An Offering: Lakota Elders Contributions to the Future of Food Security
Keywords:
Food Security, Gardening, Lakota, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, American Indians, Elders, Indigenous MethodologiesAbstract
Food security in American Indian communities is an understudied and often viewed through a deficiency model when the narrative is shaped by non-Indigenous voices, examining the food system and diet through the lens of poverty or through a historic lens narrowly focused on the dwindling traditional food source. To address this gap in scholarship, a qualitative study explored the narratives related to food and food production with 25 Lakota elders living on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Findings derived via thematic analysis illustrate the experiences of the elders across their lifespans including their early beginnings on the family homestead, gardening and food preservation throughout their adulthoods. Implications include programing that would transmit the cultural and traditional knowledge of gardening between generations which leads to learning skills, cultural lifeways and community health implications.References
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