Indigenous Food Sovereignty Summit

Monday, April 6

Tuesday, April 7

Wednesday, April 8

Monday, April 6

Manoomin - A Sacred Food and Medicine

Cortney Collia, CC's Natural Arts; Roger LaBine, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

We will discuss the importance of manoomin as our relative, teacher and guide for our lives. We will explore the stories that brought us to manoomin, the food that grows on water and how these stories continue to shape us to this day. We will also look at our connectivity to the land itself and our role in the wetland where manoomin grows as we continue to care for the land that cares for us.

Deepening Relationships with Plant Relatives Through Knowledge Sharing

Mary Parr and Josh Cohen, Michigan Natural Features Inventory; Lori Gambardella, Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Understanding plant relatives is critical to fostering relationships that support cultural stewardship, sustainable harvesting, and informed co-stewardship. This presentation highlights the benefits of knowledge sharing across organizations through a recent collaborative effort between the Sault Tribe and the Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI) during an ecological inventory of the Shingle Bay Preserve on Sugar Island—ancestral homelands along the St. Mary’s River.

Sault Tribe Traditional Medicine staff and MNFI ecologists will discuss the importance of working together to cultivate deeper relationships with plant medicines and foods, including understanding their biology, preferred growing conditions, landscape context, and medicinal applications for community members. This shared understanding broadens perspectives and creates opportunities to collectively advance data sovereignty and expand co-management practices.

The presentation will integrate perspectives from Traditional Knowledge and Western science, emphasizing cultural practices that sustain relationships with medicinal plants, and strengthen connections across organizations. The session will also include time to learn about plant relatives, including their traditional medicinal uses, harvesting, and processing methods, and cultural stewardship practices such as seeding, propagating, and tending.

What's Happening in Waawiiyatanong?

Rosebud Schneider, Keep Growing Detroit

Kaela Wabanimkee-Harris, Anishinaabe, MSW, Co-Executive Director - Healing By Choice!; Detroit Indigenous Peoples Alliance - Founding Member

Sharing updates on grass roots projects led by the Detroit Indigenous Peoples Alliance (Detroit Sugarbush Project, Healing By Choice, Keep Growing Detroit) Lead asset mapping activity to build and strengthen important relationships needed in our food sovereignty movement.

Growing Strong and Resilient Regional Food Economies Through Tribal Food
Producer Assistance Programs

Jamie Rahrig, Erin Elly 

Supporting food and agriculture businesses with sector-specific knowledge is more important than ever. With only 25% of new businesses surviving more than 15 years along with the challenges that come with owning a food or farm business, customized assistance is critical.  

In this 60-minute skill building workshop for educators, attendees will learn how tailored assistance to Tribal food producers support them as they launch, grow and expand. Learning from an experienced financial readiness team, the speakers will share how they have supported food and farm businesses through an organized technical assistance program including the Great Lakes Food and Farm Business Collaborative and Michigan Good Food Fund touching on the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Summit’s themes of administrative and technical skills, community building through a culturally appropriate lens. The speakers will share how partnering with community-based, state, and federal agencies can be paths to success for business owners.  

The Great Lakes Food and Farm Business Collaborative support producers across the Midwest and the Michigan Good Food Fund is a collaborative statewide network that provides values-aligned capital and assistance to underinvested food and farm entrepreneurs.  

Indigenous Food & Agriculture Initiative: Supporting Tribal Food Sovereignty and Growing Tribal Food Operations

Satara Fountain, Indigenous Food & Agriculture Initiative

This 30-minute presentation will provide an overview of the Indigenous Food & Agriculture Initiative (IFAI) and the scope of our work supporting Tribal food systems and agriculture governance. The session will begin with an introduction to IFAI’s technical assistance and capacity building efforts including Agriculture Resource Management Plan (ARMP) development, Tribal Department of Agriculture development through one-on-one consultations with Tribal Nations, and support related to food code and regulatory frameworks.

Additionally, the presentation will then focus on IFAI’s work in food safety, highlighting our ability to offer growers training for Tribes. A key component of this discussion will be an overview of IFAI’s Tribal Supplemental Materials to the PSA Grower Training curriculum. These materials are designed to complement existing food safety education by centering Tribal sovereignty, Indigenous agricultural practices, and specific Tribal community needs while meeting food safety standards.

Participants will gain an understanding of how IFAI supports Tribes and Tribal producers in building and strengthening their agricultural operations. The presentation is designed for Tribal leaders, producers, and community members interested in starting or expanding agricultural or food-based enterprises, navigating food safety requirements, and developing systems that reflect Tribal values and local food traditions.

Land, Seed, and Story: An Offsite Visit to the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center

John Ostrander, Executive Director Nokomis Culture Center; Members of Nokomis; MSU NASO

This offsite session offers Indigenous Food Summit participants an immersive, place-based learning experience at the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center. Designed as a two-hour experience (including approximately 30 minutes of transportation), the visit centers Indigenous food sovereignty, cultural continuity, and community-led education through direct engagement with land, seed, and story.

Participants will receive a guided 45-minute tour of Nokomis’s current programs and exhibits, including the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) exhibit, the rotating Indigenous art gallery, and natural history exhibits that foreground Anishinaabe relationships to land, water, and food systems. The tour situates food sovereignty within broader histories of survival, resistance, and resurgence.

Following the tour, participants will take part in a hands-on service learning activity connected to Nokomis’s Three Sisters Garden and Seeds of Sustainability Initiative. This participatory component invites attendees to contribute directly to ongoing community efforts through seed saving, planting, garden care, or reflection activities grounded in Anishinaabe teachings. The activity emphasizes reciprocity, relational accountability, and learning through doing.

Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of Indigenous food systems as living knowledge practices; practical insights into community-led, culturally grounded food initiatives; and a clearer sense of how scholars, practitioners, and institutions can engage ethically with Indigenous communities. Rather than observing from a distance, attendees are invited into a relational experience that highlights responsibility, respect, and reciprocity as foundational to Indigenous food sovereignty work.

Transportation to this offsite experience will be provided. 

Tuesday, April 7

Foraging With Young Kids

Wiba Anung Team -  Jessica Barnes Najor, Michelle Cypher, Amanda Rinna, Jessica Saucedo, Haley Shaw

Join members of Wiba Anung (Early Star) – a 20-year-old partnership between MSU and the InterTribal Council of Michigan that serves Michigan Indigenous young children and their families – in a 60-minute workshop regarding tips, tricks, and approaches to foraging (identifying, collecting, and using) wild edibles, medicines, and materials with young children (ages 3-5 years). This workshop will start with a brief discussion of the importance of foraging for Indigenous early childhood development and then move into review of culturally appropriate approaches to foraging and practicing safe foraging. Next, we provide time to explore foraging related activities, that can be held in outdoor or indoor settings, intended to teach young children about healthy foraging practices. This workshop will focus on one wild edible, wild leeks or wild onions, locally known as ramps, to demonstrate important foraging practices, including identification, sustainable harvesting, and proper storage and cooking. Using ramps as an example, we describe concepts that can also be applied to other edibles, medicines, or materials. Workshop content will be drawn from curricula currently used in Michigan-based Tribal Home Visiting and Head Start settings. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will have discussed practical tips for foraging with young children, reviewed principles of foraging responsibly and correctly, practiced the universal edibility test, and learned to make asemaa (tobacco) offerings before foraging. Participants will also walk away with several documents, including introductory foraging guidance, recipes using foraged items, and ideas for engaging young children in safe foraging.

Preserving Culture Through Food Preservation with Tribal Communities

Stephanie Ostrenga Sprague and Karen Fifield, MSU Extension; Deborah Shawa

MSU Extension collaborates with tribal communities in Michigan to offer Food Preservation workshops. Extension educators co-facilitate hands-on food preservation classes on preserving traditional foods while elders or tribal members share teachings reflecting cultural heritage associated with those foods. Impacts of these programs include preserving cultural traditions, holding space for elders to share traditional knowledge, and facilitating hands on activities so tribal members can practice food preservation skills. Additionally, time spent together fosters a sense of community bonding which strengthens relationships. Preserving food improves self-sufficiency and enhances food security. This session is for MSU Extension educators and tribal community members with the goal of sharing lessons learned from these collaborative partnerships. There will be time allowed for participant idea sharing and feedback on best practices they may have experienced with tribal community/extension partnerships.

Painting a Picture of Soil Health and Community Wellbeing

Olivia Craig, MSU Extension and Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College; Monica Jean and Emily Proctor, MSU Extension; Biidaaban Reinhardt and Elisa Grossman, FRTEP Educator; Stephen Stresow

This workshop will pair a visual presentation on the connection between healthy soils and Indigenous Food Sovereignty initiatives with hands-on activities that provide participants ways to connect with both physically and creatively. The session will begin with a 15-minute presentation on the basics of soil science including an overview of soil’s physical, chemical and biological properties and their role in maintaining holistic soil health. Presenters will then underscore the connection between healthy soils and the support of Indigenous Food Sovereignty initiatives through the production of nutritious, culturally relevant foods. 

Following the presentation, participants will be guided through the process of determining soil texture using the texture-by-feel method. This is a practical skill that participants may take home to their own gardens or communities to evaluate soil quality; handouts of the flow chart will also be made available for take-home. Finally, participants will participate in a 20-minute painting activity in which all paints have been created from soils from around the state of Michigan. 

Through this program, participants will develop a basic understanding of the components of the soil ecosystem, understand our role in maintaining ecosystem health, and can engage with soil in new ways that challenge them to rethink their relationships to soil.

Traditional Food Tools That Hold the Answers-Sugar Bush

Sonja Ballew and Jefferson Ballew, Sawaulk's Sweets

As wood working artists and maple sugar producers, the tools hold the answers to traditional knowledge. Our tools let us make syrup and sugar without a modern thermometer. The wooden bowls holds science in the tree choice and curing process. Our historical Sugar bush pictures have an immense amount of information. When traditional tool knowledge is added, the story comes to fruition. Our people were engineers with everything around them. We are here to dispel the myth that our people cooked maple syrup with rocks from the fire with evidence of what was actually taking place.

Gun Lake Tribe Sugar Bushing 

Wyatt Szpliet, Gun Lake Tribe

This presentation will cover Gun Lake Tribes Sugar Bushing

Reigniting Memories of Trees and People: A Process for Anishinaabek Engagement in USFS Fire Policy for Miinan.

Aubrey Maccoux-LeDuc and Jesse Bowen, Bay Mills Indian Community, Biological Services Dept
Jerry Jondreau, Contractor for Bay Mills Indian Community, Biological Services Dept

Wild blueberries (Vaccinium spp; miinan) are understood to be a tribally-important species for subsistence harvesting. Land use goals favoring timber production have excluded cultural fire from the Little Plains area of historic berry gathering, but through partnership, it is now being restored. This study will observe and record the response of berry production and change in vegetation during the course of these treatments (before, after logging, after prescribed fire). Additionally, if funded, this proposal intends to catalyze the community-driven interest in Anishinaabe land stewardship. Bay Mills is supporting efforts to revitalize Indigenous land stewardship practices that have been actively suppressed for generations.

The Little Plains are located on shore of Lake Superior where the summers are more humid, cooler, and tempered by the proximity to the lake, making it a climate-controlled refugia. Most miinan growth and therefore harvest by tribal citizens currently occurs miles inland from Lake Superior, where climate conditions swing more widely, leading to poor miinan years. Discussions with the USFS are leading toward consideration for Tribal Forest Protection Act agreement for a series of treatments to convert the stand from dense red pine plantation to a more open forest with frequent, low-intensity fire.

Setting the Straits on Fire - Fire History in the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians' Blueberry Plains

Joshua Cohen, Mary Parr, Nicole Smith, Michigan Natural Features Inventory; Mae Wright and Derek Hartline, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Kurt Kipfmueller, MSU

Fire stewardship is critically linked to Indigenous food sovereignty. Great Lakes pine forests historically burned at frequent intervals that have been substantially reduced following Euro-American colonization. This presentation will describe a multi-partner project exploring the relationship between the cultural burning practices of Indigenous peoples and the evidence of historical fires in these ecosystems. Through the Coastal Program, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service established a cooperative agreement with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan Natural Features Inventory, and Michigan State University to prioritize biodiversity stewardship within the Straits Region of Michigan. This project builds upon 3 complementary components: 1) Collating knowledge about factors that determine priority for cultural burning; 2) Reconstructing fire histories of culturally significant sites through dendrochronology; and 3) Developing models that identify the most ecologically and culturally important places and thereby increase the integrity of native ecosystems, improve habitat for native biodiversity, and increase opportunities for cultural expression of Indigenous communities. We will share results about the reconstruction of fire history in the homeland of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians focusing on The Blueberry Plains.

Igniting Growth: Ecological Assessment of Blueberry Response to Forest Management Treatments on the Menominee Reservation

Tanikwah Lang, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Wild blueberries hold deep cultural significance for the Menominee people, who have harvested these plants for generations. Across North America, 26 species of Vaccinium exist, but on the Menominee Reservation, the most common are lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) and velvetleaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides). Historically, these fire-adapted species thrived under disturbance regimes, yet widespread fire suppression has reduced their growth and productivity. Blueberries generally grow in nutrient-poor, acidic soils beneath forest canopies, where periodic disturbance is critical to maintaining suitable habitat conditions. This study examines how different forest management strategies influence the growth and regeneration of lowbush and velvetleaf blueberries. Using ecological field methods, I assessed the relationship between blueberry abundance and disturbance type across varying stages of forest stand development. Data collection included berry weight and count, stem density, percent plant cover, canopy cover, species inventories, soil pH, and leaf tissue nutrient content. Findings from this research will inform Menominee Tribal Enterprises Forestry Center on how four forest management techniques affect blueberry plant health and berry yield. Ultimately, the results of this study aim to guide management practices that enhance blueberry abundance, strengthen cultural connections, and support tribal food sovereignty

Stories that Sustain: Floral Medicines, Narrative Knowledge, and Harvesting with the Seasons

David Pitawanakwat, Detroit Indigenous Peoples Alliance, UWindsor Law; Kaela Wabanimkee-Harris, DIPA, 

This workshop examines the interrelationship between floral medicines, narrative practices, and Anishinaabe food sovereignty through a land based, relational pedagogical framework. Grounded in Anishinaabe legal orders and knowledge systems, the session explores how floral beings function as medicinal, nutritional, and epistemic relatives whose teachings shape community governance, health, and food system autonomy.

Drawing on scholarship in Indigenous food sovereignty, ethnobotany, and Indigenous legal theory, the workshop situates floral medicines as actors within a broader network of responsibilities that sustain Anishinaabe life. Participants engage with these plants not merely as resources, but as knowledge holders whose stories encode principles of reciprocity, consent, stewardship, and interdependence.

By establishing floral medicines as both material and narrative agents, the workshop demonstrates how Anishinaabe food sovereignty is enacted through everyday practices of relationship renewal, ceremonial engagement, and intergenerational knowledge transmission. Participants leave with a deeper understanding of how floral medicines support not only physical nourishment but also the legal, ethical, and narrative foundations of Anishinaabe governance.

Tea will be provided; some plant life will be on site for handling and learning.

Reawakening Indigenous Sea Gardens: A Tool for Supporting Intergenerational Food Sovereignty & Climate Resilience

Olivia Horwedel, University of Washington

As many ancestral methods of Indigenous aquaculture are being revitalized, such as clam gardens of the Salish Sea, and Loko I'a (fishponds) in Hawaii, communities are strengthening their resilience to climate stressors while increasing food security and revitalizing cultural traditions. Having faced environmental challenges for centuries, the sustained success of Indigenous Aquaculture systems demonstrates their adaptive and resilient nature to changing climatic conditions, much of which can be attributed to the implementation of ancestral knowledge.

Inspired by the work of collaborators and practitioners within the Cross-Pacific Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative Network (IACN), this presentation celebrates ancestral knowledge through the creation and care of traditional seafood cultivation practices, the connections between culture and ecology, as well as the longevity of Indigenous Aquaculture methods for generations to come. Through highlighting place-based observations and generational teachings, this presentation will discuss the deeply relational cultivation of First Foods through stewarding cultural environments. Additionally, this presentation will also discuss the importance and need of Indigenous-led networks in reawakening ancestral sea gardens as living systems of ecological stewardship, cultural practice, and food sovereignty. With collaborators and marine practitioners from across the Pacific Rim, the Indigenous Aquaculture Network has cultivated community-to-community learning through knowledge exchanges and place-based restoration efforts that support collective action, cross-cultural learning, and reconnecting cultural and ecological pathways.  By joining together from across our various geographies, we can see how water is not what divides us, but rather connects us all.

What’s Growing at the Student Organic Farm: Food Forests, Hoop Houses,
Cover Crops, and Season - Extension

Darby Anderson, Student Organic Farm Manager; Jorhie Beadle, EdD, MSU RISE; Katie Brandt, MSU Organic Farmer Training Program; Naim Edwards, MSU Extension; Stephen Stresow, MSU Horticulture; Trout, SOF farm cat

The MSU Student Organic Farm is located just a few miles from the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Summit. In the offsite experience, participants will rotate between two, 45-minute tours/ field workshops that explore various aspects of sustainable food production. In Workshop #1, attendees will explore passive-heated hoophouses (greenhouses), observe transplant production, look at cover crops in the field, and examine an assortment of small-scale equipment that helps make farming successful. Bring your questions about managing soil fertility, irrigation, pests, and more! Next to the hoophouses, Workshop #2 will take participants to the 0.3 acre Food Forest at the Student Organic Farm. This diverse, edible landscape hosts around 100 plant species, including pears, apples, pawpaw, persimmon, hazelnuts, medicinal plants, and more. Food forests are based on Indigenous, or at least anti-conventional and linear, food systems that embody the principles of biodiversity, resilience, native plants, and collective management. This "In The Field Workshop" will provide a general overview of how to create a food forest and allow participants to observe plants up close, envision what a food forest in their community could look like, and ask questions for deeper understanding.

Restrooms will be available. Terrain is flat, but unpaved. In the event of rain or cold weather, the hoophouses will still be warm!

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Wednesday, April 8

Growing Seed Sovereignty: Intertribal & Intercultural Cooperation across the Upper Midwest

Kaitlyn Walsh, Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, NAFSA; Rosebud Bear Schneider, Keep Growing Detroit; Rebecca Webster, Ukwakhwa; Kaya DeerInWater, American Indian Higher Education Consortium; Anna Roush, My Suburban Farm;

Indigenous communities are rebuilding trade networks, seed sanctuaries, and food sovereignty beyond colonial borders. Native seedkeepers and farmers from the Upper Midwest will present strategies for strengthening seed sovereignty across reservation, suburban, and urban tribal communities. Through an interactive panel and hands-on activities, we will demonstrate how to work alongside our ancestral seeds to reinforce intercultural gathering places and points of intertribal sharing, on and off reservation. We will share how we address the challenges of farming amid climate apartheid and ways we reclaim and carry culture with our seed relatives. Additionally, we will distribute beginner seedkeeping resources tailored to the region, co-created in 2026 by members of the Upper Midwest Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, a program of Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Workshop includes panel, skill-sharing demonstrations, and time for visiting

Outcomes:

1. Showcase Native seedkeepers and farmers across the Upper Midwest as critical actors in the tribal food sovereignty movement and as weavers of intertribal and intercultural cooperation
2. Share stories, knowledge, and regionally specific resources supporting the tribal seed sovereignty movement
3. Increase understanding of and provide specific solutions to the unique benefits and barriers that urban and suburban Native seedkeepers and farmers face
4. Demonstrate Indigenous seedsaving techniques through an interactive panel and hands-on activities

All Our Relations: Public Planting Partnerships for Sustaining Seed Stocks

Ryan Conway, IU - Institute for Indigenous Knowledge

Many contemporary tribal nations face barriers to land-access that can inhibit the development of tribal seed-saving programs. With the current, national contraction of financial support for tribal food sovereignty and cultural preservation programs, how can tribal communities maintain seed stocks of plants critical for continuing tribal ceremonies, medicine traditions, and cultural foodways?

Though stable partnership may be hard to establish, in an age of shifting political and financial winds, creating and maintaining a portfolio of relationships with public institutions, nonprofits, and even neighbors can lead to surprising opportunities to grow your nation’s seed stock and your preservation movement.

Public institutions, like Universities and museums, may be losing funding for sustainability, equity, and community engagement initiatives; but, in the process, they are often left with patches of land in need of beautification and maintenance…perfect for a small grower willing to lend a hand in return for a little space.

From State Universities and State Historic Sites to local churches and historic preservation nonprofits, building an alliance across different market sectors helps to expand opportunities for cultivating new relationships while building-in layers of resiliency that can bring peace of mind, even in the face of the next looming budget-cut.

Bringing Ancestral Seeds Home

Shiloh Maples, David Michener, University of Michigan;

Seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. However,  over generations and through many different means, seeds have been removed from their communities of origin and enclosed in genetic repositories, academic archives, private collections, and seed companies; in some instances, these seed varieties did not remain in their communities of origin.  More recently, there has been a growing movement to rematriate seeds— that is, return seeds to their communities and lands of origin. The focus of this session is a case study of seed rematriation from the University of Michigan's Museum of Anthropological Archaeology (UMMAA).  This museum collection houses more than 4,000 seeds removed from over 90 Native Nations, primarily in the 1940s-1950s. The session will share how the more-than-a-decade-long discussion among multiple Native Nations and University parties shifted the University not only to comply with NAGPRA, but also to catalyze a shift toward returning seed relatives through more generative, long-term partnerships. Presenters will lead a discussion on grounds and approaches for returning seeds, the resistance encountered at the University, and the array of approaches and strategies that ultimately encouraged compliance with federal and Native Nations laws and the prioritization of positive relationships with Native Nations.

Foundations of Tribal Food Sovereignty in Lower Michigan

Kaya DeerInWater, American Indian Higher Education Consortium

This session explores how Néshnabe communities in lower Michigan build food sovereignty from the ground up. Food sovereignty means tribes control their own food systems, from seed to table. It counters health disparities caused by colonization and restores ancestral diets that sustained our people for millennia. We examine practical infrastructure needs. Small-scale grain drying bins let communities process traditional crops like corn and wild rice. Community incubator kitchens support tribal food entrepreneurs. Tribal food codes create legal frameworks for traditional foods that federal regulations ignore. Proxy hunting permits help elders and disabled community members access game. The session covers how tribes use treaty rights to reclaim access to traditional foods. Fishing rights, gathering rights, and hunting rights exist in writing. Exercising these rights rebuilds food systems and strengthens tribal sovereignty. We discuss successes and barriers tribes face when asserting these rights. Cultural revitalization drives this work. Growing three sisters on tribal farms teaches younger generations agricultural practices our ancestors perfected. Community-led programs connect elders with youth to transfer knowledge about food preparation, preservation, and ceremony. These relationships restore what boarding schools and forced assimilation tried to erase. Food sovereignty creates economic strength. Tribes building their own food systems keep money in the community. Jobs in farming, processing, and distribution employ tribal members. Local food reduces dependence on outside supply chains that fail our communities. Participants will leave with concrete examples of food sovereignty projects and understanding of the legal, cultural, and economic foundations that make this work possible.

Feeding Our Sovereignty: Reclaiming Health, Culture, and Land at Ukwakhwa

Rebecca Webster, Ukwakhwa; Stephen Webster; Giselle Oliva-Metoxen

This visual and storytelling presentation will explore the restoration of Haudenosaunee food systems through farming, seed keeping, cooking, and land-based education. Presented by Ukwakhwa (Our Foods), a nonprofit farmstead based on the Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin, the session takes attendees on a journey through the process of reclaiming Indigenous foodways, from planting and harvesting to cooking and community meals.

Attendees will learn how every act, whether planting heirloom seeds, preparing mush from pounded corn, or using ancestral tools, is part of a larger movement to reclaim identity, resist colonial erasure, and assert Indigenous sovereignty. The presentation features photos and lived experiences from Ukwakhwa’s farmstead and community programming.

Ukwakhwa blends traditional Haudenosaunee agricultural methods with modern tools and technology to build community-centered food systems. The session will inspire other Native food leaders and community educators with practical and spiritual insights on restoring Indigenous foodways for future generatioms. 

NHBP Food Sovereignty Journey

Nickole Keith

Session description coming soon!

Knowledge Sharing & Networking Session: Centering Indigenous Storytelling in Evaluation for Tribal Food Sovereignty

Trena Bizardi, Kailtyn Walsh, Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA)

This session explores how equity-based funding models and participatory decision-making, focusing on Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty, can drive transformative change in food systems.

Part 1: Lessons from NAFSA - NAFSA will share critical lessons learned, demonstrating the essential role of community storytelling in the evaluation and reporting process. We will highlight how these approaches empower communities, fostering enduring, intergenerational, and community-rooted solutions for their food sovereignty journeys.

Part 2: Facilitated Discussion - The second half of the session will feature three facilitated breakout discussions designed to maximize networking and shared knowledge among attendees.

Workshop Goals:

• Facilitate the sharing of best practices and knowledge derived from NAFSA's grantmaking experiences, alongside firsthand accounts from Indigenous grantees actively engaged in promoting community food sovereignty.
• Strengthen professional connections and collaboration among tribal food sovereignty experts who are responsible for designing funding opportunities, support programs, and reporting frameworks, including facilitating discussions to integrate shared tools and strategies.

Renewing Our Relationships with Northern Flint Corn: 2025 Variety Performance, Grain Quality and Sensory

James DeDecker

Flint corn has been central to Indigenous food and culture in the Great Lakes region for at least 1000 years and is a profound example of both traditional ecological knowledge and agricultural innovation. While some tribal nations have maintained flint corn varieties and
production into the modern era, many others seek to renew their relationship with corn relatives relegated to seed banks. As a staple food well adapted to our environment and central to Native culture, recovering tribal access to flint corn seed and corn production
capacity is integral to Indigenous food sovereignty. Our team of tribal college and land grant university staff received support from a NIFA Tribal Colleges Research Grant to investigate variety performance, grain quality and sensory of flint corn varieties available in
the USDA GRIN Seed Bank. In 2025, we grew ten early maturing and twenty late maturing varieties at six locations based on their performance in preliminary screening trials. Our observations included relative maturity, pest and disease susceptibility, height, ear
characteristics, wildlife damage, yield and grain quality. Join our session to learn how these unique corn varieties performed and participate in a sensory activity comparing grain flavor, texture, etc. among some of the entries.

Birchbark Small Winnowing Dish

Jillian Waterman

In this hands-on session, attendees will make a small birchbark winnowing dishes from birchbark, root or willow and spruce root or sinew.