WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:03.640 We're freezing prices for two years in the Virgin Media playhouse. 2 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:07.240 Switch to our super fast, reliable broadband now and freeze 3 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.279 your prices or law broadband offers for twenty four months 4 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:13.640 from just thirty five euro month with no activation fee. 5 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:17.760 Switch in store or at Virgin Media dot I Virgin Media. 6 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:18.879 It's playtime. 7 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:22.000 Tcenc's applies subject to availability new broadband customers and twenty 8 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.120 four month contracts only. You won't receive a price increase 9 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:26.039 with the duration of this contract from thirty five euro 10 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:29.160 month for twenty four months seventy euro thereafter. Nce February eighteenth, 11 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:30.039 twenty twenty six. 12 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:32.880 Get value you can't argue with at Tesco with their 13 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:35.719 amazing club card prices. Have the perfect night in with 14 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:38.880 their finest frozen pizza meal deal. Get a finest frozen pizza, 15 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.799 chips and ice cream all for six euro. Like our 16 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:44.960 delicious spicy salami, hot honey and do Ya or Margarito 17 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.159 wood fired pizzas, served up with their crispy chunkie chips 18 00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:51.399 and ice cream like sea salta caramel or pistachio for dessert. 19 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:55.240 Can't argue with that shop in store or online. Tesco 20 00:00:55.719 --> 00:00:59.039 every little helps available in most stories. Prices vary in express. 21 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:00.520 Oh. 22 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.479 Hi, hi, it's that mechanical pencil that's out of lead. 23 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:06.640 Oh wait, click click, wait, oh look there you go, 24 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:10.280 alli word. I hope you're hungry for a small, bite 25 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.400 sized version of indigenous cooking. So this is an episode 26 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:18.640 of smologies, and smologies are shorter edited episodes of longer 27 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:20.760 full length episodes, but we cut out all the swear 28 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:22.879 words and we make it safe for all ages. If 29 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:25.719 you're looking for the full version, it's linked right in 30 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:27.799 the show notes. But if you're here for smologies, you're 31 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:30.519 in the right place. This episode's great. It's just a 32 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.439 wonderful romp through time and identity and history and culture 33 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:35.879 and food with someone who you may know as in 34 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:41.040 digit Kitchen Online Indigenous Digital Kitchen Online cooking lessons in 35 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:42.959 digit Kitchen. Can you dig it? You can? 36 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:43.280 So. 37 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:46.439 This guest is of both Begani Blackfeet and Cherokee heritage, 38 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:49.400 and is based on the one point five million acre 39 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.120 black Feet Reservation in northwestern Montana. I was so excited 40 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:56.079 to get to know her, and I was nervous because 41 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:58.519 she's very cool, and I had a bunch of questions 42 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.439 and I didn't want to be annoying. You know what, 43 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:04.079 after all that worrying, I was annoying and I did 44 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:06.879 ask embarrassing questions. But she rolled with it because she's 45 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:09.080 awesome and that's what I'm here for. Okay, but let's 46 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:12.759 get on with it. Indigenous Queisonology which is the study 47 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.960 of a culture through its food, and indigenous comes from 48 00:02:16.039 --> 00:02:19.800 a Latin root for indeed, genus, which is sprung from 49 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:22.360 the land or native. You're gonna love her, Your love 50 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:25.000 her work so much, Okay, So belly up, stuff a 51 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.800 napkin into your collar. Boy, howdy, get hungry for stories 52 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:35.560 involving fallen stars, mushroom, DIBs, food, sovereignty, squash, acorns, flower bulbs, bison, 53 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:40.000 The Wildest of Rice's meditations on fry bread, and how 54 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.599 cooking with native foods isn't part of a past but 55 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:47.560 an essential aspect of the future. With environmental scientist, engineer, 56 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:52.400 cooking show host and advocate Mariah Gladstone, soligious. 57 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:08.360 Pology con cheu mon jeez. 58 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:10.120 My name is Mariah Gladstone. 59 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:14.400 She her and now You're based in northwest Montana. 60 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.840 Yep. I'm on the Blackfeet Reservation just south of the 61 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:22.360 Canadian border. I'm about five minutes outside the eastern entrance 62 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:23.639 to Glacier National Park. 63 00:03:24.039 --> 00:03:24.639 Yeah, okay. 64 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.960 You know, when you're coming up with recipes, are you 65 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:32.479 really kind of basing it on rather than maybe hyperlocal? 66 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:36.039 Are you looking for seasonal types of foods that might 67 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.360 be traditional to whatever season is coming up, or how 68 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:41.960 do you plan your the recipes that you're gonna film 69 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:42.919 and shoot and disseminate. 70 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:47.879 That's a great question. Yeah, it's a combination of regional things, 71 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:53.680 especially when I'm doing really old or ancestral recipes, things 72 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.319 that would have been made very similar to the way 73 00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:59.280 that I'm showcasing them. And in that case, of course, 74 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:02.680 you're looking for a whole bunch of ingredients that would 75 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:05.639 have been found in the same area. We're thinking of 76 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:09.199 foods that are in season right now, so of course 77 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:13.759 it is the time of winter squashes, and it's the 78 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:18.160 time of pumpkins, and it's hunting season, and there's all 79 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:21.480 of these wonderful foods that are available now. It's after ricing, 80 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:25.920 so people have fresh, parched wild rice, and it's fun 81 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.240 to incorporate those all at the same time. Even though now, 82 00:04:28.279 --> 00:04:31.480 of course, we have ways of preserving foods. So I 83 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:34.480 have picked berries from August, but I can pull them 84 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.240 out at any time and use them for things because 85 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:39.680 I have them in the freezer, I have them dehydrated 86 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.759 or whatever that may be. But also I recognize, you know, 87 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:46.879 Indigenous people are living in the twenty first century with 88 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:50.480 everyone else, and we have always used the tools that 89 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:53.040 we have access to. And right now, maybe that's a 90 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:56.079 big chest freezer. Maybe that's an instapot. Maybe that is 91 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:59.399 a coffee grinder that can blend sunflower seeds into flower 92 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:00.839 at lightnings ps. 93 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:03.079 While we recorded this, I was like, oh, what recipe? 94 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:05.480 Use is sunflower butter? So I didn't want to interrupt her, 95 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:07.959 but if your stomach just gurgled in curiosity, I looked 96 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.199 it up. She has a sunflower butter popcorn recipe that 97 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:13.040 involves honey and maple syrup, and the note that this 98 00:05:13.079 --> 00:05:15.920 stuff is addictive. I'm willing to take the risk. 99 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.040 Whatever it is, we are able to recognize that ancestral 100 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:27.319 wisdom and the indigenous brilliance of agriculture or harvesting or 101 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:30.439 foraging or hunting or whatever it may be, along with 102 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:34.079 our presence in this day. 103 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.199 You mentioned a little bit about how the diets veered 104 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:43.720 off based on what was available and cheaper, less healthy foods. 105 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:47.120 People hear indigenous food and they think frybread. 106 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:49.920 Does that just make you want to rage? Ever, to be. 107 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:54.319 Honest, side note, frybread is this pillowy, oil bathed white 108 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:57.439 flower comfort food and it's used as a taco base 109 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:00.600 or even as like this honey drizzled dessert. But it's 110 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.600 been in the hot seat. So how does an expert 111 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:06.399 feel about its place on the food landscape. 112 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:09.680 You know, it's funny because frybread, of course, came from 113 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.759 a period of time where Native people were dependent on 114 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:19.319 government rations, which were like shelf stable processed boxes of 115 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:22.879 food that were distributed to households and they weren't things 116 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:25.079 we recognized as food, so we made something out of 117 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:30.040 them because survival, and that's what where friybread came from. 118 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:36.680 So I will say that frybread is a traditional food 119 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.839 in that it's part of our history and it got 120 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:41.839 us through a period of time that would have otherwise 121 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:47.560 met starvation. But there is a tendency of oppressed people 122 00:06:48.279 --> 00:06:52.800 to mistake our oppression for our culture, and I think 123 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:55.759 that's kind of what people do with friedbread or commodity, 124 00:06:55.879 --> 00:07:00.199 cheese or whatever thing that has become part of these 125 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:04.560 subsidized food systems. And so I don't I don't spend 126 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.360 a lot of time trashing fry bread. So rather than 127 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:11.560 focusing on all this negative stuff, we just focus on 128 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:13.879 all of the resources that we do have, the things 129 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:15.720 that we do have access to, whether it be in 130 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:20.839 our grocery stores or in our communities, or in the 131 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:22.920 lands that we can forage, or the things that we 132 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:26.879 can grow in our soils, whatever it may be, those 133 00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:29.040 are the things that I focus on and really tie 134 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:35.279 it all back to the incredible wisdom that has put 135 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:38.959 those things in place, that has helped us recognize. You know, 136 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:43.000 corn corns edible, right, but the ways in which we 137 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:46.240 eat corn now are not traditionally how they were eaten. 138 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:50.199 Our ancestors recognized that corn had to be treated with 139 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:52.480 this process of niche timalization. 140 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:55.240 Why does it mixed amalization. 141 00:07:56.120 --> 00:07:59.560 It's called nextimalization and it comes from the indigenous and 142 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:04.160 Wantlau meaning lime ashes and tamal for corn dough. 143 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:08.480 So nick stimilization this process of treating corn with a 144 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:11.879 highly alkaline solution that you make from adding wood ash 145 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:15.399 to water and it chemically dissolves the hull of the corn, 146 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.600 and that transforms the bound and n iosin into free niosin, 147 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:23.680 and you have amazing indigenous chemistry happening, while also recognizing 148 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:26.800 that you've now added way more nutritional value to the 149 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:29.560 corn and the wood ash has added calcium which is 150 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.720 way more absorbable than the calcium and dairy for example, 151 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:34.480 And all of that. 152 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:40.519 Has taken generations of indigenous knowledge to put in place. 153 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:45.679 And when you are finding out about how food was 154 00:08:45.720 --> 00:08:49.200 processed and cooked and used, what kind of sources do 155 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:55.159 you usually go for? Are you like pouring through biochemistry journals? 156 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:57.080 And what is it like when you when you find 157 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.639 out something new that you hadn't known before. 158 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:04.200 Oh, it's it's funny because I'm of course, I'm living 159 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:08.720 on the Black Hate Reservation, so I have cultural connections here. 160 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:15.120 I have indigenous botanists that are super informed and have 161 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:18.720 a lot of information themselves. But I also I'm a 162 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:24.519 graduate student and I can occasionally approach things from an 163 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.639 academic side. Sometimes I get information just by reaching out 164 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:33.840 to Native chefs and asking questions, especially if it's from 165 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:38.279 a community that I don't have knowledge of. So if 166 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:41.440 you're talking with plant folks, they might say, oh, yeah, 167 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.279 this plant is edible. Great, what part of the plant 168 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:49.559 when do you harvest it? You know, Camus roots, for example, 169 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:51.279 Camus bulbs are edible. 170 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:52.320 What are these? 171 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.720 Okay, I'd never heard of them, but they are plant 172 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:59.440 friends in the asparagus family, and they're flowers sometimes carpet 173 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:03.399 whole beautiful meadows with these lilac or white or deep 174 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:07.080 violet blooms. And then the root, the bulb tastes like 175 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:10.080 a freaking baked pear, So go find them just by 176 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:11.600 blossom spotting, right. 177 00:10:12.039 --> 00:10:17.759 No, but it is more traditional for people to wait 178 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:20.759 until after they've bloomed, which makes them a little bit 179 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:23.840 harder to identify. And then you also have to know 180 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:26.879 what it could be mistaken as, like death cavas, which 181 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:29.480 is a white flower versus a blue flower. But if 182 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:32.879 they're not blooming when you're harvesting them, that's hard to tell. 183 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.840 And then you have to know, of course, how to 184 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.559 cook it. And for camus, it's really really high in inulin. 185 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:40.200 Okay. 186 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:42.639 Inulin is a fiber. And I'm going to read between 187 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:46.159 her lines here and break the windy news. She's talking farts. 188 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:51.080 People delicious, creamy sweet. Inulin has a price, and it's 189 00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:53.320 ripping hot once for days. 190 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:56.279 And so you have to basically slow cook these or 191 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.159 roast these for an extended amount of time. And traditionally 192 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:01.559 that was done in a big hit underground and they'd 193 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.320 be roasted for up to forty eight hours until basically 194 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:07.600 the sugars are caramelizing, and how the inulin's been processed 195 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:10.399 down so your body can digest it. That's not something 196 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:13.200 that it says if you're like Camas, bulbs are edible, right, 197 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:17.200 so all of that information has to go along with it, 198 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.600 or else the resource is incomplete. You know, just knowing 199 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:25.679 that something is edible doesn't necessarily help as a resource 200 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:29.320 all the time because sometimes it can be dangerous. So, 201 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:34.039 for example, choke cherries are edible, but the pits and 202 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:38.279 choke cherries contain cyanide. But the pits were traditionally eaten 203 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:44.159 by Blackfeet and Lakota and other people that traditionally eat 204 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:47.919 and choke cherries. Because we took choke cherries smashed them 205 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:52.879 with a rock in their entirety into little choke cherry pancakes, right, 206 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:56.679 We basically made little fruit patties and then We dried 207 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:00.000 them until they were dehydrated, and then now they're dried out. 208 00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:02.919 They're very packable. They keep for a long time, but 209 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:06.240 that drying process neutralizes the cyanide in them. So you 210 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:10.480 can eat the pits because now they've been smashed into oblivion, 211 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:12.879 and also the scyanide is not going to harm you. 212 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:13.799 Wow. 213 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:19.200 What about some myths that you commonly encounter that you 214 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:22.480 love to bust? Like, is it flim flam that the 215 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:25.279 North American indigenous diet is mostly acorns? 216 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:28.840 It's not all acorns? Maybe acorns? 217 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:30.720 Acorns are all edible? 218 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:31.559 Mm hmm. 219 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:37.120 I was just gonna say, I mean I don't come 220 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:43.879 from I don't come from any acorn eating people. That 221 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:45.919 sounds weird, Okay. 222 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.759 So I grew up in California and it's golden foothills 223 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:50.919 are studded with oak trees. I love them so much. 224 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.360 I grew up collecting acorns for school projects. So I 225 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:58.519 thought it was a national teaching that indigenous foods were 226 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:01.879 all acorn based, So that must be a myth. Turns 227 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:07.200 out it's incredibly regional. Of course, Like Durward, did I 228 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:09.840 embarrass myself? Sure a little bit. So go text your 229 00:13:09.879 --> 00:13:12.320 crush cut. Some banks ask the questions to the stuff 230 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:12.759 you don't know. 231 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:16.799 That's really interesting to me because I think that obviously, 232 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.120 in Montana, so much of our education is buffalo bison. 233 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.919 And then on the East Coast where my partner's from, 234 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:29.720 he's hodn ashone Onondaga from New York, and so a 235 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:33.799 lot of their discussions about indigenous food are about the 236 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.440 three Sisters, which is of course corn beans and squash. 237 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:41.399 Coming from a very different agricultural community, which is similar 238 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:45.879 to how my mom's people, Cherokee, traditionally grew food as well. 239 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:49.279 Up in the Great Lakes region, it's probably all focused 240 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:52.399 about wild rice and rice and culture. And then you 241 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.840 know down in the Southwest you get more corn beans 242 00:13:55.919 --> 00:14:00.000 and squash, but also there's sunflowers all over that people 243 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:05.000 have incorporated as and bread specifically to have very large 244 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:10.799 edible seeds, and cactuses Like cactuses don't get talked a 245 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:14.320 lot about unless you're in Mexico, in which case everyone's like, oh, yeah, 246 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:18.080 I know, pals. But then we have prickly pear cacti 247 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:24.919 in Montana and those produce the same edible fruit, and 248 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.320 that is a treat for black feet people. It's so 249 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.000 regional and that's the fun part of it. I don't 250 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:35.440 know if people have a lot of misconceptions about native food. 251 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:40.279 I think probably most people think potatoes came from Ireland, 252 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:44.440 for example, and that's a big South American indigenous food. 253 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:48.279 Regardless of your type of potatoes. The Incan Empire had 254 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:56.360 a massive agricultural knowledge about potatoes and there were and 255 00:14:56.440 --> 00:15:00.639 still are, thousands of varieties of potatoes. Tomatoes, of course, 256 00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:06.360 aren't indigenous food. Italians didn't have tomatoes until they were 257 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:14.159 traded back to Italy with Columbus and future generations of folks. 258 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.279 I can make spaghetti, okay. 259 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:21.960 So we have questions from listeners if I may ask them, yes, okay, 260 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:23.799 But before we do, we always shout out a cause 261 00:15:23.799 --> 00:15:27.440 of the ologists choosing. And this is for Fast Blackfeet. 262 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:30.639 It's Food Access and Sustainability Team, which is a group 263 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:34.360 of community leaders and health professionals and educators within the 264 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:37.440 Blackfeet Nation who are dedicated to identifying food and security 265 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:41.679 in their community, offering effective solutions related to access to 266 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:46.000 healthy food and nutrition, education, and addressing food sovereignty. And 267 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.840 so this week the donation went specifically to them. I'm 268 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:51.120 so stoked that this podcast in the community of folks 269 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:53.559 were able to make that possible, along with sponsors of 270 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:55.799 the show who I genuinely like. And then we take 271 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:56.919 some of that money we give away. 272 00:15:57.639 --> 00:16:01.120 We're freezing prices for two years in the verte Media playhouse. 273 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:04.679 Switch to our super fast, reliable broadband now and freeze 274 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:07.759 your prices or law broadband offers for twenty four months 275 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.120 from just thirty five euro month with no activation fee. 276 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:15.240 Switch in store or at Virgin Media dot I Virgin Media. 277 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:16.320 It's playtime. 278 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:19.480 Tcenc's apply subject to availability new broadband customers and twenty 279 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:21.600 four month contracts only. You won't receive a price increase 280 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:23.559 for the duration of this contract from thirty five euro 281 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:26.679 month for twenty four months seventy euro thereafter. N February eighteenth, 282 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:27.519 twenty twenty six. 283 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:30.360 Get value you can't argue with at Tesco with their 284 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:33.240 amazing club card prices. Have the perfect night in with 285 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:36.399 their finest frozen pizza meal deal. Get a finest frozen pizza, 286 00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:39.240 chips and ice cream all for six euro. Like our 287 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:42.679 delicious spicy salami, hot honey and Doya or Margarito wood 288 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.919 fired pizzas served up with their crispy chunkie chips and 289 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:48.879 ice cream like sea salta caramel or pistachio for dessert. 290 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:52.639 Can't argue with that shop in store or online tesco. 291 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:56.879 Every little helps available in most stories, Prices varying express. 292 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:02.039 Okay your questions. Dan wants to know what role do 293 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:05.480 mushrooms play typically in indigenous foods. 294 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:09.559 Oh, that's such a good question. It depends so much regionally. 295 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:13.920 But here it's interesting because you know, as I said, 296 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:19.079 I'm up in Montana, and so we have really fortunate 297 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:22.519 we have morels that grow, especially in our old burnt forests, 298 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:26.599 and so that's a really fun activity for folks to 299 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.680 go out and do, is harvest morels a few years 300 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:33.799 after fires come through. But we also have puffballs, and 301 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:38.880 puffballs are of course these big mushrooms that grow mostly 302 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:42.640 out on the prairies. But there is actually a story 303 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:48.519 that goes back that talks about a earth woman marrying 304 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:51.480 a sky man and when she came back down to 305 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:55.240 Earth and gave birth, there was a rule that her 306 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:59.119 baby wasn't supposed to touch the ground for five days, 307 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:04.480 and on the fifth day, his grandma, the girl's mother, 308 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:09.960 was watching the baby and she wasn't really watching him 309 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:12.759 that well. And so the mom came back into the 310 00:18:12.839 --> 00:18:16.079 lodge and was looking for her baby, and she's, oh, 311 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:18.319 he's under that blanket, and she lifted up the blanket 312 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:20.799 and instead of a baby being there, it was a puffball, 313 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:24.200 and the baby had been turned into a puffball. And 314 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:26.599 that's how we got puffballs. And so now on some 315 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:31.400 black Feet painted lodge designs, you'll see these circles, and 316 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:36.640 they're bright white circles on a colorful background. 317 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:38.640 And real quick. So a lodge is what most non 318 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.799 natives generally see and call a teepee, although a teepee 319 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:44.279 is a word from a different nation the Dakota folks. 320 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:46.960 Now in Blackfeet language, it would be called a natali 321 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:50.839 or a lodge. But some individuals designs look like a 322 00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:54.079 band along the bottom with this graphic row of big 323 00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:54.880 pulka dots. 324 00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:56.799 But they're puffballs. 325 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:00.000 They're mushrooms, is what they represent, and of course they're 326 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.559 there's so many other indigenous peoples with different types of mushrooms, 327 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:09.359 but we definitely have recognized mushrooms as part of traditional diets. 328 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:12.920 I was just reading a Cherokee story from my mom's 329 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:18.160 people the other day, about a type of mushroom, and 330 00:19:18.759 --> 00:19:22.640 our Cherokee stories tell us they say, once you see 331 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:26.000 the mushroom, it will stop growing, but if you put 332 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:29.359 a stick through it, then it will keep growing. But 333 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:32.160 it was interesting because I was reading this translation of 334 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:36.759 this Cherokee text and they also said, in other words, 335 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:39.680 if you see a mushroom with a stick through it, 336 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.640 it means it's already been claimed and you have to 337 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:44.640 leave it alone. But if it doesn't have a stick 338 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:47.759 through it, then you can claim it and you can 339 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:51.960 come back when it's ready to harvest. Okay, I see 340 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.440 what you did there. And so I was like, oh, okay, 341 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:57.160 that makes sense. But it's funny because they translated what 342 00:19:57.200 --> 00:19:59.559 that principle was. It was like, we don't actually think 343 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.319 the mush going to stop growing. This is just how 344 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:04.359 you claim it. But like that's what the story is 345 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:06.599 and that's why it relates. And so it's cool. But 346 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:08.680 it's a delicacy. And then they talked about how to 347 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:10.799 cook it up and you know, fry it and a 348 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:14.400 little bit of animal fat and bread it with a 349 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:18.240 little bit of corn meal or something. So there's definitely 350 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:21.200 traditional stories with fungi. 351 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:24.599 That's wonderful to think of paintings of just big puffballs. 352 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:26.720 I thought this was a great question. This is from 353 00:20:26.759 --> 00:20:29.160 Stephanie Shirley, who is a first time question asker and 354 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:32.880 tone How do you propose natives decolonizing our diet when 355 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.240 most reservations are food deserts and lack of resources to 356 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:37.680 fresh fruits and vegetables and planting crops in a drought 357 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:41.319 is costly in an already economically disadvantaged community. 358 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:45.599 So food deserts, of course are It's a term used 359 00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:49.559 by the USDA to define people's distance from a place 360 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:52.519 where they can buy food, like a grocery store, and 361 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:56.319 of course grocery stores on reservations have their own challenges 362 00:20:56.359 --> 00:21:01.680 within the food distribution system, including of course the last 363 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:05.440 mile transport costs, so a lot of high premiums added 364 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:08.920 to fresh foods like fruits and vegetables, for example, so 365 00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:12.920 that in itself can be a challenge to navigate. That said, 366 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:18.440 there are a lot of foods that folks likely do 367 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:22.880 have within their communities. Wherever you're living, whether it's a 368 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:28.640 true desert or not, there are foods that people have 369 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.240 been eating there four thousands of years, and so sometimes 370 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:34.960 it's just learning some of the plants in your area, 371 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:37.680 even if it's just little plants that you know that 372 00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:40.359 you can harvest and dry and make tea out of later. 373 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:44.559 That's something that can bring you connection to your landscape. 374 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:50.920 So for example, here we have yarrow, which is a 375 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:54.119 great plant grows all over the northern hemisphere, has a 376 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:56.799 flavor profile similar to tragon, so it could be used 377 00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:59.839 as a spice or it can be dried and made 378 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:02.319 in to a tea. Lots of people grow in places 379 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:05.599 that have wild mints. That's something to know. You learn 380 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:08.559 to identify whatever wild onions are in your area. There's 381 00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:11.039 so many types of wild onions that grow all around. 382 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:14.400 If you have any types of fruit trees, you know 383 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:19.319 berries obviously, nut trees, whether they're black walnuts or hickory nuts, 384 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:23.200 those nice beautiful shelled tree nuts like pecans, those are 385 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:27.640 all indigenous foods acorns. Learn how to process them. So 386 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:30.680 there's foods that are out there, and I love folks 387 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:33.400 getting out and just connecting more with our landscapes. Learning 388 00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:36.319 to identify what plants in your area and what you 389 00:22:36.359 --> 00:22:38.119 can do with them, how to prepare them. 390 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:40.720 So for more on that, you can see the foraging 391 00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:43.880 ecology episode of Alexis Nelson aka Black Forager. 392 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:46.440 I would just say that if you're lucky enough to 393 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:51.920 know someone that has traditional medicinal or botanical knowledge, even 394 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:54.039 if it's just someone that knows a few plants in 395 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:56.359 your area, go learn those plants, go out with them, 396 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:57.839 and then share that information. 397 00:22:58.200 --> 00:23:00.640 And last listener Qustomer, we got from a few people 398 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:05.400 Ali Vessels, Consetta Gibson, Ali v Elise Hickman. And this 399 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:09.079 is for non native folks, cross cultural implications. How do 400 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:12.240 non indigenous friends do right by our indigenous friends when 401 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.160