Episode 4 - Spirit Plate

Removal & Relocation with Becky Webster

Following removal and relocation of the mid-1800s, Native communities found ways to adapt and preserve their foodways in the face of disruption. Each community’s journey is unique. This episode focused on the story of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. With our guest Becky Webster—Oneida attorney, farmer, and seed keeper—we'll talk about the way they are revitalizing their food traditions through seed saving, cooperative growing, and participating in local barter markets.

In this episode of Spirit Plate, Shiloh chats with:

• Becky Webster from Ukwakhwa (Our Foods) an Oneida attorney, farmer, and seed keeper

Episode highlights:

Removal and Relocation

• Becky introduces herself and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She also shares the story of her people during the removal and relocation period of the mid-1800s.

• Shiloh gives a brief history of removal and relocation in the U.S. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act that authorized the president to grant federal lands west of the Mississippi to the tribes that agreed to give up their lands. Some tribes resisted relocation for years, but many were unsuccessful in their resistance. In 1851, the Indian Appropriations Act led to western tribes being moved onto reservations.

• The displacement was not merely physical, but also spiritual, as many Indigenous peoples were cut off from their ancestral lands.

• Becky shares how relocation affected the food ways of her community, and how they rebuilt after moving to Wisconsin.

Ukwakhwa (Our Foods)

• Becky shares how she is continuing to preserve and practice her traditional food ways in her own life through Ukwakhwa: Tsinu Niyukwayay^thoslu (Our foods: Where we plant things), a 10-acre farmstead.

• The educational programs on the Ukwakhwa farmstead teach the community how to plant their traditional foods, how to harvest and preserve them, and how to prepare and eat them. Ukwakhwa has hosted harvesting and cooking events, such as one during which people gather over an open-fire to cook foods like kanʌstóhale (cornbread) and corn soup.

Beans, Becky’s Favorite Food to Grow

• Becky admits that of all the foods she grows on her farm, she likes beans the best because she believes they are the most generous and most forgiving of the Three Sisters.

• She also shares a variety of beans—which she and her community are still trying to find the name of—that she is particularly excited about. This bean is a pole bean that produces striped, fuschia-colored pods.

About the Grower’s Cooperative, Ohelaku

• Becky shares more about the corn grower’s cooperative she is a part of, Ohelaku (meaning “among the corn stalks”), how it came about, and why she joined it.

• The Oneida Nation had done such a good job with getting people to want to eat more of their corn that they couldn’t keep up with demand. Hence, a group of people within the community got together, leased out some space, asked for help from some mentors, and started planting corn.

• The co-op does conventionally plant with tractors, but after that point, everything is done by hand, including weeding and harvesting. Becky acknowledges that even though they use all-organic soil amendments, the conventional method of farming is not the best for the earth. They are currently experimenting with methods like minimal till to balance yield and soil health.

The Barter Market

• Becky is also involved in a barter market in her community. She shares the thinking behind bartering: “We don’t want to sell our corn because we think that that’s really disempowering to the people to break down what they have to offer in monetary terms. We also think it might be a little concerning to the corn itself because how do you put value on your relative?”

• She lists examples of what is being traded at the market: haircuts, medicines from the woods, singing lessons, etc.

What Food Sovereignty Means to Becky

• For Becky, food sovereignty means reclaiming her identity, place, and relationships with her food relatives.

• As an example, she shares the story of her and her husband’s changing relationship with going to longhouse, and how traditional foods played a pivotal role in that change.