Yellowstone Times

A project led by Montana State University aimed at supporting Indigenous food sovereignty has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place program. This funding will allow the Buffalo Nations Food System Initiative to expand its efforts in the Northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.

The initiative, a collaborative project between MSU's Department of Native American Studies and the College of Education, Health and Human Development, focuses on revitalizing cultural knowledge, educating Indigenous food systems professionals, expanding food system research, and increasing community engagement. The received grant will specifically support the Buffalo Nations Foodways project, which seeks to maintain Indigenous cultural continuity within the Buffalo Nations biocultural region.

Jill Falcon Ramaker, the director of the initiative and assistant professor at the MSU Department of Food Systems, Nutrition and Kinesiology, emphasized the project's goal to sustain food systems and culture. She explained it aims to strengthen food, culture, identity, and the exchange of knowledge among what is referred to as a kinship network—the Indigenous system of exchange and traditional food systems.

The project will also facilitate MSU students' involvement in community-based knowledge regeneration projects. Over the next two years, an estimated 40 to 50 students will participate. Watson Whitford, an MSU undergraduate, is an example, working with the Rocky Boy Ojibwe Cree community to create connections between youth and elders through a food sovereignty garden. This effort helps grow produce and practice plant names in the Cree language.

Seth Still Smoking, another student benefiting from the grant, is creating cooking videos in English and Blackfeet language, distributed by FAST Blackfeet. These aim to teach basic cooking skills and engage with ancestral language.

The grant will further support work in a new Indigenous Foods Laboratory and update an interactive map of the Buffalo Nations Biocultural Region. This map is designed to reinvigorate connections among Indigenous people and places, serving as an educational tool throughout the region.

MSU's vice president for research and economic development, Alison Harmon, praised Falcon Ramaker's contributions to sustaining food systems and culture among Buffalo Nations. Harmon highlighted the importance of sharing and regenerating traditional knowledge, calling attention to its potential diminishment over time.

Students interested in the initiative can visit the MSU website for more information.