TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – Two presenters on the penultimate day of a Northeastern Oklahoma symposium focusing on Indigenous culture and issues stressed food sovereignty and shared opportunities for young people to get involved in agriculture and support their tribes.
On April 14, “Building the Bench: Education and Career Development for Tribal Professionals in Agriculture,” was led by Summer Wilkie, Cherokee Nation citizen and youth coordinator at the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas, and Kelli Case, Chickasaw Nation citizen and staff attorney at the same organization. The seminar was part of the annual Symposium on the American Indian at Northeastern State University.
Wilkie explained how the meaning of “sovereignty” changes in different contexts. For example, she pointed to the government-to-government relationship between the federal government and the sovereign governments of federally-recognized tribes.
“A lot of the federal recognition of that legal sovereignty is based on our unique culture, language and governmental structure, but we can’t focus all of our resources and energy on only those aspects of sovereignty, because if we can’t eat and feed ourselves or we don’t have access to food, then how are we going to support all of these other [elements] like culture, language, community, and values?” said Wilkie. “So food is very fundamental, I think, to tribal sovereignty.”
Regional food security, Wilkie said, is another aspect of tribal sovereignty, although these topics are not all-encompassing.
“There are a lot of tribes who we’ve worked with who are taking aspects of their supply chain and access to food into their own hands and exercising more sovereignty over how food gets to them and what their food is,” said Wilkie.
In eastern Oklahoma, Case pointed to four processing facilities that were constructed to solve issues with the meat supply during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tribes took it upon themselves to build these processing facilities to help create redundancies in the system so we don’t have that issue with our tribal citizens again,” said Case.
The two explained that youth looking to enter agriculture field are major component of this effort, a concept that relates back to their presentation title. Wilkie said the phrase “Building the Bench” is borrowed from something current USDA General Counsel and Chickasaw Citizen Janie Hipp talks about.
“If you play sports or anything, you know a team really isn’t a strong team unless they have a strong bench. It’s not about putting people on the bench, it’s about just making sure there are people who are learning and [will] be ready to transition up when it’s their time to help take over leadership and food sovereignty,” said Wilkie.
Many resources, scholarships, and organizations are available to young tribal citizens looking to join “the bench,” something IFAI works to connect youth with.
“At the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative as the youth coordinator, I get to firsthand create and provide space for some of these opportunities for youth to learn more about agriculture and where their calling might be within that,” said Wilkie. “We host the Native Youth in Food and Agriculture Leadership Summit every summer, which is for college-aged students.”
Around 60 people attend the academic conference from all over the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.
“To meet one another and learn from one another can be such a powerful experience – to be in a truly inter-tribal, across-the-world space,” said Wilkie. ‘They get to chose a track they want to focus on and our different tracks [are] agriculture and finance; agricultural law and policy; land stewardship and conservation; and health and nutrition.”
The two wrapped up their talk with a reminder.
“Indigenous people were the first farmers here. That’s pretty powerful when you realize that and sometimes history tries to erase that,” said Wilkie. “That’s part of our legacy and I’m thankful that people have maintained that and I’m also excited that it’s being revitalized.”