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Tribes that are contending with the impacts of climate change can apply for $120 million in federal aid, as KLCC’s Brian Bull (Nez Perce) reports.
The Biden Administration says it’s the largest annual funding through its Tribal Climate Resilience Program.
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) tells KLCC applications will be gathered until mid-October with plans to distribute money early next year.
“As you know, climate change, the longer we wait to start addressing it by moving to renewable sources of energy and reducing our use of carbon, the more expensive it’s gonna be. This $120 million is an initial investment. It’s a down payment on the work that we’ve got to do across Indian Country to help protect tribal communities against this growing threat.”
Asst. Sec. Newland says tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska are dealing with coastal erosion.
Other tribes are contending with intensifying wildfires, drought, and flooding.
Photo: Emma VandenEinde / KUNC
For years, it was extremely difficult to find meals like bison pot roast or an elk taco at a restaurant.
Yet, Indigenous cuisine has been in the Americas for centuries.
KUNC’s Emma VandenEinde joined a chef in Denver community kitchen Same Day Café to see her approach to the cuisine.
Chef Andrea Murdoch (Indigenous Andean) is busy in the kitchen.
Photo: Emma VandenEinde / KUNC
She’s baking her light blue sugar cookies with the help of some volunteer chefs.
”’They’re like blue!’ ‘Yeah. They stay blue.’ ‘They do?’ ‘Yeah.’”
The color is made using Ute Mountain Ute cornmeal from Southwest Colorado.
“And blue cornmeal is something that’s very specific to the Four Corners region of the U.S. Like you will not find this easily out on the West Coast, out on the east coast.”
And this isn’t the first time she’s used unique ingredients.
“I sourced locally and indigenously to support those economies. Kroger doesn’t need my money.”
It all started when Murdoch expanded Four Directions Cuisine, her food business.
She wanted to create South American cuisine, and through her research, she found that ingredients representative of the culture were pre-colonial.
Like rabbit, bison, or other foods that existed in the Americas before colonizers arrived.
“I have this distinct privilege and honor to be able to take the teachings from others and translate that through menus.”
Along with sourcing food from local and Indigenous farmers, she forages around her for flowers and grasses, praying to the weather god Illapa for rain.
As she cooks, she taps into what she calls her “sixth sense” and connects with plants and animals that are seen as relatives in her culture.
“There’s an element of listening to the ingredients and understanding how you’re going to honor them best.”
Indigenous cuisine like Murdoch’s has recently grown in popularity, with many restaurants opening in cities like Minneapolis and Seattle.
And, for the second year in a row, a Native chef won a James Beard award – almost like the Oscars for cooking.
But it wasn’t always this way. And there’s still room to grow.
“We find food from all over the world in our amazing cities. And very seldom do we find food of where we happen to be standing that represents the land and the Indigenous communities and cultures.”
That’s Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota), head chef of Owamni in Minnesota and a multi-James Beard Award winner.
“We should really be focused on what’s the true food of North America. And you can’t understand North American food unless you bring the Indigenous perspective into it.”
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