Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) is a nonprofit seed conservation organization based in Tucson, Arizona. Their mission is to conserve and promote the arid-adapted crop diversity of the Southwest in support of sustainable farming and food security. Native Seeds/SEARCH seeks to find, protect and preserve the seeds of the people of the Greater Southwest so that these arid adapted crops may benefit all peoples and nourish a changing world.
In 1983 co-founders Barney Burns, Mahina Drees, Gary Nabhan and Karen Reichhardt worked on a food security Meals for Millions project to support the Tohono O’odham Nation in establishing gardens for their sustainable food needs. Over many generations, the forces of colonization and later globalization had eroded the cultures and economies that kept these vital foods alive in the landscape. In discussions with tribal elders they were told “What we are really looking for are the seeds for the foods our grandparents used to grow.” This sage remark inspired the formation of Native Seeds/SEARCH as a collector and preserver of endangered traditional seeds from communities in the Southwest.
The Ancestral Guard is an Indigenous organizing network. Their programs combine traditional ecological knowledge, science and values of world renewal. Their projects include: Traditional canoe building, drum making, gathering and processing of local traditional foods, Victory Gardens and food Sovereignty.
Mestiza de Indias is a tropical regenerative agriculture project that sets out to recover heirloom species while aiming to combat the harmful effects of Mexico’s agrochemical industry. The farm is part of a growing movement turning to ancient cultivation methods and equitable labor practices to restore the earth and provide sustenance to locals.
NAFSA is an organization dedicated to restoring the food systems that support Indigenous self-determination, wellness, cultures, values, communities, economies, languages, and families while rebuilding relationships with the land, water, plants, and animals that sustain us.
Border Kindness is providing asylum-seekers, migrants, refugees, and the displaced with comprehensive services that include food, shelter, clothing, medical care and legal services.
Their programs and interventions are designed to identify, protect and nurture the most vulnerable, including women, children, elderly and families.
Border Kindness believes everyone is our neighbor and everyone should have the opportunity to live free of pain, hunger, intimidation, and fear.
North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NāTIFS), founded by James Beard award winners The Sioux Chef, is dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.
They imagine a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises. Reclamation of ancestral education is a critical part of reversing the damage of colonialism and forced assimilation, and food is at the heart of this reclamation. NāTIFS will drive sustainable economic empowerment and prosperity into tribal areas through a reimagined North American food system that also addresses the health impacts of injustice.
IEN is an alliance of Indigenous Peoples whose Shared Mission is to Protect the Sacredness of Earth Mother from contamination & exploitation by Respecting and Adhering to Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Law.
Sierra Seeds cultivates intimacy with the earth and ancestral food traditions through medicinal storytelling on seed songs and seed rematriation in innovative, grounding, rich fertile, nourishing learning circles.
They guide farmers, gardeners, food justice activists to feel nourished, empowered and uplifted to grow their capacity as creative leaders, visionaries, and change-makers through mentorship/facilitation on seed stewardship and food sovereignty (Seed Seva and Seeding Change).
PODCAST & DISCUSSIONS
On Being Podcast with Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Intelligence of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a Botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
Her books include Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
For The Wild Podcast with Rowen M. White: Seed Rematriation and Fertile Resistance
Rowen White is a Seed Keeper/farmer from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and a passionate activist for indigenous seed and food sovereignty. She is the Educational Director and lead mentor of Sierra Seeds, an innovative land-based educational organization located in Nevada City, CA.
Indigenous Food Sovereignty 101: A Conversation between NATIFS and Dream of Wild Health
A multi-generational panel on Indigenous food sovereignty. This panel took place on February 24th, 2021 and featured Hope Flanagan from Dream of Wild Health, Armando Medinaceli from NATIFS, and Felicia Galvan, a student at University of Minnesota-Morris. The panelists discuss the basics of Indigenous food sovereignty as well as ways to get involved.
Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.
Gather follows Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation (Arizona), opening an indigenous café as a nutritional recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation (South Dakota), conducting landmark studies on bison; and the Ancestral Guard, a group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation (Northern California), trying to save the Klamath river.