Modern Pioneering with Georgia Pellegrini

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>> We're born into this world and it's it's really up to us in choosing who we're going to be.

>> The moment we are born, we are holistically well.

We are physically, spiritually, and mentally whole.

And then, soon, that is chipped away.

It is rare that we take the time and immense effort required to journey back to that place of equilibrium, where we grow old and look back and say that we didn't just grow old, we fully blossomed.

Food is sacred.

It is how we define our memories, pass down traditions, forge community.

It is how we heal, how we flourish.

To control your food is to write your own story.

To take away someone's food sovereignty is to deprive them of the building blocks that define a person, that build their character.

This oppression will trickle down for generations, chipping away at their ability to be holistically well.

Until one day they say, "No more."

>> The Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota is home of the Sicangu Lakota tribe.

Rosebud has been a food desert for as long as most people can remember, where 20,000 people are served by three grocery stores with limited and extremely expensive produce.

Junk food is cheap.

Despite this, more than half of farms on Rosebud receive subsidies to raise commodity crops, rather than incentives to grow nutritious foods to feed the locals.

>> The large herbivore that's amongst us now is cattle, but yet we're still starving.

>> Most tribal members live in a state of food insecurity, without access to affordable and healthy food, and suffer from extremely high rates of diet-related diseases.

Given these challenges, the Lakota people are pursuing a seven generation framework, which is their vision for the next 150 years, reclaiming their food sovereignty, reclaiming their culture and language, and bringing their people back to that sacred place of equilibrium essential in building a strong and sovereign tribal nation.

>> There's a Lakota story of the Seven Sisters, basically narrowed down to anything that we do today is for the next seven generations in the future.

So anything that we do now is not only just for me, it's not only for the project, but it's for the next seven generations.

So my name is TJ Heinert.

I am the ranch foreman of Wolakota Buffalo Range.

We are the Buffalo people, the Pte Oyate.

It's the Buffalo nation.

Our people evolved from our relatives.

To be able to bring them back home is just amazing and what we stand for.

>> Today, the 28,000-acre Wolakota Buffalo Range is home to over 1,000 buffalo.

It is the largest native-owned bison herd in the world, managed by TJ and his partner, Jerrica.

But it wasn't always this way.

Five years ago, there weren't any.

The buffalo were intentionally hunted close to extinction during the 19th and 20th centuries.

And yet, in just four years of being reintroduced, they have thrived among the Lakota people.

>> We evolved from our relatives.

We once were the Buffalo Nations.

The creation story goes that we were sent to learn how to live on the land as human beings, and the buffalo were our teachers.

They taught us everything we need to know on how to survive in these lands.

>> They have a saying that you can always make a buffalo move anywhere they want to go.

To find the buffalo this time requires a three-hour ATV ride and perseverance.

TJ and his partner, Jerrica, seem to have a sixth sense about where they are, driving over what seems like never-ending golden hills that they know intimately.

They drive like this almost daily.

>> To bring our relatives back for a greater purpose is to recreate these grasses, recreate the ecosystem as a whole, to bring that ecosystem back.

The sacred bond between our relatives, the buffalo and us as a people, is that we respect them and give them thanks the way that they gave us food and shelter and tools from buffalo harvest.

They were able to help us survive.

The way they move across just when they take a step on the land, their hoof is shaped and is sharp for a reason.

They're actually replanting the grasses back into the land, so it's basically a natural tilling.

We're getting the soils regenerated.

We're getting that nutrients back into the ground.

They're recreating what was lost over time.

>> What makes this project different from typical ranching is that it is not strictly focused on an economic outcome.

It is about restoring the Lakota relationship with the buffalo.

Once that relationship is restored, it sets into motion a harmony among the landscape and the tribe.

With their buffalo relatives comes higher species diversity in the plant community, native plants, and a resurgence of their food sovereignty as they reallocate their resources to the regenerative systems that native people have practiced for centuries.

>> On a harvest day, we go out and locate the herd.

What I like to do, I am the stunner of our project here, so I'm the one that harvests the animal.

On harvest days, we go out and we select a certain age and size group of the animals.

But what I really pride on is I let that animal present themself.

That animal is telling me it is their time to go.

So we do proper prayers and ceremonies to ensure that that is done in a cultural, respectful manner.

There's a lot of different aspects when it comes to a buffalo harvest.

This one coming up is actually for our Lakota immersion school.

As soon as we bring that animal back, they're petting the hide.

They're exploring, they're asking questions, and they're there from start to finish throughout the entire process.

Being Lakota, to me, just means empowerment.

You know, it's definitely beautiful, it's not just something that you throw on the back shelf.

It's something to be proud of.

This is my homeland, this is my people, and this is my land, so it's definitely a beautiful thing doing what we're doing.

Because it's not only just for the buffalo, it's not only just for the grasses, it's an ecosystem.

It's everything that you can imagine.

It's our people.

It's our youth.

[ Drum banging, children singing in Lakota ] >> The Lakota youth are a key part of the tribe's seven generation plan.

Part of this movement is the first Lakota immersion school, intended to help students lean into and strengthen their Lakota identity.

This idea is that, when you instill the cultural values into your children, it helps strengthen families, which then helps strengthen the oyate, the nation.

Being holistically well for children is for them to be able to articulate their needs.

>> When you want something to change, you have to figure out where you come from.

You have to really know where you come from.

You have to understand it.

And then you also have to know where you're currently at.

That way, you can navigate what needs to be in place.

>> Part of this is reclaiming culture and language within the schools and treating the family, the tribe, and the community as one unified organism.

>> We don't call ourselves teacher or anything like that.

They see us as kin.

>> Hmm.

>> So we, in Lakota language, I would be leksi, which means "uncle."

And their instructors here are thunwin, which means "auntie."

So we have that relationship there, and these are our nieces and nephews.

They're not just students.

They're more than that to us.

So we really emphasize that here.

>> It probably strengthens their sense of identity and their connection to community, I would imagine.

>> Yeah, really, it does.

And their sense of belonging, too, and they are trying to teach them, like, you are all relatives here, you know.

There's no hierarchy between us or animals or plants.

It's all the same.

And it kind of separates the ego versus eco.

We don't have any issues, per se, like you would see in a public system because they're holistically well, they know how to communicate with one another.

And that's another thing we're really prideful of because we are really centering the student as a whole being.

They're not just sitting in the desk all day.

They're getting up, doing stuff with their hands, and that's how they're retaining it.

And this is done through storytelling.

So in here, the fluent speakers are telling the stories in our language.

And the kids, they'll either sit and listen or, when they come together, they'll also draw images based on the stories that they hear.

>> So it's an inviting their imaginations to really ignite.

>> Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

>> The connection to these traditions is centered around the Lakota language, for that is at the very heart of who they are.

>> On our reservation, they did a study about 10 years ago, and at that time, there was no one under the age of 30 that was fluent.

>> Wow.

>> And not much has changed since then, so 10 years later, no one under the age of 40 is fluent.

And that's kind of the purpose and reason why this place was started.

And in this space, we are fortunate to have two first language-fluent speakers.

So our teachers, they're learning with the students, myself included.

>> Hmm.

>> I find healing in learning my language.

So, to me, that's healing of what was done to us and to undo that.

And every kid that's in our school, that's one family in the future that has learned their language and has healed.

That's a lot of healing.

>> If education was supposed to be so successful, why hasn't it been so successful for us?

We've been in this business for 150 years, and I'm still trying to fight for a better education for our families.

So in 175 years, we're there.

That's what I'm thinking of.

How do I put myself out of business so that people have their places back.

As people of color, we've just finally gotten the freedom to do things that other people have had.

Our kids don't have cultural shame.

They just speak.

[ Laughs ] And they enjoy it.

And they don't have that cultural shame that we had to have because of what we had to live through.

They get to experience what our ancestors experienced, and it creates independence.

>> Part of building a strong and sovereign tribal nation is in developing housing communities, ones that are built around gardens where they can learn to grow fresh food and indigenize their food system and build a good way of life for their people now and for the next seven generations.

This is based on an important difference between food security and food sovereignty and management of a geodome that lengthens the growing season.

>> To me, food security really means just making sure you have food.

It doesn't matter where that food's coming from, how it's produced.

But in terms of food sovereignty, you're talking about how that food is produced, where it comes from.

You know, the methods that go into producing that food.

And it also just really prioritizes the people around it who's producing it, as well.

My name is Matthew Wilson, and I'm the Food Sovereignty Initiative Director here at Sicangu.

Food sovereignty is more than just food.

We've learned that food sovereignty, you know, incorporates language and culture, incorporates community values, incorporates economic and community development.

It incorporates, you know, land stewardship and holistic health.

And, so, for us, it's really important to have those other aspects as part of our work.

So when you take a look at our ecosystem, we're not only just doing food work, we're doing all those other areas within our ecosystem.

In 2015, we've started this garden.

It's kind of at the worst location, it's so bad for wind.

But it was really a great location in terms of whenever you leave the town of Mission, it's the first thing you see when you head out.

So we wanted to have people see that there is local food growing here and this dome, it's a different kind of greenhouse.

And, so, we just want to show people that there's innovation happening here on Rosebud.

Other people who live in our outlying communities have to travel from those communities to get to one of the grocery stores, and sometimes that can be 20 to 30 miles.

So whenever you go to these grocery stores, the first thing you see is a lot of, you know, processed foods and you'll see, like, the pizzas being on sale or, you know, the chips and the soda.

And then, you go see the produce section and it's very just, like, pitiful.

It's usually really like on the edge of its life.

And then, it's also really expensive.

And, so, obviously, you're not going to want to buy that compared to something that's going to last longer, which is the more processed foods.

But people really don't have a choice but to, you know, eat at these grocery stores.

But we were, you know, a nomadic people.

We were hunters and foragers.

And, so, we've had a really diverse food system.

It also relied heavily on the buffalo, not only just for a food source, but in terms of our economy.

You know, they provided us with, you know, shelter for our teepees and clothing, but it also allowed us to trade with other indigenous nations as well.

Some of the foods that was normally part of our diet was, you know, lean proteins -- Buffalo, you know, wild game -- you know, mixed vegetables that you would find here on the prairie.

And, so, we didn't have things like oil or sugar, salt, flour.

Jumping to today after colonization, it's not working for us, you know, we weren't used to eating that type of food, and that led to a lot of diet-related diseases.

And, so, our goal is really to try to, like, slowly, over time, reintroduce it back to people's diets and getting more access to it.

>> The Lakota are not traditionally farmers.

So this initiative is about learning as a community.

>> It definitely is new for us.

Whenever we were moved and forced to relocate on these reservations, we were no longer able to have that hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and so, we were forced to farm, actually.

My ancestors didn't like the idea of farming.

I think it still leaves a bad taste in people's mouth to this day, but now I think we're embracing it.

We have to produce our own food.

We also have to learn how to forage our own food, as well.

I think it's taken all this different areas of how we were producing it or how we're accessing it.

And, so, farming is definitely a big part of that.

And I think we're just still trying to figure out what that is for us.

And we're also still trying to figure out farming in general.

This definitely is a teaching and production farm for us.

>> Part of that teaching is reintroducing the community to native plants, which were viewed not just as food, but also medicine.

>> Too much of one food can be bad for you, so it's important to have, like, a balanced diet, but also incorporate food that's grown here and harvested here.

And, so, some of the things that we're incorporating back into our diets still is chokecherry, buffalo berries, we'll have like things like purslane that you can eat and add to a salad, dandelion.

And I'm hoping that we can use this farm as a teaching space to be able to teach others how to grow their own food.

And I think, like, big picture vision, I would like to see more of this-sized farms throughout Rosebud, not just this one.

>> One of the ways that Matte is teaching his community is through an eight-month paid internship program that offers hands-on knowledge and support for relatives on the Rosebud Reservation who would like to learn about food production and how to increase self-sufficiency.

The hope is that some might even create small businesses to supplement their income through food production.

Michelle Haukaas is one of the people who went through this educational program and is now the garden manager.

>> So when I was a little girl, my grandma had a garden and I think -- I don't know why I hold on to that memory my whole life.

And, so, I started gardening about 12 years ago, just a little backyard home garden like that.

We were more communal.

I think it's always been in my mind, after I go off to school and I have my life experiences, that I would come back here someday and try to give back in some capacity.

I think it's just part of my DNA or blood memory.

Once I started gathering and learning about herbs and learning the different properties of healing for our bodies, it was just amazing.

It's really amazing how these plants can heal you.

You know, everything has a spirit, so we have to treat everything equally as we would treat ourselves or somebody that we love.

So we really connect with this work that we do and with animals, and it's really spiritual.

I hope this vision in the next 50 years for our people, I hope that we can see them really all going back to food sovereignty, like especially with the buffalo and the plants, being self-sustainable.

I guess I'm just hoping that people count less on grocery stores and more on, like, hunting and gathering and just getting that traditional pallet back.

They say, when you heal yourself, the people around you start to heal.

The garden took a lot of my trauma.

>> The Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative is working to develop community led food systems through a seasonal farmers market, cooking, and health classes, rekindling the spiritual connection to the land and making the foods of their ancestors another piece of their mission to make their people holistically well.

>> This concept of all-encompassing health, in our language, we call it wichoh'an, holistic health.

So it's not only focusing on the physical aspect of it, it's also the mental, emotional, and spiritual.

>> Part of that holistic wellness around food is gathering for dinner.

And, so, as one last experience with the Lakota community, Matte has invited me to his house for a special meal.

On the menu is marinated bison carne asada, squash and wild rice salad, and an iced ceyaka tea, wild prairie mint tea.

>> Yeah, so I'm going to have a pot of water going with a little bit of honey added to it already.

And then we'll just add some of it in there and let it steep for maybe like 10, 15 minutes.

>> Do you have a particular ratio that you like to use with your tea?

>> I usually don't.

I just eyeball everything, so... >> Yeah.

Me, too.

>> Yeah.

Whenever the ancestors tell me it's ready.

>> Oh, now I'm really smelling the mint.

And it almost has, like, a chocolaty mint scent to it.

Like, the steam is intoxicating.

>> We drink it for every upset stomach.

It's really good to help with eating and digestion.

>> While the tea steeps, Matte and I toast blue corn tortillas in a cast iron skillet and then brown the marinated buffalo meat in batches to serve with condiments as buffalo street tacos.

>> I marinated the bison with some orange and lemon juice, cilantro, and then I added some different spices -- garlic, onion, chili, and cumin.

And then, I had it marinate for about eight hours now.

>> Do you typically marinate bison?

>> Yeah, definitely marinated or salted.

Bison is just a little bit -- it's a lot more lean compared to beef, and so, you have to cook a little bit slower.

>> Mm-hmm.

I think there's more flavor eating it like that.

>> I think so, too.

>> I always say that wild animals taste like what they've been eating, and so, the flavor can really vary from animal to animal or pasture to pasture.

>> So this bison came from our Wolakota Buffalo Range.

Yep.

So we got cilantro, we got radish, we got pickled red onions, sweet onions, and then queso fresco.

>> This looks good.

Got some nice spice to it.

>> Yeah.

So when they're done, I'm gonna cut them up a little bit more.

>> Uh-huh.

>> And then, we'll be ready.

>> Are you looking to get a brown, are you doing a medium rare?

>> Medium rare.

>> I find, with wild game, it cooks better when you've got a medium rare temperature.

I think when you get well done, it starts -- >> It's chewy and tender -- Or not tender.

>> Gray and gamey and yeah.

And now, with the buffalo meat browned, we'll let it rest and slice it up for dinner.

Do you think we can do a little taste test before the rest of the guests arrive?

>> Let's do it.

>> So I'm going to let you lead the way.

You tell me how it goes.

>> I'll take this little one.

>> Okay.

Can I serve you?

>> Thank you.

>> Let's go heavy meat.

All right.

>> Yep.

>> A little on here.

And now we've got all of our condiments.

This looks like pickled onions.

My favorite.

That guy.

And a bit of these sweet onions.

Can I put some on yours?

>> Yeah.

Please.

>> Yum.

Moment of truth.

>> All right.

>> Let's see how our cooking skills pan out.

>> Cheers.

>> Cheers.

>> Mm.

Mm.

>> This is so good.

Wow.

And after we strain the wild mint tea and add some ice, we're ready for everyone to arrive.

>> All right.

>> Cheers to you, Matte.

>> Cheers to you, too.

>> Oh, this is perfect.

This is truly the best iced tea I've ever had.

It's almost nutty.

>> Mm.

>> It's like a nutty honey.

>> Yeah.

>> I could drink a lot of this.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Every culture has a prayer of thanks, a moment of reflection before a meal.

This one feels especially profound, perhaps because it is not something to be documented on camera, but to be kept for the people who say the prayer.

But the action before the prayer is equally inspiring.

Watching Foster make a spirit plate by putting a small amount of each dish on a plate for those spirits who have come before us, which then is offered at the end to nature.

There is a Japanese word called kintsukuroi that means "golden repair."

It is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold so the fractures are literally illuminated, a kind of physical expression of its spirit.

As a philosophy, kintsukuroi says that when something has suffered damage and has a history.

It becomes more beautiful.

The proof of something's fragility and its resilience is what makes it beautiful.

It is literally more beautiful for having been broken.

The gold-filled cracks of a once-broken item are a testament to its history.

Being here has stirred an all-encompassing sense of something spiritual.

It has mended one of those pieces that time has chipped off.

>> To be Lakota is to be healthy and to be a good relative.

For everyone, every thing, every being.

And that goes with animals, plants, water, the Earth, the stars, all of it.

It's not individual.

It's communal.

>> Being Lakota is to be yourself.

Together, we all share the value of being a good relative.

We honor our people that are older because they're the ones who advise us and give us influence, influence of what we do.

You take care of them, and you take care of your younger children because they're your future.

>> This is a model for the planet, I think.

We always say it's small-scale solutions to global problems.

Rosebud isn't the most wealthiest place, but we're really leaning into our values and to our community.

>> Being Lakota, for me, has a lot to do with our values that we hold, especially when it comes to, like, land stewardship, family, spirituality, ceremony, just our whole history and all our oral stories.

They all have a meaning.

You can hear a story when you're young, interpret it one way, and as you grow, you hear the story again, and then you'll interpret it a different way.

>> Looking at the greater picture of the project, I'd really hope to see that this land is fulfilling and thriving.

Like we said, it's going to happen.

In the short amount of time, in three years, we're already showing improvements of native grasses coming back.

That's showing that it is happening, what we dreamed it would happen.

To look down the road and hoping that this is a sanctuary for all living things.

>> To learn more about the topics featured on this episode, log on to georgiapellegrini.com, or follow along on Georgia's Facebook and Instagram pages for weekly "Modern Pioneering" adventures, tips, and recipes.

"Modern Pioneering" is made possible by... >> Welcome to Total Wine.

Doing okay?

>> My buddy says ros all day.

>> My personal fave is this new French ros.

>> Find wine, beer, and spirits from around the world at Total Wine & More.

>> At Muir Glen, we believe that organic farming benefits consumers, farmers, and ecosystems.

>> And made possible by Michael and Susan McGwire, Zina Bash, and many other generous donors.

A full list is available at georgiapellegrini.com.