10/12/2026
Today is Indigenous Peoples Day. As a food justice organization, we recognize that our food systems often stray from the balanced, ecological practices of Indigenous peoples. We hope that in learning more about their historical relationship to the land, we can continue to work to incorporate their knowledge and practices into our current systems.
As part of our staff book club, we have been reading Liz Carlise’s "Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and Regenerative Farming." We’d love to share what we learned in the first chapter, a story about how Indigenous tribes lived in ecological harmony with the buffalo:
Prior to colonization, the buffalo were key to ecological health and maintaining food sources. Buffalo graze plants that are overgrown and dominating the ecosystem, creating room for other plants and promoting biodiversity. Buffalo continue to migrate to new areas, so that plants are never fully decimated and have time to regrow.
When settlers colonized North America, the federal government ordered the slaughter of millions of native buffalo and brought in non-native cows. Cows eat everything in front of them, requiring both fences and intervention in their migration. They do not cultivate biodiversity or soil health, like the buffalo. In fact, after the death of the buffalo herds, land productivity in the Great Plains decreased by 71%.
Much of our agricultural practices today prioritize yield and profit. We must learn from Indigenous Peoples how to center our practices around giving back to the land, creating regenerative systems, living in balance, and taking only what we need.
Carlisle included a beautiful quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of Braiding Sweetgrass and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation: “Reciprocity is a matter of keeping the gift in motion through self-perpetuating cycles of giving and receiving…our elders taught that the relationship between plants and humans must be one of balance.”
Let this story and quote sit with you in honor of this Indigenous Peoples Day.
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