A Gathering Basket Issue: 4

Issue 4

A Gathering Basket FROM THE I-COLLECTIVE A MULTI-MEDIA COOK BOOK

REMATR

RIATION

When you think about squash what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Is it the fried zucchini with corn, onion, garlic, and green chile so popular in the Southwest?

Spirals of squash drying in the sun with a fire going nearby to add smokiness for a winter stew? Maybe picking squash beetles off the leaves in your field or garden?

Perhaps if you lean towards the academic process you think of the Narragansett word “askutasquash” that gave us the word or the fact that the Indigenous peoples, of the so called americas, have been cultivating relationships with this family for well over 10,000 years. Whatever vision, smell, touch, or taste memories you have of our squash relatives we’d like to plant another seed in your memory banks and that is of Seed Rematriation.

To get a glimpse of what Seed Rematriation is, what it looks like in the cosmovision, and what it can be, we’ll be learning from four Matriarchs; Shelley Buffalo (Meskwaki), Jessika Greendeer (Ho Chunk), Becky Webster (Oneida) and Rowen White (Mohawk) about what it means to be on the frontlines of protecting our ancestral foods, being a voice for those that can’t speak for themselves, healing generational trauma, Indigenous resurgence in the face, and in spite, of colonialism, and why this work has to be that of community.

To help lay the foundation we look to the words of Rowen White and view the “concentric circles” inherent in Rematriation.

First the individual layer where “we take on the responsibility of healing from the trauma inflicted by the colonial project and finding our way back to our cosmology, looking to who we are, what we came here to do, what our responsibilities to our communities/clans are, and how to be good future ancestors and responsible living descendant.”

ROWAN WHITE, MOHAWK

Second the “community/collective commitment where we recognize this work can’t be done by individuals alone and that there is a communal grief we have to carry and hold together that recognizes that our commitment to water, land, seed, and these foods is actually a bundle of collective agreements we have with these beings that nourish us,” and afterwords, “what are the ways, as a community, we are brave enough to create new ceremonies to welcome these relatives home and create them so that the land can hear our voices and songs again while asking permission from them to do so.”

Lastly “sharing that story outward to guests and colonizers here in our homelands so they can have some understanding of what we’re moving towards to enable them to ethically support and engage in reparations and reconciliation” and to begin “the long game to compost the failures of settler colonialism and begin to dismantle it in a way that is enduring.”

Or as Shelley Buffalo put it, “Rematriation is like an exorcism.” This is a place where we “engage our traumas, confront lateral violence, and look to the root of community struggles and difficulties through the lens of their individual and collective suffering, and remembering Rematriation is foremost about healing.”

A place where the estimated 140 generations of lineal commitment to Meskwaki corn and “where holding an ear of corn is like having a conversation with your grandmothers for 1000’s of years,” holds more power than the patriarchy and its historical and continued war against Indigenous women’s power and to use this like “fire. Not to burn down but to make way.”

SHELLEY BUFFALO, MESKWAKI

Jessika Greendeer, farm manager and seed keeper at Dreams of Wild Health in Minneapolis and a U.S. Army combat veteran, shared that she sees it as, “A return to the feminine and recognition of women’s place as holders of Indigenous foodways and seeds.” To really speak to the connection between our plant relatives and ourselves she shared a story about being called to a squash from an Oscar H. Will seed catalog from the 1920’s, printing it, and hanging it on her wall in 2017. Fast forward a year and the Seed Savers Exchange is hosting its inaugural exchange with Indigenous Seedkeepers and……you guessed it! This very Ho Chunk squash is now in its third year being tended by the hands that recognized it through time. She also urges us to remember, “Everyone is needed! We all need each other; farmers, seedkeepers, fishers, gatherers, hunters, and chefs so don’t be overwhelmed with the task as we build for the next generation.”

Cultivating and saving their traditional seeds on a 10 acre farm at Oneida over the last 7 years, and growing Rematriated seed for the last 2, Becky Webster sees it as “a reclamation of identity.” Explaining that the Oneida lost their land twice, once through removal from their traditional territory and again when 95% of their landbase in Wisconsin was lost in a single generation, we can definitely see how such a passion comes about and it’s fitting that with Oneida being situated on traditional Menomonee territory that a squash of the people would find its way home to her.

Having Menomonee lineage as well it seems destined that alongside those relatives they would place this Rematriated seed back in the earth in its original homelands so it could take its place back with the people. This commitment echoes in her words when she says, “It’s our responsibility to care for them when they come home, to create a welcoming space for them when they get here, to grow them, and make them available to the people.”

Rematriation is also a process. Museums, universities, seed banks, and seed companies in possession of our seeds are historically not interested in the cultural relationships between Indigenous peoples and their plant relatives as can be seen even today in the USDA’s theft and genetic manipulation of the 4 Corners Potato.

Anyone from an Indigenous community that has tread into the waters of academia knows that it is a constant assault as well as an eye opener into the depths of white supremacist ideology. Look back at “salvage ethnography/anthropology” and you see a field that was created out of the assumption that our people would be extinct in a generation and sought to capture all things Indigenous before the colonial project

finished its job. These are the things that the individuals at the forefront of this movement contend with on a daily basis so that our relatives can find their way home to their people.

Now that we have a glimpse of what Rematriation is we have to look at WHY it is.

There’s a truth in warfare that if you destroy a people’s food systems you take away their ability to fight because hungry people don’t have the strength for anything but survival. The historical warfare against Indigenous foodways starts with the

MENOMONEE SQUASH

Spaniards nearly 530 years ago, into slash and burn campaigns, destruction of cultivated terrain such as the Great Plains, damning of watersheds, and continues today by enforcement of food apartheid on Reservation, through USDA control of meat processing and commodities programs, contamination of crops with GE/ GMO crosspollination and use of toxic chemicals that destroy the soil and pollinator species, lack of accountability and cleanup from mining companies for creation of toxic environments concentrated across Indian Country, and too many other weapons to speak of in this space.

With so much to process, and hopefully an appetite to learn more and become involved, our request is that on this journey home, towards our collective Indigeneigty, we can all commit to stand with these warriors and understand, to quote Rowen White, “The leaders of this movement are the seeds and our ancestors.”

Ingredients:

Squash Pudding Bars

Squash or Pumpkin-Cooked and Pureed Maple Syrup Sunflower Oil Eggs Vanilla Finely Ground Pepita Cassava Flour Cornmeal Baking Soda Cinnamon Ginger Allspice Salt Pepitas Prepared Chokecherry Jam

1x (1/2 sheet)

32 oz 1 1/2 Cup 1/3 Cup 8 ea.

2 tsp 1 1/3 cup 2 Cup 1 1/2 Cup 2 tsp 3 tsp 2 tsp 2 tsp 1 tsp Garnish About 1/2 -3/4 Cup

1/2 Batch 9 inch round pan 16 oz 3/4 cup 1/3 cup 4 ea 1 tsp .5 +.15 cup pepita 1 Cup 3/4 1 tsp 1.5 tsp 1 tsp 1tsp .5 tsp Garnish

CLICK IMAGE FOR VIDEO!

Method: Whisk together pumpkin, maple, vanilla, and eggs whisk in dry ingredients except whole seeds and jam. pour onto sheet tray or pan, pipe or scoop Jam into circles over bars, then swirl with a knife, sprinkle pepitas on top, bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until bars look set and begin pulling from the sides of pan.

“The squash bar recipe was made to an extremely versatile BREAKFAST BAR. Most of the ingredients can be substituted with what you have o hand. They were originally made wi a blend of Wild Rice, Roasted Corn and Mesquite Flour.”

Recipe b Kristina Stanle

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This publication is made possible by the following supporters and sponsors:

Gratitudes: CONTRIBUTORS Shelley Buffalo Jessika Greendeer Becky Webster Rowen White Kristina Stanley Quentin Glabus

A GATHERING BASKET STAFF M. Karlos Baca, Written Content Curator Britt Reed, Image Curator Trennie Collins, Creative Director Quentin Glabus, Video Curator Kristina Stanley, Program Manager