Research Guides: NYU Reads: The Honorable Harvest

What is the Honorable Harvest?

Closed captioning in English is available.

Collectively, the Indigenous canon of principles and practices that govern the exchange of life for life is known as the Honorable Harvest. They are rules of sorts that govern our taking, shape our relationships with the natural world , and rein in our tendency to consume--that the world might be as rich for the seventh generation as it is for our own.

-Braiding Sweetgrass, The Honorable Harvest (p.180).

Articles

The “Honorable Harvest”: Lessons From an Indigenous Tradition of Giving Thanks
A look into the Honorable Harvest, the "rules" and its space in indigenous traditions and food ways.

Becoming Indigenous To Place

Maple Sugar Moon

Our people call this time the Maple Sugar Moon, Zizibaswet Giizis, the month before is known as the Hard Crust on Snow Moon. People living a subsistence lifestyle also know it as the Hunger Moon, when stored food has dwindled and game is scarce. But the maples carried the people through, provided food just when they needed it most.

- Braiding Sweetgrass, Maple Sugar Moon (p.68).

Natural, sweet gifts of the Maple Sugar Moon
The harvesting, importance and preparation of maple during the maple sugar moon.
Why Native Americans Named the Moon
A list of the moons and their associated meanings.

The Three Sisters

I hold in my hand the genius of Indigenous agriculture, the Three Sisters. Together these plants--corn, beans, and squash--feed the people, feed the land, and feed our imaginations, telling us how we might live.

-Braiding Sweetgrass, The Three Sisters (Page 129).

Corn Tastes Better on the Honor System
Robin Wall Kimmerer shares the traditional and scientific significance of corn and the role it plays in sustaining land-people relationships. This piece can be both read and listened to in podcast form.
The Three Sisters- Photo Essay Gallery
Rowen White shares photos and traditional practices of the "Three Sisters" represented in photo essay style.

The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash. (Getty Images)

Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Journal and News Articles

In the food deserts of the South Side there is no such choice, and the dishonor in that inequity runs far deeper than the food supply.

-Braiding Sweetgrass, The Honorable Harvest (p. 196).

Returning Corn, Beans, and Squash to Native American Farms
The research project "Returning the Three Sisters", are growing three sisters plots using indigenous knowledge in an effort to teach communities about traditional foodways and bring the community together through gardening.
Indigenous Youth Reboot Acorns to Revive Food Sovereignty
A group of youths have come together using acorns to create acorn bites using traditional harvesting and preparation methods.
Food Insecurity among American Indians and Alaska Natives: A National Profile using the Current Population Survey–Food Security Supplement
Published in the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, authors Jernigan, Huyser, Valdes, and Watts Simonds examine food insecurity among American and Alaskan natives.

Books

Print Books

The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman; Beth Dooley (Contribution by)
Publication Date: 2017
The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy. Sherman dispels outdated notions of Native American fare--no fry bread or Indian tacos here--and no European staples such as wheat flour, dairy products, sugar, and domestic pork and beef. The Sioux Chef's healthful plates embrace venison and rabbit, river and lake trout, duck and quail, wild turkey, blueberries, sage, sumac, timpsula or wild turnip, plums, purslane, and abundant wildflowers. Contemporary and authentic, his dishes feature cedar braised bison, griddled wild rice cakes, amaranth crackers with smoked white bean paste, three sisters salad, deviled duck eggs, smoked turkey soup, dried meats, roasted corn sorbet, and hazelnut-maple bites. The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen is a rich education and a delectable introduction to modern indigenous cuisine of the Dakota and Minnesota territories, with a vision and approach to food that travels well beyond those borders.
Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States by Devon A. Mihesuah (Editor); Elizabeth Hoover (Editor); Winona LaDuke (Foreword by)
Publication Date: 2019
Centuries of colonization and other factors have disrupted indigenous communities' ability to control their own food systems. This volume explores the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States, and asks whether and how it might be achieved and sustained. Unprecedented in its focus and scope, this collection addresses nearly every aspect of indigenous food sovereignty, from revitalizing ancestral gardens and traditional ways of hunting, gathering, and seed saving to the difficult realities of racism, treaty abrogation, tribal sociopolitical factionalism, and the entrenched beliefs that processed foods are superior to traditional tribal fare. Writers offer advice and encouragement to those concerned about tribal health, environmental destruction, loss of species habitat, and governmental food control.
*This book is also available in ebook format via Proquest*
Indian Fishing: Early Methods on the Northwest Coast by Hilary Stewart
Publication Date: 2018
First published in 1977 and unavailable for several years, Indian Fishing is more than a sterile account of the technology of fishing; it considers the momentous role of fish and fishing in the lives of the Northwest Coast peoples. A classic, thoroughly researched and informative text, it examines fishing techniques of the peoples who have lived on the coast for over nine thousand years, revealing their rich and complex culture. With more than 300 clear and detailed drawings, Stewart illustrates how these tools were made and used. She twisted cedar bark and nettle fibers into cod fishing lines, and steam-bent a stem of yew into a halibut hook. Here, reprinted in full, is her original work, covering everything from how the catch was butchered, cooked, and preserved, to the prayers and ceremonies in gratitude to the fish, as well as customs and taboos that demonstrated the peoples' respect for this life-giving resource.
Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes by E. Barrie Kavasch
Publication Date: 2005
Practical primer on natural foods not only provides recipes for varied Native American dishes but also describes uses of ceremonial, medicinal, and sacred plants. From clambakes to wild strawberry bread, the volume is simultaneously a field guide, cookbook, and useful manual on herbal remedies. 139 black-and-white illustrations; 8 in color.

Ebooks

Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way by Charlotte J. Frisbie; Tall Tall Woman (Contribution by); Augusta Sandoval (Contribution by)
Publication Date: 2018
Around the world, indigenous peoples are returning to traditional foods produced by traditional methods of subsistence. The goal of controlling their own food systems, known as food sovereignty, is to reestablish healthy lifeways to combat contemporary diseases such as diabetes and obesity. This is the first book to focus on the dietary practices of the Navajos, from the earliest known times into the present, and relate them to the Navajo Nation's participation in the global food sovereignty movement. It documents the time-honored foods and recipes of a Navajo woman over almost a century, from the days when Navajos gathered or hunted almost everything they ate to a time when their diet was dominated by highly processed foods.
Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience by Enrique Salmón; Enrique Salmón
Publication Date: 2012
Traversing a range of cultures, including the Tohono O'odham of the Sonoran Desert and the Rarámuri of the Sierra Tarahumara, the book is an illuminating journey through the southwest United States and northern Mexico. Salmón weaves his historical and cultural knowledge as a renowned indigenous ethnobotanist with stories American Indian farmers have shared with him to illustrate how traditional indigenous foodways--from the cultivation of crops to the preparation of meals--are rooted in a time-honored understanding of environmental stewardship. Salmón shows that these collective philosophies provide the foundation for indigenous resilience as the farmers contend with global climate change and other disruptions to long-established foodways. This resilience, along with the rich stores of traditional ecological knowledge maintained by indigenous agriculturalists, Salmón explains, may be the key to sustaining food sources for humans in years to come.
*A physical copy is also available via NYU Libraries*
Native Foodways: Indigenous North American Religious Traditions and Foods by Michelene E. Pesantubbee (Editor); Michael J. Zogry (Editor)
Publication Date: 2021
Explores the interplay of religion and food in Native American cultures.
*A physical copy is also available via NYU libraries*

Organizations

The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance
The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance is geared towards reviving cultural food practices. This organization includes programs such as the Seed keepers Network and the Native Food and Culinary Network program.
Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative
The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative uses policy, tribal governments, producers, legal analysts and food businesses to revive traditional food systems. Here you can find reports and infographs on the Farm Bill, risk assessments and more.