CALLAWAY, Minn. – On February 28 to March 3, 2019 some of the Intertribal Agriculture Council representatives traveled to Maplelag Resort on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota for the 16 Annual Indigenous Farming Conference hosted by the White Earth Land Recovery Project. Cindy Farlee, Zachary Ilbery, Iris Littlegeorge, and Dan Cornelius presented on a few different panel discussions.
Cindy and Zachary, members of the Native Youth Food Sovereignty Alliance and IAC, as well as Dan, Great Lakes Technical Assistant Specialist lead a panel about “Advancing Native Agriculture into the Future”. These individuals along with Blake Jackson of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative spoke on the historic number of tribal provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill. They also spoke regarding more information about the Native American Agriculture Fund and youth programs within the IAC.
Cindy, Zachary and Iris lead a panel discussion topic on “Advocating for our Traditional Foods.” The group discussed what measurements were taken within their home community, as well as what other tribal nations are doing around the country to promote healthy food access to traditional foods.
Many past IAC members of representative tribes along with IAC youth were in attendance at the Indigenous Farming Conference and were able to learn more about this year’s topic, “Revitalizing Our Story.”