Klamath Tribal Food Sovereignty News
Fall 2020
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| Turkey tail mushrooms in Karuk Agroecology Ecosystem Initiative field plots.
Photo credit: M Mucioki |
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In this issue:
- Call to action for Klamath wildfire recovery
- Student speaks on personally meaningful Karuk-UCB research
- Research and field dispatches
- Community news, events & resources
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Continued fire recovery and opportunities for giving
The fires that blazed through Happy Camp and other portions of the Klamath Basin at the end of the summer may be out, but their impact continues. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Karuk Tribe - Slater Fire Relief fund which provides direct aid to the families impacted by the Slater Fire.
In the spirit of giving during this holiday season, we also would like to highlight the opportunity to support the Endowment for Eco-Cultural Revitalization Fund (Endowment Fund) for the Karuk Department of Natural Resources (KDNR). This Endowment Fund enables KDNR to "transfer knowledge to our youth, change policies on land, water, fisheries and fire management, revitalize our cultural principles and practices, and build sustainable capacities for current and future generations, while moving away from dependency on grants and extraction based forest management systems." For the past several months, much of KDNR's efforts have gone toward fire relief and contributing to a newly funded shared planning process through The Western Klamath Restoration Partnership, for managing fire across the Karuk Ancestral lands in ways that integrate Indigenous fire management with western science.
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Berkeley student shares personally meaningful Karuk-UCB research
Special thanks to Royale for this story!
In October, UC Berkeley undergrad
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from Crossing Paths flyer
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student Royale Pinassi, a member of the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation, had the opportunity to share with fellow campus members her research efforts in the Karuk Agroecosystem Resilience Initiative: xúus nu'éethti. She presented in the recurrent event "Crossing Paths" which brings together undergraduate and graduate Native and Indigenous students to present on their scholarly research or current projects. Crossing Paths is the only UC Berkeley event that offers a space for all Native and Indigenous graduate and undergraduate students to engage in exchange and learning. Presenting students build professional skills while all participants build a sense of community. The UC Berkeley Native American Student Development office and the national American Indian Graduate Program make Crossing Paths and all its impacts possible.
Royale is in her second year of undergraduate studies, majoring in Conservation and Resource Studies through the College of Natural Resources. She is currently creating her area of concentration which will mainly focus on Indigenous water conservation, fire stewardship, and Tribal food sovereignty. This fall semester, she was selected to be a SPUR intern with the Karuk Agroecosystem Resilience Initiative. In the following interview, she shares her experience working on qualitative analyses of Native plant specimens as well as coding interview transcripts of cultural practitioners from her community back home on the unceded Karuk homelands. She also shares why this research was particularly meaningful to her and her contributions from an Indigenous perspective. Alongside Royale, the October Crossing Paths also featured Gabriel Trujillo, an Indigenous Xicanx PhD student in the department of Integrative Biology.
Listen, watch, and learn from Royale and Gabriel If you're short on time, Royale's part starts at minute:second 5:18 and ends at 22:25.
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Research and field dispatches
Undergrad research collaborators for the Karuk Agroecosystem Resilience Initiative: xúus nu'éethti
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| | | Karuk Cultural Plant Guide, printed & bound! | |
Across many seasons, the teammates of the Karuk Agroecosystem Resilience Initiative: xúus nu'éethti have enjoyed and benefited from working with UC Berkeley undergrad interns. Students have conducted literature reviews, done mapping and GIS work, mounted herbarium specimens, created a cultural plant guide, and analyzed qualitative data. The Karuk Cultural Plant Guide, completed by students last semester, has now been printed and distributed to Karuk Tribal members and descendants. This past fall, we had two interns who again moved the work forward significantly, coming away with honed research skills of their own.
Starting in September, we remotely mentored two UC Berkeley students, Mari Wilson (Genetics and Plant Biology Major) and Royale Pinassi (Conservation and Resource Studies Major), through the Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research (SPUR). Mari and Royale completed a literature review of twenty cultural plant species, prioritized by the Karuk Tribe, that are being monitored in our Agroecosystem Conditions Assessment (ACA) of Karuk gathering areas. We will use these reviews of plant biology and physiology, stressors, management, and projected influence of climate change for each species in our final project report and related publications. Mari also developed labels for herbarium voucher specimens housed in the Karuk Herbarium and University Jepson Herbaria. Royale contributed to qualitative analysis of data collected at our ACA sites. Via her internship, she received introductory training in NVivo and learned how to code qualitative data. |
| | Fall 2020 UCB interns Mari Wilson & Royale Pinassi |
It has been our pleasure to work with two more outstanding students, and we thank them for all they contributed to the team this semester!
Prepping for winter on the Karuk Tribal farm The Tishawnik Community Farm has been put to rest for the winter. Hoops and cages have been taken down; tools put away. This farm run by Karuk Dept of Natural Resources (KDNR) for the Karuk Tribe was tilled into existence just this year. Spurred
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Karuk Tribal farm resting ahead of winter Credit: S Bourque
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on by the knowledge of hard times to come, KDNR sought out a variety of ways to ensure surrounding communities were food secure. With COVID emergency grant funding, they purchased a tractor and put staff, interns, and volunteers to work this past summer. That hard work not only eased the burden of easily accessing healthy food due to the pandemic, it also resulted in KDNR being able to feed many families displaced due to the September fires. Produce from the Karuk farm went straight into food boxes delivered to Happy Camp and Orleans. The Tribe is still sending out food. Now that the winter squashes are out, KDNR is distributing foods canned by their summer interns, including canned tomatoes from the farm! Over the winter, KNDR is looking for financial support for this coming spring, intending to keep the farm vibrant, productive, and in service to the community. Support this vision by giving this holiday season to the Tishawnik Community Farm campaign! |
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Local news
Victory! New deal to ensure Klamath Dams removal
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Recent celebration flyer from Save CA Salmon. Artwork: B Thompson
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On November 17th, many breathed a sigh of relief at a new deal that has the states of both Oregon and California signed on as co-licensees for dam removal with the Klamath River Renewal Corporation. The decadal-long movement to bring down four aged hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River, harmful to many native species and tribal cultural sovereignty, was thrown into turmoil this past summer after an unexpected ruling from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Karuk tribal member and cultural biologist Ron Reed, also a Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative member, points out how removing these dams might save spring-run Chinook salmon and the Tribes that depend on them. Looking ahead, the FERC must still issue approvals for this new deal, but the prospect of imminent dam removal looks much brighter than it did before November.
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Events & resources of interest
One Month Left to Apply for GATHER Food Sovereignty Grant
First Nations Development Institute is awarding up to 13 GATHER Food Sovereignty Grants of approximately $32,000 for work that contributes to a vision of Native communities and food systems that are self-directed, well-resourced and supported by community policies and systems.
The deadline to apply for this grant funding is Thursday, Jan 14, 2021. Access the full RFP here, and apply using First Nations online grant application system.
Recordings from two-part 2020 forum series: "The University of California Land Grab"
Organized by UC Berkeley Native American Student Development, UC Berkeley, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, Berkeley Food Institute, and more, this two-part series examines the deeply troubled origins of the University of California - founded upon the expropriation and sale of Indigenous lands - and how to take responsibility now for that ongoing historical trauma and continued inequity. In part 2, Karuk-UCB Collaborative members Bill Tripp (KDNR) and Jennifer Sowerwine (UC Berkeley and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources) share their perspectives on how to build effective tribal-university partnerships and opportunities for restorative action. You can view both parts here.
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FOOD SECURITY RESOURCES
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
Missed an issue? See what your Karuk-UCB Food Security team has been doing here.
Keep in touch! Find upcoming events, see photos, ask questions, let your neighbors know what's going on in the foodshed! All that and more on the Foodshed Facebook page.
Wondering what, where and when to plant? Visit the Mid Klamath Watershed Council's Foodshed pages for excellent free information on the vegetables and fruits that grow best here, along with planting calendars, soil, and disease prevention advice. The Karuk Tribe's Sípnuuk Digital Library, Archives and Museum supports food security and sovereignty with information on our regional food security issues, solutions and knowledge of traditional and contemporary foods and materials. Easy to use and open to all - sign up now!
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This work is supported by the AFRI Resilient Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate Challenge Area Grant # 2018-68002-27916 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
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