-green-revolution

Great lakes restoration initiative education posters: great lakes forest poster (n.d.). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/indu/learn/education/glri-posters.htm

Hill, C. G. (2020, November 21). Regrowing indigenous agriculture could nourish people, cultures and the land. Rural America In These Times. Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://inthesetimes.com/article/regrow-native-american-agriculture-three-sisters-farming

Kimmerer, R. W. (2012, August 18). Reclaiming the honorable harvest [Video]. Youtube.com. https://youtu.be/Lz1vgfZ3etE?si=CJIZdeKuYpTUqBYj

Levin, A. (2022, spring). The breath of life: Traditional Hawaiian farmers are reviving “aloha aina”, love of the land. American Indian Magazine. 23 (2). Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/the-breath-of-life 

Miller, E. (2022, spring). ​​Rewilding tribal lands: wildlife restoration can heal ecosystems and native communities. American Indian Magazine. 23 (1). Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/rewilding-tribal-lands 

Montenegro, M., Shattuck, A., Sbicca, J. (2019, July 3). US agriculture needs a 21st century new deal. The Conversation. Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://theconversation.com/us-agriculture-needs-a-21st-century-new-deal-112757

Natural Resources (n.d.). Official government website of the eastern band of the Cherokee.  https://ebci.com/services/departments/department-of-agricultural-natural-resources/natural-resources/

Protecting bison (n.d.). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/protecting-bison.htm

Publications (n.d.) North Carolina wildlife resources commission. https://www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/Publications#109412224-nongame-publications

Robins, J. (2021, June 3). How returning lands to native tribes is helping protect nature. Yale Environment 360. Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-returning-lands-to-native-tribes-is-helping-protect-nature

Salmon and steelhead co-management. (n.d.). Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/tribal/co-management

The State of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Lands and Territories: A technical review of the state of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ lands, their contributions to global biodiversity conservation and
ecosystem services, the pressures they face, and recommendations for actions Gland, Switzerland. (2021). World Wildlife Fund. https://wwflac.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/
report_the_state_of_the_indigenous_peoples_and_local_communities_lands_and_territ
ories_1.pdf

Tomassoni, T. (2023, Spring). A sisterhood of the sea. American Indian Magazine. 24 (1). Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/Shinnecock-kelp-farmers

World View, a public service program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, equips K-12 and community college educators with global knowledge, best practices and resources to prepare students to engage in our interconnected and diverse world.

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