Vella, a CALS Community Food Systems Minor and Robert S. Harrison College Scholar in the College of Arts & Sciences, spent his summer gardening for the Big Pine Paiute Tribal Environmental Department and the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission. His experience in Eastern California this summer built on a spring break trip from last year, funded by the student-run Community Partnership Funding Board, advised by the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement.
Vella is interested in “food sovereignty” within Indigenous communities – a growing field of work and study focused on the connections between food, food systems, place, nutrition, and Native peoples’ right to plan for their own future.
“Against all odds, Nüümü , the Paiute people of the Owens Valley in California, have endeavored to maintain their place-specific food systems since the intrusion of European settlers onto their territories,” Vella said. “Many of these communities and their governments are working to re-establish certain elements of their rich heritage foodways which hold continuing relevance in the face of contemporary crises.”
The movement involves not only re-establishing heritage foods, but also bolstering the systems that sustain them: irrigation and land access, for instance.
Vella’s spring work included organizing a series of workdays and free lunches at the Big Pine Tribal Community’s demonstration garden, featuring food purchased from Indigenous agricultural enterprises from across the U.S. Those products included roasted flour from the Iroquois White Corn Project, heritage tepary beans from the Gila River Reservation, and wild rice and foraged berry preserves from the Red Lake Nation.
“It was an exciting way to support food sovereignty programs across a large swath of territory and share the food with others, with reciprocity and gratitude for being able to work there,” Vella said. “It also was a nice enticement for the volunteers who work in the garden.”
