Starved into Submission

Herb shot this photo in the Badlands. He was so happy.

Now is the time, we are the ones we have been waiting for... —Hopi Prophecy

By Trace Hentz, blog editor

My entire childhood I had plenty of food.  This is not true for all humans, I know.  Look at the news across the world, like in Gaza.   When it comes to writing about adoption or world events, I know I’m doing something right if I am afraid.

I spent most of my life afraid of upsetting people, avoiding that.  Some might say that is low self-esteem but I think being afraid, fear itself, is a call to action.  If you are afraid, then you know you are doing something right.  You are challenging yourself and breaking down your thoughts into something you can fix or not.

I could not change what happened in my childhood but I could change how I looked at being adopted.  I could drop judgment.  I could stop blaming my adoptive parents and my natural parents.  I could turn “being adopted” into something good—or try to make my life and other lives better.

Years ago, I heard Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now describe how the occupiers of Palestine are using food insecurity to keep Palestine children alive but not enough to thrive!  Too little food and starvation can be used as a weapon of war—with long-term consequences.  Brains and bodies are affected long-term.

That is exactly what has happened here on American soil. YES!  The American government only feeds American Indians junk with commodities (boxed or canned food and very little vegetables).  The diabetes epidemic is living proof it’s working.  Plus there are not enough jobs to feed ourselves.  That way we Indians will be too weak to protest reservation living conditions. That way we’ll stay depressed or immobile.  That way we’ll self-medicate with alcohol or drugs. That way many of our men will be imprisoned.  That way we won’t be in the way when the government and industry wants to take more resources like copper, coal, uranium and shale gas.  Reservations were purposefully isolated so American (and Canadian) governments could totally control what we received—especially food, blankets, housing, medical care, etc.

Governments still keep Indians poor.  The occupiers claimed they wanted Indians to be farmers, settle in one place, but not exactly on “farm-able land.”  Think of the Badlands, a dry arid remote place, not exactly farmland.

Most of us Lost Birds who were adopted out didn’t have food insecurity or starvation growing up.  It was not something we had to worry about.  Lost Birds/Adoptees need to realize the WAR is still being waged on Indians in many subtle ways.  And if we use our minds in a good way, and come together, maybe WE can tackle food insecurity on reservations that still exists!

Maybe just maybe being adopted out was destined to give us the mind and ideas and courage necessary to feed our tribal families who have been occupied and starved into submission.

 

2004:

When I got married in 2004, my husband Herb flew out to Rapid City, South Dakota (where I was visiting my relatives) and I drove us through the Badlands to Porcupine (Oglala Lakota Reservation) to see my relative Ellowyn Locke.  (Herb had never been to South Dakota and I also drove him to see the town of Deadwood.)

One of the chores we needed to do was to go pick up commodities.

We drove my Chevy Tracker to the distribution center and Herb had many boxes of canned food on his lap.  My small SUV was stacked and packed and Ellowyn was holding a box of cans as I drove us to her house.

Mostly this food was canned, but there were some cans of peanuts, powdered milk, lard, flour, boxed cereal, etc.  None of this food is good for you... long-term. Ellowyn was on dialysis for her diabetes, and it's true the food sent from the federal government is not healthy and meant to harm their health.  (Porcupine and Wounded Knee is a food desert, with no grocery stories close by, but Sharp's Corner had a gas station filled with junk food, snack foods, and sugary drinks.)

Herb told Ellowyn that he grew up in Harlem (New York City) and his family had the same commodities - boxed cheese, powdered milk, and cans of fruit and vegetables. Nothing was fresh.

It was not the first time I noticed that Ellowyn had one head of cabbage to last one month, along with a few carrots and a few potatoes.  That was all the fresh food she had until the next distribution.  We usually drove south to Chadron, Nebraska to buy meat, when I was there every summer.

Ellowyn tried to grow fresh vegetables on her land, and had a small patch down by a creek that was totally hidden from the road and her brother's roaming horses could not get to it, or they'd eat it all.

Since the 1990s, if I drove to Pine Ridge, I'd stop at a grocery store first to buy fresh lemons, oranges, veggies and fresh meat, before I got to her house.  And I'd buy the biggest bag of dog food I could carry, since Ellowyn usually had at least one big dog guarding her house in Porcupine.

I also brought her supplies, like beads and fabric, since she sewed quilts, to sell to tourists.  I never went there without a carload of gifts and supplies.  And I never left without a carload of gifts she made me!  (She made my wedding dress!)

Please be generous with your relatives, and send money, or bring gifts and supplies if you go to visit.  Many of us do not live on the rez, and we don't learn generosity growing up.  

If you do go home, bring them seeds and fresh ideas on ways to grow fresh food.