Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge Vol. 6(1), January 2007, pp. 57-68

Traditional food systems, erosion and renewal in Northwestern North America Nancy J Turner1* & Katherine L Turner2

1School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC Canada V 8W 2Y2, 2International Development Program, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K 9J 7B8, Ontario, Canada

Email: nturner@uvic.ca

Received 4 October 2006; revised 28 November 2006

The paper describes the traditional food systems of indigenous peoples of western Canada (British Columbia) and documents how they have changed over the time, especially since European newcomers arrived in the region. The impacts of dietary change on the health of indigenous peoples, providing a case example of edible camas (Camassia spp.; Liliaceae) to illustrate how traditional food use has declined have been discussed. Ten major factors are identified as influencing dietary change: loss of territory for accessing traditional food, loss of traditional management practices such as landscape burning, introduction of new foods, land degradation and transformation, barriers to intergenerational knowledge transfer, colonial policies privileging agriculture, regulations against indigenous cultural practices; and globalization and domination of mainstream food systems. Efforts to reclaim and recover food traditions are ongoing, and will hopefully be successful in improving the overall health and well being of indigenous people and the environment.

Key words: Indigenous people, Traditional food systems, Dietary change, Ecocultural restoration, British Columbia, Canada

IPC Int. Cl.8: A61K36/00, A01G1/00, A01G17/00, A47G19/00, A23L1/00, A23L1/06

“We’re so thankful for the richness of our food. [Our] people are rich in food.” [Helen Clifton, Gitga’at elder, quotation from Gitga’ata Spring Harvest (video)1. Indigenous peoples have lived in what is now the province of British Columbia in western Canada for at least 10,000 yrs and possibly even longer. Over this time, although they have experienced times of food shortage, hunger and malnutrition, they achieved food security by developing a generally healthy and diverse diet that has supported amazingly dense populations, especially along the coast and the major river systems. This diet, based on a combination of salmon and other fish, shellfish, marine mammals, land mammals, game birds, and a range of plant foods, from berries and other fruits to green vegetables, root vegetables, and the inner bark of trees, has nourished and sustained people over the generations (Table 1). Furthermore, they have intensified the foods available to them–increasing their societal resilience–by developing a series of harvesting and processing technologies and resource management strategies that provided them greater quantities, and better quality food more consistently over the course of the year,

and from one year to the next. Yet, when the first Europeans arrived in the region in the late 1700s, they had little appreciation for the sophistication of the indigenous traditional food systems, and they assumed their own foods and their lifestyles in general to be superior and more desirable. Often framed within a moral discourse of “civilizing the natives,” colonial policies and practices sought to deprive First Peoples of their lands, resources and self-determination2. Claiming control over the territory and redefining the existing food systems of First Peoples was vital in this process because of the strong ties between culture and land, the vast amount of cultural knowledge and cultural practices surrounding foods and the social bonds that the acquisition, processing, eating and celebrating of foods provided. Colonization thus began a process of culinary acculturation that has continued to the present day3-7.

During the last 50 yrs, the nature of the imposed food system has changed dramatically. In fact, a nutrition transition, although to varying degrees, has swept over much of the world. Increasingly there has been a widespread adoption in many indigenous and local communities of food produced using a large-scale industrial mode, much of it from distant parts of

_________ *Corresponding author

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the globe and often of lower nutritional quality than traditionally locally produced food. The causes of this global transformation of diets are complex and not easily characterized; however, the general results are that many people, indigenous and non-indigenous, are eating food that is higher in unhealthy fats and refined carbohydrates, lower in essential vitamins and minerals, and more costly, than the original food to which they were genetically and culturally better

adapted. The rising incidence of health problems, such as late onset diabetes, heart disease, and other dietary and lifestyle illnesses as well as the compounded challenge to food sovereignty, which the growing hegemony of the global food system represents, has provided a new focus for activism and action for First Peoples3,8-10,A,B. For many, rebuilding food security and food sovereignty through the revival of traditional food systems is a vital step in rebuilding

Table 1⎯Traditional foods of indigenous peoples of British Columbia Green vegetables Plant Name Family Common name and usable parts Balsamorhiza sagittata Nutt. Asteraceae Balsamroot or spring sunflower– shoots, bud stalks. Epilobium angustifolium Linn. Onagraceae Fireweed- shoots. Heracleum lanatum Michx. Apiaceae Cow-parsnip – peeled bud stalks, leafstalks Lomatium nudicaule Coult. & Rose Apiaceae Indian celery-young leaves and talks. Opuntia spp Cactaceae Prickly pear cactus–fleshy inner stems. Porphyra abbottiae Rhodophyceae Red laver seaweed. Rubus spp Rosaceae Thimbleberry, salmonberry-shoots Rumex occidentalis S. Watson Polygonaceae Dock, “wild rhubarb” Root vegetables Allium cernuum Liliaceae Wild nodding onion-bulbs Balsamorhiza sagittata Asteraceae Balsamroot, or spring sunflower- taproots Camassia spp Liliaceae Blue camas-bulbs Claytonia lanceolata Pall. Ex Pursh Portulacaceae Spring beauty, mountain potato- corms Dryopteris expansa Polypodiaceae Spiny wood fern - rootstocks Erythronium grandiflorum Benth. Liliaceae Yellow avalanche lily - bulbs Fritillaria spp Liliaceae Rice-root - bulbs Lewisia rediviva Pursh Portulacaceae Bitterroot - taproots Lilium columbianum Hort. Liliaceae Tigerlily - bulbs Lomatium spp Apiaceae Biscuitroots, kous - roots Potentilla anserine Linn. Rosaceae Silverweed - roots Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuin Dennstaedtiaceae Bracken fern – rhizomes Sagittaria spp Alismataceae Wapato - tubers Trifolium wormskioldii Lchm. Fabaceae Springbank clover - rhizomes Fruits Amelanchier alnifolia Rosaceae Saskatoon berry Fragaria spp Rosaceae Wild strawberries Gaultheria shallon Pursh Ericaceae Salal Prunus virginiana Linn. Rosaceae Choke cherries Pyrus fusca Ref. Rosaceae Pacific crabapple Ribes spp Grossulariacae Currants and gooseberries Rubus spp Rosaceae Raspberry, blackberry, salmonberry and related spp Sambucus spp Caprifoliaceae Elderberries Shepherdia Canadensis Nutt. Elaeagnaceae Soapberry Vaccinium spp Ericaceae Huckleberries, blueberries, cranberries Viburnum spp Caprifoliaceae High bush cranberries Other plant foods (inner bark, beverages, flavorings) Ledum spp Ericaceae Labrador-tea- leaves as beverage Pinus spp Pinaceae Pines-inner bark Polypodium glycyrrhiza Polypodiaceae Licorice fern-rhizomes as flavouring Populus balsamifera ssp. Trichocarpa Linn. Salicaceae Cottonwood - inner bark Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco Pinaceae Douglas-fir sugar Tricholoma populinum Basidiomycete Cottonwood mushroom Tsuga heterophylla Sarg. Pinaceae Inner bark

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individual and community health and overcoming the most negative socio-cultural impacts of colonialismC. British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada, extending from the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains, and beyond into the Great Plains region in the Northeastern corner, is a land of geographical, ecological, cultural and linguistic diversity. Eighteen different biogeographic zones are delineated, each with a range of dominant vegetation and habitat types11. All but two of these zones–the Alpine Tundra and the Bunchgrass zones–are predominantly forested, mainly by coniferous evergreen trees. However, variations in forest cover, and a mosaic of marine, shoreline, estuarine, wetland, grassland and upland habitats provide a complexity of plant, animal, algal and fungal resources (Fig. 1). Some 30 linguistically distinct indigenous peoples have resided within the area now called British Columbia; most of these still inhabit villages and communities within their original territories. Although these groups have distinctive cultural traits, they also share many similarities in their cultural practices, including in their traditional food use, across language groups. Anthropologists recognize three major cultural areas in the region; Northwest Coast, Interior Plateau and Sub-boreal divisions12,13.

The traditional diets of all of these peoples included similar types of foodstuffs, mostly fished, hunted and harvested from their own territories, requiring similar lifestyles. Animals used in traditional foods in Northwestern North America are listed (Table 2). In general, men fished and hunted, and women harvested the shellfish and plant foods, as well as processing all of the different foods for storage. In order to obtain the full range of foods required for their overall nutrition, people needed access to a wide territory and a diversity of habitats. During the growing season, small family groups would travel from one specific location to another around their traditional territories, harvesting and processing the different resources as they became available at a particular time and place. This pattern of movement and food procurement–called a seasonal round–still exists to some extent for some people. When the early Europeans arrived on the Northwest Coast of North America, starting in the late 1700s, they often mistook village sites that were not actively occupied when they visited them to be abandoned, whereas in fact, the houses were just temporarily vacated while their occupants were away harvesting food in another location.

Colonization of the indigenous food system

Table 2⎯Animals used in traditional foods in Northwestern North America

Birds Anas spp. and other species (ducks) Bonasa umbellus (grouse, ruffed) Branta canadensis (Canada goose) Larus spp. (seagull, eggs) Melanitta spp. (scoter) Mammals Alces alces (moose) Castor canadensis (beaver, American) Cervus canadensis (elk) Eumetopias jubatus (sea lion, northern) Lepus americanus (snowshoe hare) Marmota spp. (marmot) Megaptera novaeangliae (whale) Odocoileus spp. (deer) Oreamnos americanus (mountain goat) Phoca spp. (seal) Phocoena phocoena (porpoise, common) Ursus americanus (Bear, black) Fish Clupea pallasi (herring, fish and eggs) Hippoglossus stenolepsis (halibut, Pacific) Oncorhynchus spp. (salmon, Pacific – six spp.; fish and eggs) Salmo gairdneri (steelhead) Salmo spp. (trout) Sebastes ruberrimus (red snapper) Thaleichthys pacificus (eulachon, oulachen) Shellfish Haliotis spp. (abalone) Katharina tunicata and other spp. (chitons) Saxidomus giganteus and other genera (butter clam and other species) Cancer magister and other spp. (crabs) Mytilus spp. (mussels) Octopus dofleini (octopus) Parastichopus californicus (sea cucumber) Strongylocentrotus spp. (sea urchins) Margaritifera falcata (freshwater mussel, western pearl shell)

Attacks on Indigenous peoples’ food security and food sovereignty—through the introduction of European food stuffs of lower nutritional value than the traditional diet, hand-in-hand with land, labour, education and legal pressures that created further dependency on, and preference for, these new foods—had immense impact on life ways of First Peoples. In British Columbia, a good illustration of the close ties between traditional food and indigenous culture is in the former role of the liliaceous edible bulb camas (Camassia spp. Figs. 2 & 3) in the lives of Coast Salish of southern Vancouver Island and adjacent areas. Camas was a major staple in the diets of people

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of this region. Families annually harvested and stored large quantities–200 kg or more per family. It was described by early European observers as “highly esteemed” and eaten “a great deal”14,15. Early chroniclers also noted the social aspects of camas harvesting. Itinerant artist Paul Kane noted in 1846 that the Songhees (of the Victoria area) performed a special “medicine mask dance” before gathering camas and other “important actions”16. Another traveler to the region and author of a “historical sketch” of Vancouver Island, wrote, “The camass-digging is a great season of ‘reunion’ for the women of various tribes, and answers with them to our hay-making or harvest at home”17. One botanist reported,” In Vancouver Island, and generally throughout the country, the roots are roasted to convert the starch [actually inulin, a complex carbohydrate] into sugar…, and are preserved whole in bags for winter use. They are sweet to the taste, and appear to be a nourishing, and far from unpalatable article of food”

18. In fact, the management of camas ecosystems to optimize production was a sophisticated and complex process, well documented by earlier scholars19,20. Landscape burning was a key tool for maintaining the open meadows and oak (Quercus garryana) savannahs that were prime camas habitat. Camas bulbs were important items of trade, and were served at feasts and potlatches. Camas is only one of dozens of different foods, both vegetal and animal, that were consumed in the traditional diet of the Coast Salish and neighbouring peoples of British Columbia21. Yet, the use of camas and many other traditional foods has declined steadily. Potato (Solanum tuberosum) has been a major replacement, starting as early as the 1830s22.

Potatoes, turnips and a whole range of other garden crops were quickly established, and there was an impetus, as part of the “civilizing” process to push First People towards European style farming as much as possible23. Although the idea seemed to the complete benefit of the indigenous peoples, there was another, more insidious agenda in the minds of many colonists and colonial officials. Like the site on southernmost Vancouver Island sought by James Douglas to situate Fort Victoria, much of the lands occupied by First Peoples were generally seen to be prime areas for settlement, and, if the original occupants could be removed, this would be an easy way to take over the land24. Gradually, the newcomers did take over the land, depriving the First Peoples of a

major part their social and spiritual identity and as well as their means of subsistence25. Indian reserves were established, each only a small fragment of the peoples’ original traditional territory26. Those peoples who relied on camas as a staple over probably thousands of years were now – for a whole range of reasons – relegated to using it, first only as an occasional ceremonial food, and finally, not at all, until for the most part, in just a few generations, it drifted out of peoples’ collective memories altogether. Another poignant example of the type of displacement of food harvesting sites that went on all over British Columbia is the scenario reported by almost 100 yrs ago Tsawataineuk Chief Cesaholis, of Kingcome Inlet on the coastal mainland of British Columbia27. Chief Cesaholis then went on to describe how the white man named McKay then allowed his livestock to trample in the peoples’ gardens, and purposefully cut down all their crabapple trees in a process that alienated them from a major part of their food production territory7. Later actions by forest companies, clear cutting the large trees along the river and mountainsides, and aerial spraying weed-killer along both banks of the river, continued the process of colonizing the Tsawataineuk (Kwakwaka’wakw) peoples’ food production systems28. Thickets of salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and gray currant (Ribes bracteosum) were impacted by the spraying, and people began to worry about the loss of habitat and contamination of wildlife and fish. At Kingcome, as in other areas all over the province, the local people themselves were drawn into the transformation of their food systems, becoming themselves the agents of change of their own territories, as wage labourers, builders of dykes, loggers, cannery workers and importers of marketed food9, 29,30. It is difficult to separate the vast array of events, impacts and occurrences–social, economic, and ecological–that compounded to drive the dietary transformation of indigenous peoples. However, ten major contributing factors have been identified (Fig. 4). The establishment of “reserved lands” for registered “Status Indians” in the 1890s under the authority of the British North America Act of 1867 and the Indian Act of 1876 certainly had a profound impact on people’s ability to access their traditional food2,31. Property that was formerly exclusive territory of indigenous groups was appropriated by the Crown, and parcels of land sold to European and other settlers. Many of peoples’ traditional hunting, fishing

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and harvesting areas were appropriated as private property, just as was done in the Tsawataineuk example described previously. A common misconception of the newcomers was that the indigenous peoples, especially those along the coast and major rivers, consumed a diet almost entirely of fish and seafood, and therefore, that they had little need of land–only enough for their villages and fishing spots27,32. People were generally alienated from many of their other traditional food sources. Another misunderstanding by the European newcomers was that the First Peoples had little knowledge of resource management or enhancement, but only harvested what they encountered without any real organized food production strategies5. They did not recognize the sophisticated practices that the indigenous peoples had developed, probably over long periods of time, to manage, sustain and enhance the fish, shellfish, root vegetables, berry species and other resources on which they depended29,33-36. Starting in the 1800s, a range of legislation, both federal and provincial, was enacted with the result of increasingly restricting peoples’ ability to access and manage their own food resources. For example, the

Provincial Game Protection Act of the 1880s establishing fixed hunting seasons for deer, mountain goat, moose, game birds, etc. and also restricted traditional is hunting technologies. The Dominion Fishery Act of the 1870s and the Provincial Fisheries Acts of the 1880s and later established set fishing seasons and prohibited the use of native fishing technologies such as spears, dipnets and reefnets on non-reserve lands37. “Status Indians” were required to apply for food fishing licenses. Commercial canneries and commercial fisheries were given rights to fish stocks off reserved areas26. The Provincial Forestry Act of the 1920s restricted removal of any forest products on crown land, including the inner bark of trees for food, and prohibited controlled burning to enhance berry and edible root production. Lil’wat elder Baptiste Ritchie described the impact of burning prohibitions in 1969 in his account, “Burning Mountainsides for Better Crops”38.

Virtually all populations of indigenous peoples were terribly impacted by new diseases introduced by the European newcomers. Waves of epidemics struck over the late 1700s into the early 1900s–smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, influenza, and other diseases–

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striking down people of all generations, and in some cases decimating entire families and communities39. Knowledge and practices relating to traditional food, as well as other cultural knowledge, declined, along with the individuals lost to disease and other afflictions such as alcoholism. In many cases, because of dwindling numbers among other reasons, people moved away from their original villages and traditional food harvesting sites and tended to congregate in amalgamated villages and urban centres, thus becoming geographically distanced from their original food sources. This situation is still happening today, but for other reasons such as education and employment opportunities. Population numbers for indigenous peoples have been rising sharply through the 1900s until, at present, the food requirements for communities are generally much greater than their existing local environments can provide for. At the same time, increased competition for land and food resources from non-Aboriginal peoples has magnified the problem of inadequate local food supply3. The reserve system, land privatization and the legislated restrictions, as well as population changes, have compounded to alienate indigenous peoples from their original resource sites and from the resources themselves. Additional factors, such as low-income levels that prevent travel to harvesting sites by boat or vehicle because of fuel costs, or lack of transportation, amplify this problem. Original trails and pathways that families used to travel overland to their camping places where they harvest particular foods have been fragmented or destroyed by forestry and industrial development. Many areas have been placed off-limits for food harvesting due to establishment of parks, protected areas, and the enclosure of private property. As well, many people cannot take the time required to travel and stay at harvesting sites. The earliest European explorers and traders brought new foodstuffs to the region, including molasses, hard biscuits of wheat flour, and potatoes40. Very soon, sugar and salt, alcoholic beverages, flour, beans, and other imported food products became commonplace in indigenous peoples’ households. Chinese and Japanese immigrants introduced rice, which became a favourite in many households, and soon the woven cotton rice sacks and flour sacks were replacing cedar bark mats and frames for drying seaweed, berries (Fig. 5) and other foods. Dairy products, eggs, chickens and beef

were also brought in by the early Hudson’s Bay Company traders. By the late 1800s, many indigenous families had their own gardens, which helped provide them with fresh, nutritious produce even if it was not part of their original diet. Besides potatoes, other crops that were commonly grown included turnips, carrots, beets, onions, squash, peas, beans, rhubarb, currants and gooseberries, as well as apples, pears, plums and other tree fruits. People continued to garden into the 1960’s and 1970’s, but gradually, as with the non-native population, the gardens dwindled and most people started to purchase more and more of their food from local and distant markets3. Mass-scale commercial food production also increased at this time, and, with exposure to many alternative food choices through markets, media, and education, people shifted their dietary preferences away from their traditional foods and towards packaged, processed, refined and marketed food41. From the time of the establishment of the first Forts and trading posts in the early 1800s until the present, there has been an ongoing transformation of indigenous peoples’ lands and resources, through: agricultural production and livestock grazing; forestry operations (especially impacting estuaries and salmon streams); mining and prospecting; draining, dyking and damming of wetlands, lakes, and rivers for agriculture, flood control and power production; commercial and sports fishing; road construction and urban development. These activities have brought with them a whole host of related problems, including soil erosion and compaction, pollution from sewage and industrial contaminants, and impacts of a multitude of invasive species, these have generally diminished and degraded indigenous people’s food resources, as well as reducing their access to their traditional food42,43. Government mismanagement, poaching and over harvesting have also lead to declining traditional food resources. Today, many of these foods are endangered. Some, like northern abalone, have been closed to harvesting altogether, and some, like eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus – a small smelt and a major producer of a nutritious oil that is valued as a condiment by central and northern coastal peoples–Fig. 6), are simply not available to harvest in many of their original spawning rivers44,45. One study found, for example, a clear decline in the number of all fish populations in the Bella Coola River from about 1965 to 1980, and the situation has gotten worse according

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to Nuxalk elders and fishers reporting from the summer of 20063. Looming and growing concerns about global climate change are often raised; global warming is seen by many as already affecting fish and other populations45,46.

Again, many different factors have worked in combination to reduce the amount of time that children and youth spend with their parents and elders out on the lands and waters harvesting and processing food. One of the most detrimental occurrences was the enforced attendance of native children in residential schools. The children were taught that their traditional food was inferior and nasty47. These children were fed a limited and often inadequate diet of low cost, mass produced, easily stored, institutional food, with rations of porridge, potatoes and other starchy food the most common fare. Eating foods from home was a rare event3. They lost the opportunity to enjoy and learn all the knowledge they needed to harvest and process their traditional food; ability to cut fish for smoking and drying, or to learn how to pit-cook camas and other root vegetables and were unable to learn how to hunt and butcher a deer. The loss of this knowledge has been a major impediment in efforts to renew peoples’ traditional food systems. As seen from the camas example earlier, from the beginning of the colonial era, government and church officials held a deep belief in the superiority of the agricultural lifestyle, and at the outset, they did everything they could to turn the indigenous peoples away from their traditional food and transform them into farmers and ranchers, or commercial fishers, in the European image.

Discussions of agriculture potential pervade the letters and papers of the colonial government48,49. Children at residential schools were directed to agricultural pursuits and were given training in European agricultural techniques50. Indigenous peoples’ lands that were enclosed and under cultivation were generally protected from takeover by settlers, consequently, this was another incentive to adopt European style agriculture. Indian agents furthered the process by buying seed potatoes and other crop plants for the people. The policies were deeply embedded in most interactions between first peoples and the state; in short, traditional food ways were discouraged, while European style food production was privileged5. Many indigenous people undertook crop harvesting and agricultural work as a

way to earn wages, and in this way they became closely involved with new ways of food production51. The potlatch–a diverse and complex social and economic institution incorporating feasts, the colonial government in 1884 banned dances and drama. Those who held and participated in illegal potlatches were severely punished, and their ceremonial regalia confiscated52. A major result of outlawing the potlatch was a decline in the cultural practices surrounding the harvesting, serving and distribution of traditional food, which was almost always featured in some way at potlatches, both being served at feasts and given as gifts to witnesses. The spiritual aspects of relationships to food and other species were also embodied within the potlatch and related ceremonies, and without spiritual context and protocols for food, many elders would argue, it is impossible to maintain traditions of food use. Potlatching and its accompanying spiritual beliefs have been slowly revived, and with them, the tradition of feasting and use of locally harvested foods has been strengthened in recent years53. It is hard to find a direct cause-and-effect for the drastic change in indigenous peoples’ food use. All of the previous factors have been major influences, and together, they have had compounding effects. The wage economy offered by the European newcomers, in which many indigenous people participated very early on, started the trend of people being distanced from their traditional food sources and of adults having less and less time to spend with their children and youth54. In addition, with the new demands on personal time and energy–especially during the prime food harvesting season–coupled with fewer chances to prepare and store food, people simply did not have the time or opportunity to undertake the often intensive rounds of harvesting and food preparation that their ancestors focused on intensively. Conversely, with wage earnings, it was often easier to purchase marketed food than harvest it. Men in logging camps and on fish boats, and women in household service or canneries might be fed institutional meals rather than preparing their own food. Subtle and not-so-subtle disparagement of traditional food and privileging of the new food through schools, jobs, non-native social contacts and media has meant less desire for traditional food, especially from the younger people in communities3. The new sweeter tasting and highly refined foods are especially appreciated, and so, indigenous peoples

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have generally followed the food trends’ mainstream; as the familiarity with indigenous foods has declined, so has the interest and knowledge about them. Not all the “new” food is poor nutritionally or undesirable, but nevertheless, the major reduction of healthy traditional food has placed people at risk of deficiency in some nutrients, including vitamin a, iron and folic acid and has made them more prone to certain diseases like diabetes. In a study, it was found that less than 50% of reserve resident Nuxalk families had fruits or vegetables, apart from potatoes in their 24-hrs dietary55. The foods consumed by peoples around the world have changed over the course of history. During the last 50 yrs, however, food systems around the world have been transformed at an unprecedented rate. Increasingly, packaged, processed, high-calorie, low-nutrition foods, traveling thousands of kilometers between production and consumption, have become common fare for increasing numbers of people around the world, particularly those living in industrialized countries and in urban centers56. Even the small kitchen gardens and fruit trees that were the norm for both native and non-native families in Canada some 50 yrs ago have mostly disappeared44. Today, most people neither have time, skills or inclination to acquire their food this way. The modern food industry is promoted by billions of dollars spent by multi-national conglomerates each year41. The effects of this new diet are reflected in individual health and also in the environment. In this way, not only are food preferences moved further from traditional foods but the possible acquisition of traditional foods is also undermined because of the contamination of waterways and soils resulting from industrial agricultural runoff57. Corporate ownership and control of the food system in North America now extends from the field, to the sites of processing, preservation and packaging, to the marketing of selected foods, to the grocery store58. These marketed foods are but a minute proportion of the vast diversity of food crops and crop varieties that have been carefully developed by small-scale farmers and food producers around the world. For example, while it might be possible to find one or two varieties of basmati rice in a typical North American grocery store, this in no way reflects the 27 basmati varieties developed over centuries by Indian farmers59. The distance within the Global Food System in physical, technological, intellectual, cultural

and spiritual terms between consumers and their food, and the resultant lack of control, ownership and substantive choice negotiable within it for individuals, has lead many around the world to view this nutrition transition as a form of imperialism, which benefits corporations at the expense of local farmers, consumers and the environment58,59,60.

The loss of local control over food production and consumption has incited the growth of several grassroots and international movements—focusing on fair trade, organic production and eating foods grown within the “local food shed”—seeking to re-embed the global food system61. The proliferation of food sovereignty and food security discourse has opened spaces for many indigenous groups to focus on recovering their traditional food systems as a tool of de-colonization. Negative health impacts, compounded by the global nutrition transition, have provided a particular focus of activism, as has the desire to reclaim cultural traditions, access to and ability to manage traditional territories, and particularly with reference to clean food and water10,62,63. Many of these issues were discussed by indigenous participants at Terra Madre, a major gathering of small-scale food producers and those interested in bioregional and sustainability produced food organized by Slow Food in 200464. Future directions: Rebuilding indigenous food systems Despite the heavy losses and injustices endured through the colonial era, many indigenous peoples today are more interested in looking forward, in renewing their connections with their lands and cultural heritage, and look to recovering their traditional food as a means to regain cultural strength and personal and community health. Many indigenous leaders and elders have encouraged their youth to learn about harvesting and preparing their traditional food. In the Pacheedaht (Ditidaht) community at Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, for example, elders and cultural leaders recently organized, together with their youth, a day of feasting, with many types of seafood harvested by the youth from the early morning low tides, and a traditional pit-cooking event to demonstrate how root vegetables were formerly cooked for feasts and preparation for storage. This event is one of many that have taken place in indigenous communities, sponsored through schools, band councils, cultural centres and science camps, to

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highlight and demonstrate the values of traditional food48,65. A number of films on traditional food harvesting have been produced1,33. Many local and regional books promoting traditional food have been published over the last two decades or so66-69. Efforts to regain power on decision-making over lands and resources are ongoing29,36. Restoration of food producing habitats and focused attention on “endangered foods”–foods no longer widely used, or whose use has disappeared altogether–are now common goals of academic researchers, NGOs community activists and indigenous peoples throughout the region65,70,71. There is a growing list of examples to turn to as models for renewing their traditional food systems. One is the fishwheel technology currently being used by the Nisga’a Nation, in partnership with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, for managing and sustainably harvesting sockeye and other salmon in the Nass River29. Another is the effort of the Songhees Nation in Victoria to renew camas harvesting and pit-cooking19,71,72 Always, in the elders’ minds, is the concern for the future and for their children’s and grandchildren’s security and well-being. Acknowledgement Authors would like to acknowledge all of the Indigenous elders and cultural specialists whose knowledge about traditional food systems has contributed to this paper. In particular, authors are grateful to the late Christopher Paul (Saanich), Cheryl Bryce (Lekwungen), Ida Jones and the Pacheedaht community (Ditidaht), Chief Adam Dick (Kwaxsistala), Kim Recalma -Clutesi (Ogwalogwa), and Dr Daisy Sewid-Smith (Mayanilth) (Kwakwaka’wakw), Dr Mary Thomas (Secwepemc), Helen Clifton (Gitga’at; Coast Tsimshian), and the late Dr Margaret Siwallace (Nuxalk) and other participants in the Nuxalk Food and Nutrition Program. Authors also thank Dr Brenda Beckwith, Dr Harriet Kuhnlein, Dr Douglas Deur, Dr Rosemary Ommer, Dr Fikret Berkes, and especially Dr Ranjay K Singh. The paper was supported in part through Coasts Under Stress MCRI Research Grant (Rosemary Ommer, PI), and a General Research Grant from SSHRC to N Turner (# 410-2005-1741). Foot Notes A First Peoples are also over represented in tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other forms of infectious

disease73. Health Canada (May 25, 2006). http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnih-spni/diseases-maladies/index_e.html. B Food sovereignty is defined as the ability to make substantive choices about food consumption. This includes, what types of foods are eaten, and where, how, and by whom they are produced. C Food security, as defined at the World Food Summit (FAO 1996)74, exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to safe and nutritious food, which meets dietary needs and food preferences, in sufficient quantity to sustain an active and healthy lifestyle. References 1 Hood RJ & Fox B, Gitga’ata Spring Harvest, A Co-

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