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Food Sovereignty History and Issues
Among the Mvskoke
People
By Richard Anderson
The concept of food sovereignty
amongst the Mvskoke, or Creek, people is not a new one, though the expression
may be modern. Food sovereignty is a broad concept meaning the
right of a people to choose how their food is grown, harvested, marketed
and consumed. It is counter to the reality of food dependence,
where people have little impact on how food is engineered, grown, subsidized,
priced or its distant origin.
For thousands of years the
people, who became known as the Mvskoke, or Creek, sustained themselves
with traditional foods. In tribal town and family gardens, indigenous
knowledge was brought to bear in planting, cultivation and harvest customs. Plant-based diets were supplemented with the hunting of fish and game,
again, with the benefit of tradition.
The Mvskoke people were removed
from their ancestral lands to Indian Territory by 1840. The devastation
to the tribal sovereignty and culture was immense. Yet. The Mvskoke
people were able to adapt to the mew environment and, eventually, flourished
in the years prior to the Civil War. Though the tribal government
began to establish itself, the events of the 1860's represent another
period of upheaval for the Mvskoke people, with the loss of fully half
of the tribal territory. The remaining decades before Oklahoma
statehood saw the rise and decline of tribal government, the decline
of tribal culture and the beginnings of assimilation.
The 20th century,
as to the general health of the Mvskoke people, is characterized by
the consequences of the imbalance between traditional diets and mainstream
food. Epidemic levels of diabetes, heart disease and obesity are
modern-day plagues. The work of Mvskoke Food Sovereignty
Initiative highlights past traditions with modern possibilities to revive
food sovereignty amongst the Mvskoke people.