Growing Native

(tribal music) GORDON: The way we were taught a native people is we're only supposed to take what we're gonna use and never take more than what you're gonna use.

(tribal music) VANESSA JENNINGS: Your culture is made up of your language, your clothing and it's made of your manners.

The songs, the customs.

MAN: Today we're dealing with industrialization and globalization.

Those aren't just words.

Those mean really the separation from the understanding of interacting with the land.

GLORIA: We have the highest rate of Type II diabetes, of obesity, heart disease.

All of that can be either cured or absolutely prevented by eating fresh locally grown product.

NATHAN: We believe in reciprocity.

That what comes around goes around.

You're given something, you give back.

The buffalo gave to us at one time.

It's our turn to give back to them.

(tribal music) MOSES BRINGS PLENTY: Centuries after the first Europeans landed on this continent.

Tribal people continue to adapt, change and survive.

(tribal music) These are the people's stories of reclaiming the old ways for health today.

This is Growing Native.

MOSES BRINGS PLENTY: Oklahoma is unique among other states.

It is home to 39 Federally recognized tribes.

No where north of America will you find such diversity among native peoples.

And no where will you find a more tragic history.

President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Pushing the five tribes out of their ancestral lands in the East.

At gunpoint, the five tribes are forced to make their perilous journey to what was called Indian Territory.

Thousands of men, women, and children died in the harsh conditions along the march.

Which would later become known as the Trail of Tears.

Conflicts immediately erupted between the Pawnee, Osage, Comanche, and Cayowa.

Warrior tribes, whose mastery of the horse allowed them to command the Southern Plains.

Military forts were built to settle the unrest.

Reservations were created and the Plains became a prison without walls.

The governments so called assimilation policy was no more than a campaign of genocide.

(somber music) Vanessa Jennings has spent her life working to preserve the Cayowa traditions handed down to her from her grandparents.

VANESSA JENNINGS: Most of these pieces are going to be here long after I'm gone.

MOSES: What Vanessa has done and what she has become is a bridge.

A gateway to that living memory of who we once were and who we can be again.

VANESSA: The way you dress.

The cultural identity that is a very important part of your culture.

And you have to remember what did our elders suffer for?

I wear a cloth dress.

My braids, my scalp is painted.

I wear a Concha belt, and Moccasins.

It's the way my grandmother dressed.

(birds chirping) I look in the mirror and you know.

I know who I am and I remember how hard I fought tooth and nail to learn as much as I could.

I had my grandmother who was so generous.

But then growing up a young person, they need encouragement.

(tribal music) Our people have always been a nation of warriors.

This dress done on muslin.

It's a record of war deeds and right here you can see in my family.

We had ah, captives and this is a representation of my great great grandfather.

He was captured by the Cayowa's.

I started bead working because I had children and I wanted them to be dressed as if my grandmother were still here.

And I loved old style work.

To this day that's my favorite.

I love doing elk tooth buckskin dresses.

I like doing women's leggings.

This is the front of the buckskin dress and you can see here the legs of the animal.

And you can see the apron.

And this is the back of the, this is the back of the dress.

It's just very elegantly Cayowa.

CHARLES KURWALT: The National Heritage Fellowship Award is for 1989 and here they are.

(applause) MOSES: In 1989 Jennings was named the National Heritage Fellow for her traditional bead work and designated a national treasure.

VANESSA: I think the most important thing that you can see is that the Cayowa culture is intact.

These people, this culture, it's still here.

MOSES: Her accomplishments echo her grandfather's.

The renowned Cayowa Five Artist, Steven Mopope.

His career helped define the Plains Indian artistic style.

Launching Native fine art into the mainstream.

16 WPA murals painted my Steven Mopope in 1936 are housed at the Anadarko Post Office.

Which was once the Cayowa Indian Agency.

(triumphant music) MOSES: Can you share a little bit with me about this beautiful mural here?

VANESSA: Okay this is called Moving Camp and it's a husband and a wife and their children.

You see the backpack being, you know, there are things being pulled on the travois.

And you see that one of the young sons coming behind with the whip.

Then you see more teepee poles being dragged by one of the other horses.

When my grandfather did these paintings.

You need to keep in mind that he was on like a homemade scaffolding.

And when he was doing them, you know, today artists they have that machine and they can shine it and you can enlarge it or make it smaller.

This isn't that.

This is all eye-hand coordination.

I mean it's wonderful.

I mean even if you were standing up on a scaffold to look at it.

Everything, they're all in proportion.

But I mean to me it's just magical.

(tribal music) MOSES: When you look at these murals what do you feel?

VANESSA: Pride.

MOSES: Pride.

VANESSA: Pride.

He was paid for one painting and you look at how many of them there are.

One, two I think there are like 16 and in the whole United States, this is the only Federal Building that has these kind of important memories.

These ways don't exist anymore.

(native speaking) MOSES: The preservation of Native culture is especially important and difficult in Oklahoma.

The Allotment Act of 1887 created the Drome and Dross Commissions.

Designed to dispossess the tribes of their remaining lands by dividing them into 160 acres sections.

And allotted the excess to non Natives.

(dramatic music) The famous Oklahoma land runs were nothing more than an all out land grab.

Leaving tribes with broken promises and worthless treaties.

But perhaps the most heartbreaking assault came in the form of boarding schools.

It defined institutional prejudice by removing children from their homes.

Stripping away their customs, songs, and language.

MOSES: The Osage Nation is one of many tribes working against time to save their Native tongue.

In the Fall of 2003, the Osage Counsel created their own language program.

And hired Herman Lookout as the Director.

HERMAN LOOKOUT: When they established this program back in 2004 their goal was to introduce culture into our government.

I didn't learn Osage.

Even try to want to learn it until I was 31 or 32 years old.

Never even thought about learning it.

It was about then that my parents explained things to me and it made me think.

There was never, them coming to say well you need to learn your language, never had that.

They promoted education.

Hey Mo, come on.

Get in, sit down.

MOSES: How you doing?

HERMAN: I'm doing alright.

How you doing?

MOSES: Good, how's everything?

HERMAN: Ahh, same old same old.

MOSES: Same old same old.

HERMAN: The mentality of that generation was we see that white man way is coming.

And we're gonna want you to fit into this world.

So this world was ours and that world you got to fit into it, that's yours.

HERMAN: (speaking native language) HERMAN: But if you put this in there than that's gonna be from now on.

From this time forward.

We have a language here that the only way to teach it and the only way we can get through to people is with English as an aid.

But yet it's not a good aid because it don't have anything to do with Osage.

MOSES: How much of a role does language play for our spirit?

HERMAN: I think it's in there.

Especially when you start trying to learn it and how they did things.

(native language) HERMAN: Osage is a polysynthetic language which means you work in thoughts.

(native language) HERMAN: English is kind of analytical.

Where you have a dictionary in your head and you just understand words as they appear.

They're kind of tagged into a situation.

(native language) But Osage is right there working with the thought right then and there.

And it stays into your head.

(native language) HERMAN: Now that we don't have speakers we have to go at it academically and we have to put all this down, a little at a time.

(native language) HERMAN: And then make sure they have it and then move on.

And that's how we're gonna have to do it.

(native language) If you turn on TV you're hearing them talk English.

When you go to town they're talking English.

When you go to Walmart they're talking English.

Turn on the TV, turn on the radio.

Everything is in English.

And most of the discussions around here are in English.

Now we want to change that.

We want to change that.

TEACHER: Our verbs don't mean anything.

Like we talked about before when we were talking about gola.

Gola doesn't mean anything unless it's attached to something.

It's a glutative language.

So you have to connect any subject to the verb.

HERMAN: Osage is its own entity that has its own meaning.

Trying to turn it into English, then you're getting to double meanings and all that.

It's a different ball of wax.

TEACHER: I would never actually say my name is in Osage.

I can say it but culturally that really isn't what you would do.

HERMAN: Because they loose a concept trying to turn it into English.

TEACHER: Find me the (native language) HERMAN: But Osage is pure, that's it.

(native language) (casual music) MOSES: Every Spring hundreds of students gather at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma.

To compete in the Native American Youth Language Fair.

It's an event where young people can celebrate their cultures and share their love of Native languages.

WARREN QUETONE: Its focus is on language re-vitalization within communities.

We focus on, of course, the children.

Encouraging them to speak but also encourage the language teachers.

We want to give them something to work towards.

EVENT SPEAKER: Hearing the call as the Osage Nation Language Program.

(applause) WARREN: And just having this exchange that focuses on maybe this language program might be an emerging program.

What are they doing?

What kind of language domains are they creating?

DANIEL: I want to welcome you all to the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair.

This is one of the great events at the museum.

We're incredibly honored and proud bringing together language learners, language speakers, teachers and students, parents and grandparents, to build this community of language learners and language revitalization.

(children speaking native language) HERMAN: Even though we don't have speakers we've always had the little kids that would step up and make speeches, make prayers.

(applause) We've been fortunate that way.

EMCEE: And in first place Comanche Nation Childcare Center.

(applause) (tribal music) CHRISTIAN CASEY JOHNSON: So our attempt with the emersion program is to bring them in at six weeks to pre K and have them immersed in the language.

Right now we've only got them for two hours and forty five minutes.

(tribal music) Where total emersion where we bring in our language teachers from the culture division.

So they learn Osage in Osage.

Once we can get these speaking everyday.

You know by the time they're teenagers we're flooding the Osage Nation with language speakers.

So that's the intent.

You're not really people anymore if you don't have your own language.

(tribal music) CHRISTIAN: Part of the program we have parents come in because we got to have the parents speaking in the house after school is over with.

So that's part of the program.

DANIEL SWAN: So we've come full circle.

Our theme this year is language in your future.

Language in our future.

That's the future right there.

I like to think that when I look out there and I see seven or eight hundred children competing, performing in a variety of events here.

That's potentially seven or eight hundred language teachers that are gonna be out there.

(tribal music) (applause) DOROTHY WHITE HORSE: We have over a hundred fluent speakers.

Nobody seems to want to do it.

All of you with your tribal languages.

Don't be afraid to be.

Don't ever ever be ashamed to get up and talk in front of people.

I've been judging here and 13 years ago we were called on.

And it has improved even the way they're dressing their children.

They're trying to get more authentic.

But at first we were pitiful.

You know like, but they're really improved.

And I know they're gonna get better.

And I'm helping them as long as I can walk.

(children speaking native language) HERMAN: I wish it was easy.

I wish it was real easy.

I would love for it to be easy.

It's gonna take some time.

(children speaking native language) It's just overwhelming how big that language is and to learn it.

And how much time it's gonna take.

You want it to put the effort out.

And if you want it.

(mellow music) MOSES: Our language has always been the language of the land.

It is a bridge to help us understand seasons, moments, and movement.

HERMAN: My grandparents, Fred and Judy Lookout, lived here.

MOSES: I honored Herman for his strength and his love for the people.

That's the essence of what it means to be Indian.

That's a true human being in my eyes.

HERMAN: And this is also where I grew up.

It brings back all the memories.

Spent a lot of my youth here.

(dramatic music) MOSES: I can also see the same strengths with in Vanessa as she takes me out to her family teepee.

I can feel her respect and her love of what it means to be Cayowa.

MOSES: So Vanessa, I was looking at the calendar.

Can you tell me what is the calendar and what does it mean to the Cayowa people?

Especially for the individuals out there who doesn't know what a calendar is for Cayowa.

VANESSA: Well, the winter count is a record of important events that are specific to the Cayowa people.

I believe the calendar, I think the earliest date on there is like 1820.

It may be earlier than that.

There is a little icon that identifies the person that the event has happened to.

Like here you see the owl that is sitting on the wagon.

That is the original (native language) the leader of the Cayowa's.

He was given a wagon and his name.

He became known as old man wagon.

Then back over here the calendar shows the years where there were a number of tornadoes.

And you can see there it's like the head of a horse.

But then the body is kind of twisted but it's a representative of the tornado.

It's information that is specific to Cayowa's.

And here again, it's a teaching instrument.

You know it takes one little sign and it jogs your memory.

Instead of, you know, we don't have a written language.

And so everything is oral tradition.

You know except for, you know, I never thought about it.

I suppose that this would be considered ledger art.

(dramatic music) MOSES: Following the Red River Wars for the Southern Plains in 1875.

The US Calvary arrested 72 Cheyenne, Arapaho, Cayowa, and Comanche prisoners.

And transported them to Fort Marian in Florida.

War chiefs and tribal leaders were held without trial and subject to a military style re-education with the intent to kill the Indian and save the man.

The prisoners were given old ledger books.

On those ledgers they recorded scenes from a life they left behind.

Memories of battles.

Tribal celebrations, dances and magnificent bufflots.

The buffalo was our teacher.

So their destruction signaled the demise of the people.

The tribes followed the herds that stretched as far as the eye could see.

From Canada to Mexico.

From the Ohio River to the Pacific.

In 70 years, 30 million buffalo were killed leaving just a few hundred.

NATHAN HART: We'll walk there on that side and then just push them up here slowly.

No rush with these guys.

Take your time.

MOSES: The Cheyenne and Arapaho are among 58 tribes working with the Inter Tribal Buffalo Counsel to restore pure herds to the rightful place among the people.

NATHAN: We're good to go.

Here we go.

Load them up.

(dramatic music) NATHAN: First buffalo came to the tribe back in the 70's.

It was just a small herd, just a few animals.

It's really been in the past six years or so that we've really began to increase the herd by about 40 to 80 head per year.

Getting these from a lot of the public lands throughout the United States.

As they're thinning out their herds we're applied and we're getting shipped down here to us.

Primarily from South Dakota.

A little over 4,000 acres that we have here.

We're in buffalo herd.

We have about 240 animals out here.

We're in with a group that has a lot of young ones which is nice to see.

A lot of yearlings here.

Some calves from the Spring, earlier this Spring Winter time.

(buffalo running past) What we're trying to do is just grow a herd that's gonna be healthy.

In time this herd is gonna supply a lot of the food sources to our nutrition programs.

NATHAN: Let's run him in the shoot.

Get a shot of him in the shoot yeah.

NATHAN: Our goal is to have a healthy diet for a lot of our elders and people with diabetes.

And the buffalo is gonna help us out quite a bit with that.

(dramatic music) MOSES: For me there was such a hunger to be among the buffalo.

And standing there I realize that in that society, I belonged.

The stewards of the herd having reverence for these animals.

And understand that the land takes care of the buffalo and the buffalo takes care of the people.

(dramatic music) NATHAN: A lot of these guys, they're ceremonial guys.

They go through sweats, they go through the sun dances and so they have their own unique way of handling all of this.

So they have a lot of respect for the buffalo.

EVAN ORTIZ WHITEMAN: I think that's very important for us to teach our kids of how important the buffalo was a part of our lives.

RALPH TALLBEAR: Kind of rewarding.

I get to do something for my people.

Something I can go home and tell my children about.

They eat it up, they love it.

You know they're real excited when they come out and pick me up.

They like to look at the buffalo.

It's something that my kids can, you know.

One of them maybe might be able to pick it up and carry it further than all of us ever thought of.

MOSES: Do you have youth programs that help educate the children about buffalo?

NATHAN: We have a Culture and Heritage Program.

That program has been very good in bringing the youth out.

Particularly during the Spring Breaks.

They came out.

They kind of see some of the herd but they get to know about what the animal really means to the Cheyenne and Arapaho people.

(tribal music) NATHAN: From everything that we use the buffalo for, for shelter...

TEACHER: The shields we used were made out of buffalo raw hide.

NATHAN: ...for food, for clothing.

Culture Heritage Program does a great job of that.

TEACHER: The doll is actually stuffed with it instead of the cotton.

And then you can also use it for the hair on the dolls head.

TEACHER: Anybody know what this is?

(chatter) It's a rib.

What we used to use this for it would straighten out our arrows.

They would run the shaft through these holes here and eventually they would work it into a straight arrow shaft.

There's even a thread guide here that they would use.

Now when we used everything of the buffalo, we used everything.

(calm music) GORDON YELLOWMAN, SR.: Buffalo is a very sacred animal to the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

It was through our prophet and sweet medicine who gave us the gift.

Comes from the teachings.

Gave us a gift of an animal.

Said this animal is gonna always provide for you.

It's gonna always give you nutritious value.

So take care of him and he will take are of you forever.

(buffalos in pen) Well I think for me it's complete in this.

What we call the sacred circle of life.

It's full circling in it.

(calm music) MOSES: Our identity came from the buffalo.

And what has happened to the buffalo is what has happened to us.

I see that we are beginning to lean on each other again.

To come back to being a human again.

What it means to be spiritual again.

MOSES BRINGS PLENTY: Since you've been working with the buffalo do you feel that it has changed you mentally, spiritually?

Has it impacted you?

NATHAN: You know I've always.

You know you grow up and elders that you look to to get your advice in life.

Your guidance in life.

They talk about the animal and what it meant to us as Cheyenne people, as Arapaho people.

You don't really understand that until you're out here though with them.

I get to be out here with them everyday.

I feel like that's a blessing for me and for this program.

For the people that I work with.

We're around these everyday and so we have that deep connection with them.

It's very strong, it's very powerful.

EDDIE HAMILTON: To me it rings significance of impact to people.

Especially like to our families where we rely so much on buffalo.

We use every part of the buffalo for different meanings besides just feeding us.

GORDON: When the cow, the last remaining original cow died in the herd.

I think five years ago.

She died giving birth.

But the blessing was the two twin calves she gave us.

And so it was double.

We lost one life, of the original herd.

But we were blessed with two.

(tribal music) That's a sign of how we're gonna prosper.

How we're gonna continue to take care of the sacred animal.

That's a sign of brighter future ahead of us.

(upbeat music) NATHAN: Our goal number wise is like we can.

Through all of our travel lands that we have here in Oklahoma.

We feel we can sustain a herd of about 800 head and the goal is to have them reproducing at the rate where we can have an ample supply of food source coming into our nutrition programs for our tribal membership.

We also want to be on the commercial side too and begin to sell some of this off and have a revenue stream coming into the tribe.

Again to keep supporting what we need as far as the feed sources, the facilities.

To manage a herd the way we need to.

MOSES: When I looked at the buffalo.

There was a movement and within that there was purity and a true consciousness of the great Creator.

That existed even within the soil and everything all around it.

There is also a feeling of frustration of what has happened, not only to them but also to us as a people.

But now, we are rebuilding that relationship where returning to that source of health and spirituality.

VIRGINIA: Hi.

KATHY SHAWNEE: Hi, good morning Virginia.

How are you doing?

VIRGINIA: Fine Ms. Shawnee.

KATHY: I'm glad you got to come it.

It's good to see ya.

GLORIA BELLYMULE ZUNIGA: Indians have the highest grade of diabetes across the country.

The Cheyenne, Arapaho tribes.

We were 11% of the cases in Indian Health Service this last year.

KATHY: Have you been having any problems lately?

VIRGINIA; No I haven't.

Just little callus that's on my foot that's giving me a little problem.

GLORIA: We get new clients on a daily basis.

Out of the 338, 75 of them are at risk elders.

They're not diabetics but the majority of our database in our Buffalo Program are all diabetics.

KATHY: Same for this one, it's getting pretty close down in that skin.

Does it hurt?

VIRGINIA: Yes.

GLORIA: We provide buffalo for our diabetics because it's a better meat to eat.

I wish I could give buffalo meat every month but it's the cost of the buffalo prohibits us from giving it out every month.

They come in every three months.

They get five pounds.

We also do an education.

Laveda Goul is our buffalo meat coordinator and she gives out recipes.

She discusses with them how to thaw it.

How to cook it.

You have to cook buffalo longer than you do regular meat.

It has to go and cook slow and longer.

Every time they come in to pick up buffalo she gives a recipe.

Teaches them how to thaw it.

You know you can't refreeze buffalo when you thaw it out.

KATHY: Hi this is Kathy at the Diabetes Wellness Program.

MOSES: The Diabetes Wellness Program covers 10 counties in Oklahoma.

It provides diabetic shoes, eyeglasses, and access to the tribes exercise facilities with a fitness coordinator.

KEVIN BIRDSHEAD: It's free to all tribal members.

There's no gym fee.

They have access to dumbbells, free weights, and aerobics, treadmills, ellipticals.

It's a good cause for the people.

Deep breathes.

Hold your breathe while you push out and release up top.

Diabetes is a big problem for the Cheyenne Arapaho people.

For all tribes and for people of color.

You always want to measure your hands to make sure you're on the right placement.

I workout to prevent it and I also workout to help.

Everybody wants to workout but not everybody knows how.

This is a book that I made for people who want to come to the Diabetes Wellness and it's free.

And like I said a lot of people want to workout they just don't know how to workout.

And this is a packet that's free for anybody.

You come in and ask for it and they'll print it off and make you a copy.

Good wake up sweat right.

Morning sweat.

KATHY SHAWNEE: It's hard, they're diabetic.

And it's up to them.

They realize to get healthy if they really want to.

You know we can preach and suggest and educate till the cows come home.

But basically they know it's up to them.

If they really want to stay healthy.

MOSES: Our ancestors were smart.

They observed the land around them.

They developed a relationship with it.

They were tied to the plants, the water, the soil, and the animals.

And they soon realized in order to live in balance with mother Earth.

We as human beings have responsibilities.

The abundance of GMO's and commercially produced crops threaten access to traditional nutritious foods.

And therefore health is uncertain.

The Choctaw tribe is working to revitalize ancient heirloom seeds that were brought with them from the southeast.

IAN: So how's the garden doing?

FARMER: Real good, you want to look at it?

IAN: Yeah, I'd like to see it.

So you've got the blue corn out there and it's about ready to harvest right?

FARMER: It's getting really close yeah.

IAN: And then you planted some of the Tonchetope.

FARMER: Yeah.

IAN: The corn is looking nice too.

FARMER: It's getting close to filling out.

Look at the ears how they're.

IAN: Yeah, they're kind of long and skinny like you were saying.

FARMER: Yeah.

Here's how they start.

There's one there and there.

And there's a long skinny one in here somewhere.

IAN THOMPSON: So the project that we're doing to revitalize Choctaw heirloom seeds is to me an important thing because it comes out of our relationship with the Earth as indigenous people.

If you think about our heirloom seeds.

They come out of a relationship that our ancestors had with their homeland for 14,000 years.

This is an heirloom Choctaw corn that came from the family.

We don't have this one historically documented but it was passed down through a family.

It's an eight row variety.

Choctaw corn varieties back about a thousand years ago had a lot more rows and were a lot more diverse and then back about that time the Choctaw society switched to being really focused on corn agriculture.

They started to select for varieties that had eight rows like this one.

You've eaten it before.

You say it's real tasty.

FARMER: Oh it's really tasty.

It reminds me of Peruvian corn in texture but it's kind of got a better flavor even in my opinion.

MOSES: The heritage corn tends to be much higher in protein.

Lower in starch and more nutritious.

It tastes better than what you will find at the supermarket.

And it's ideal for preventing diabetes.

IAN: For quite a while I thought that our corn was extinct.

I found descriptions of it that went back to the 1700's and I was interacting with Steven Bond.

I've learned a lot about agriculture.

A lot about horticulture from Steven Bond.

And I knew that he had seed collections that had come from native people.

And so he was talking to me about some of the collections he had that had come from Choctaw sources.

And I realized that at least two maybe three of those were actually ancient Choctaw corn that was documented way back in time.

So Steven graciously shared those seeds with me and I've started to work with the community to create a more viable seed base.

STEVEN BOND: Some of these varieties that we're working with.

We may only have 20 or 30 seed up front.

And so we have to do everything that we can to ensure the success.

Our commercially produced crops are not genetically diverse.

We're already seeing crop failures internationally, nationally, locally.

We have to ensure the sustainability and our sovereignty through sustainability.

I couldn't imagine anything as important as feeding our own people.

I mean essentially that's the ultimate definition of sovereignty, above and beyond all of that.

IAN: That's basically there.

You could just let this get to this color but I mean it's close.

LADY: So it doesn't get like orange orange.

It just gets about like that?

IAN: It varies a little bit.

But sometimes they're like this.

Sometimes they're more orange but this one is ripe on this side.

And we've had quite a bit of success with the Choctaw squash.

Last year we set seeds out to 50 different tribal families and they grew it out.

And some of them, I wish it were more but some of them are sending those seeds back to us so we can put them through the program again.

That's one of the ways to help the seeds survive.

We could have some climatic event here in Oklahoma that would completely wipe out the Choctaw squash crop or the corn crop for many counties around.

Looks like that's just about done.

But because we're a large tribe with different people living in many areas around the country.

If they grow those seeds then that helps us to have an insurance policy against some major climatic event here so it can help those seeds to survive.

Yeah, this will be different cause this is the way it was made 300 years ago.

It doesn't have sugar in it.

MOSES: Ian met his wife Amy learning traditional Choctaw arts.

He's a master potter who teaches others to make traditional clay pots using ground and mussel shells mixed into the clay.

They use the pottery to cook the same foods the same way as the Choctaw's cooked for thousands of years.

IAN: Yeah these are the dishes that everybody has put together tonight.

Everybody's contributed.

This is just plain Choctaw squash cubed and we're boiling it down.

It's just starting to cook.

It's so flavorful.

It doesn't need any spices, any seasoning.

It'll be good just like that.

You could even eat it raw and it's tasty.

This dish over here is called wilochy in the Choctaw language.

And that's a fruit dumpling.

(boiling liquid) This particular one is made with blackberries but you can make it with almost any kind of fruit.

Choctaw's used to use mulberry's, possum grapes, maypops, plums, peaches.

Lots of different things.

AMY THOMPSON: I used to eat very unhealthy fast food, everything else like that.

We were expecting and basically it was a joyous time for us at the time.

But I was diagnosed, well, we were diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

And so with that the only thing that we came up with was to go back to the way we were supposed to eat, the natural way of eating.

MOSES: They started by working heritage corn, beans, squash and sunflower into their meals.

Along with native fruits and berries, and wild greens.

Such as lambs quarter and pope greens.

AMY: We did get healthier and all the changes that I personally was seeing was very subtle.

But as we kept on eating that way, I noticed that we started having more energy.

Tons more energy.

We had so much energy that we had no idea what to do with it.

But a plus too, we also started loosing weight.

I think you'll ask him we lost about 70 pounds between us.

IAN: Around here they're used to seeing people big so they all thought something was wrong with us when we got to healthy weight.

MOSES: To come back to eating natural foods of the land.

We are taking a step forward to being natural again.

Once we are natural again we shall become healthy again.

(native language) LORETTA: Matt, it's cold.

I need a cup of coffee.

You got any coffee brewing?

MATT: How you doing today?

LORETTA: Good to see you.

MATT: Absolutely.

LORETTA: Good to see you.

MOSES: Loretta Barrett Oden is a Citizen Potawatomi Chef.

LORETTA: Love it.

MOSES: She's passionate about cooking authentic indigenous foods.

Traveling from reservation to reservation she collected recipes.

What she found is a rich varied cuisine that rivals anything from France, Italy, or anywhere else.

In her search for native ingredients, the more she looked, the less she saw.

But the availability of traditional foods is growing.

LORETTA ODEN: I'm a great proponent of farmer's markets, of local producers.

You know doing the foods that are in season.

MERCHANT: So right over here.

We carry beef and buffalo from Wichita Buffalo Company.

These folks are out of Hinton and we always have a nice selection of ground bison, stew meats, steaks, and some of the sub prime cuts.

LORETTA: Oh wow.

Look at the leanness on that.

You know, the bison meat, I really push it as much as I can for that very reason.

It's lower in fat and cholesterol.

It's so very lean.

I always say it's what made those Plains Indians run faster and jump higher.

They were mighty buffalo eaters and hunters.

Everything that's brought to market here is at the peak of freshness.

If it's fresh than it's full of nutrients.

And that's what we need from our foods.

To battle what's happened to our bodies through quite a few decades of overly processed foods.

Overly traveled foods.

It needs to be fresh and local and you can taste and see the difference.

Beautiful, oh that tastes good.

I see this a lot on the reservations.

And it's because there's really not a lot of fresh food available.

That's why I so try to emphasize that.

Hey folks, you can grow this food.

There's a lemon thyme.

Here's the one I love, I love lemon thyme.

When I grew up everyone had a garden.

I grew up in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Little tiny variegated leaf.

There was a tradition of growing the food and then figuring out ways to preserve it through the winter months.

Every tribe, every region had a different season, a different product.

From drying corn to drying the buffalo meat.

So I believe that since we have been relocated to such a broad extent, to go into regional cuisines I think is really great.

We shouldn't have to be trucking food across the country.

Burning the fossil fuels and all of that.

Regional cuisine is very important but we have to make it available.

MERCHANT: Bagel chips, we've got a guy that makes bagels in the back.

Fresh bagels, bagel chips.

Different salad dressings.

LORETTA: There's been a disconnect.

We have the highest rate of Type II diabetes, obesity, heart disease.

It just makes perfect sense.

I don't know how we got so far away from this.

Let's teach the people how to cook again and how to feed themselves properly.

MOSES: Loretta invited me to Oklahoma City.

To watch her cook and taste the gourmet recipes she's known for.

Sharing a table, conversation, and delicious food is a nice way to get know people.

But it's also a great way of learning and crossing cultural palates.

Loretta calls tonight's event A Taste of Native America 101.

LORETTA: Kyle Mylan, who owns the Tasting Room, has graciously provided me to do kind of the first native cooking class here.

So here I am in an Indian owned house doing some native food.

And I'm excited about it.

By eating these foods it slows down the absorption of the carbs and the sugars in the body.

And really the people got away from their desert foods.

You know they have this terrible problem with diabetes.

So it's like getting back to these foods.

So we'll get some of these out here and let you try them.

I'm doing an achiote marinated quail.

Achiote is a spice mixture.

It's made from vienatos seed of the Yucatan Peninsula.

So this spice mixture is used a lot in the foods of the Yucatan.

It in parts a beautiful brick orangey red color to the quail.

White wine.

We're next going to have a saute shrimp on a corn blini.

So everything is gonna have this little bit of corn in it.

So a little tiny corn pancake with a nice spicy shrimp on top of it, a jicama slaw.

Then we're going to have our three sisters salad.

So this is the trinity, the trilogy.

The three sisters corn, beans, and squash that throughout the Americas.

North America, Mexico, Central, South America.

The three sisters were planted together, grown together, harvested together and when you eat them, it's supplies all of the essential nutrients that you need to have a healthy life.

MOSES: It was truly a home cooked meal because I truly felt at home.

Like I belonged again.

LORETTA: This food is about us.

This food is what I used to heighten peoples awareness about who we are as Indian people.

There's so much out there that we could be taking advantage of and teaching our young people about.

That knowledge needs to be passed on.

I think it's absolutely essential and that's what I feel my mission is.

My passion is just passing on this food knowledge.

The food traditions.

(applause) (mellow music) MOSES: Inside her home, Vanessa is surrounded by the photos, artwork, and traditions of her ancestors.

Her grandfather's paintings and her grandmother's bead work.

As a young girl her hands were the perfect size to sort the tiny beads for her grandmother.

Everyday since, she has drawn upon the skills passed to her.

To keep the traditions alive.

Vanessa is a teacher to her children, to her grandchildren, and to those who visit her home.

She is a reminder that we still have an opportunity to get back to what we once were.

VANESSA: Working on flat cradle boards.

There are no other coyote cradle board makers, I'm the only one.

And I don't see, I'm sorry, I don't see anybody coming from behind to take our place.

And me, I want to do ferocious old style work.

And it doesn't matter to me if it doesn't appeal.

Quite honestly by not appealing to these people perhaps they are not able to appreciate the work.

And it's like everyone of these cradle boards.

It's like, it has a life and the life force is so strong in some of them that you can't eat, you can't sleep.

It's like they pull you out of bed and you're in here working at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning.

(native chanting) Because each of them, they really do exert an ability of how they want to do.

You can draw it out, you can plan it out.

But in the end the designs, they want to live a certain way.

(tribal music) At one time all women were able to do cradle board.

They could do leggings, they could do dresses.

You know but it's the breakdown of the culture.

You know the missionaries, they really had an effect on our culture.

And it was by shame.

These old ways, it was implied that they were nasty or unholy.

And they weren't, they were actually wonderful but it's designed to protect and honor the greatest gift of all, the gift of life.

(mellow music) MOSES: I'm glad you're stubborn.

(laughing) Again, I know that you've been making a stand in a very peaceful manner and a respectful way by keeping your identity strong.

VANESSA: One old woman sitting on a jip hill in the middle of Cayowa country.

And that's all it takes.

If it's just one and you have the courage to fight, keep fighting.

Tell your children, get an education.

My great grandfather used to say without an education you're going to be forever in bondage.

You are forever going to be a slave to the white man.

MOSES: Our identity is not based on what tribe you were born in, or a number.

It was solely based on a spiritual contest of life.

What I have seen is the hope and the light.

And the movement of the buffalo.

Not only in leaving the evidence.

The footprint of the movement and the bead work.

But also the ability and the language to send our voice that will echo in the valleys of time through the ages of man.

From the greatness that we came from and the holiness that we are descendant from, meaning our ancestors.

I see that our ancestors are still here because the same blood that flowed within their veins flows through ours.

And because we are still here, they are still here.

(tribal singing) (applause) To order visit shopvisionmaker.org or call 1-877-868-2250.

This program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The National Endowment for the Arts.

Tulalip Tribes.

San Manuel Band of Serano Mission Indians.

Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.

Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin.

And Morongo Band of Mission Indians.