During today’s historic White House Tribal Leaders Summit, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced several new initiatives that expand USDA’s commitment to serving Indian Country through equitable policies and programs.
“USDA respects the unique nation-to-nation relationship between the federal government and tribal nations,” said Secretary Vilsack. “Today we launch initiatives that reframe and reimagine how USDA supports Indigenous agriculture and tribal communities. These are among the bold actions by the Biden-Harris administration to ensure that USDA appropriately engages tribal nations in a way that aligns with their sovereignty and our nation’s trust and treaty responsibility.”
The USDA Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative promotes traditional food ways, Indian Country food and agriculture markets, and Indigenous health through foods tailored to American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) dietary needs. USDA is partnering with tribal-serving organizations on seven projects to reimagine federal food and agriculture programs from an Indigenous perspective and inform future USDA programs and policies. Among the projects include the launch of new seed-saving centers, video series on wild food foraging and Indigenous cuisine, featuring Chef Sean Sherman (founder of the company The Sioux Chef), marketing Native-produced foods, and a manual on transitioning from cattle to bison production.
USDA Commits to Expanding Tribal Self-Determination (PDF, 201 KB), enabling greater self-governance and decision making on USDA programs and policies that affect tribal nations. The 2018 Farm Bill authorizes USDA’s Forest Service and Food and Nutrition Service to enter into self-determination demonstration projects for the first time. The first set of tribal demonstration projects, announced on November 1, are important steps to increase tribal food sovereignty and support tribal food economies. USDA Forest Service is conducting demonstration projects to protect tribal lands and communities from risks and restore tribal co-management authority on the National Forest System. Importantly, USDA will also review current statutory authorities that can be used to promote tribal sovereignty, with an eye towards statutory expansion where needed.