We all know that food insecurity is a huge problem in our country. We see it everywhere. But one place where it is even more of an issue, a place that is often overlooked, is on Indian Reservations all across the country.
Dating back to westward expansion, Natives were always forced off of their homes and onto reservations located in the middle of nowhere. These new reservations that they were forced to live on lacked fertile soil, water access, food, and the weather was hot and dry in the summer and snowy and freezing in the winter. Natives typically either hunted for their food or grew their food. But these new lands did not have enough animals to hunt, as the American expansionists had killed off almost all of the buffalo, and the lands lacked the proper water access and fertile soil to grow their crops. So Native Americans were faced with food insecurity from the second that we Americans decided to expand west. And now, today, this is still a major problem.
Native Americans suffer from some of the highest rates of food insecurity due to historic and present day systematic and institutional inequities. One out of every four Natives experience food insecurity compared to the one in nine Americans. A recent study, prior to COVID-19, of Native American Tribes in the Pacific Northwest, revealed that 92 percent of the Native households had a lack of access to enough good, healthy, and culturally appropriate food. And remember, this study was prior to COVID-19. The pandemic only could have made this even worse.
We can’t continue to neglect this population in our country. We have ruined their lives from the second we arrived in America, and it is time that we at least try to make things right. The first step, I believe, is to fight back against food insecurity on the Indian Reservations. Federal and state programs must address the unfair plots of land given to the Natives and increase funding for more nourishing foods to be shipped to the reservations.
no1-hungry 