Description
In Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness, Devon A. Mihesuah, Choctaw author and scholar draws on the rich indigenous heritages of this continent to offer a helpful guide to a healthier life. Featuring an expanded array of tempting recipes of indigenous ingredients and practical advice about health, fitness, and becoming involved in the burgeoning indigenous food sovereignty movement. Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens features pointed discussions about the causes of the generally poor state of indigenous health today. Diminished health, Mihesuah contends, is a pervasive consequence of colonialism, but by advocating for political, social, economic, and environmental changes, traditional food systems and activities can be reclaimed and made relevant for a healthier lifestyle today. New recipes feature pawpaw sorbet, dandelion salad, lima bean hummus, cranberry pie with cornmeal crust, grape dumplings, green chile and turkey posole, and blue corn pancakes, among other dishes. Savory, natural, and steeped in the Native traditions of this land, these recipes are sure to delight and satisfy. This new edition is revised, updated, and contains new information, new chapters, and an extensive curriculum guide that includes objectives, resources, study questions, assignments, and activities for teachers, librarians, food sovereignty activists, and anyone wanting to know more about indigenous foodways. A chapter outline is as follows: 1. Traditional Diets and Activities Case Study 1: The Five Tribes; 2. The State of Indigenous Health Case Study 2: Changing Diets and Health in Indian Territory; 3. Challenges to Recovering Health Case Study 3: Frybread 4. What Are You Ingesting?; 5. Calories, Exercise, and Recovering Fitness 6. Changing What We Eat; 7. Importance of Backyard Gardens. Recipes and appetizers are included. Appendices, notes and an index complete this book.