ABSTRACT
In many Indigenous communities across the United States and beyond, food sovereignty has become a powerful movement for understanding and articulating foodways as a tool for the revitalization of Native cultures. This examination uses Indigenous archaeology to explore key elements of Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) broadly and how they operate within and are reflected by one specific community: Red Lake Ojibwe. Utilizing analysis of both a traditional Ojibwe story about the Hoofed Clan as well as interviews conducted with tribal members, we examine what Ojibwe food sovereignty reveals about four distinguishing characteristics of IFS: (1) the centering of storywork as a key epistemological and pedagogical tool; (2) the utilization of a relational understanding of food sovereignty that is based upon Indigenous values of kinship, relationship, reciprocity, and responsibility; (3) an articulation of an integrated view of health and wellness; and (4) the use of IFS as a means for the revitalization of place-based cultures and cultural practices.
