Volume 4 • No. 9 • Full Moon • May 12, 2025

*Neighborhood Intrigue* • 28" x 28" x 2" • Oil and cold wax on custom birch cradled panel • 2024

*Big View of the Valley* • 35" x 40" • Oil and cold wax mixed media on birch panel • 2024

*Seeing Double* • 8" x 8" x 2" • Oil and cold wax mixed media on panel • 2024

**Mara Manning**

a teaser from

Exploring Food Sovereignty and Cultural Identity: The Decolonization Diet Project with Dr. Martin Reinhardt

A conversation between Andy Ciccone of the Poor Prole's Almanac and Dr. Martin Reinhardt

I took the picture below at the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Symposium & Festival in Marquette back in 2022. If I recall correctly, the process demonstrated was using wood ash, heat, and water to prep hominy for cooking, a traditional method of what's known as nixtamalization.

You'll likely never actually hear that word come out of my mouth. Between my rudimentary culinary understanding and, well, things like nixtamalization, there's a division. As you might guess, plenty more at the gathering was new to me. For that reason, the warm welcome I received upon arrival at the festival's camping area was meaningful. It wasn't until later that I realized that my fellow camper, who had noticed my arrival, introduced himself, and learned a bit about who I was, was Dr. Martin Reinhardt.

Soon after, Dr. Reinhardt shared a conversation on the Poor Prole's Almanac. I didn't know the talk had taken place until recently. Here's a brief excerpt and an invitation to read or listen to the whole thing, which was shared with permission from Martin and Andy. Enjoy.

-Taylor

Context from Andy: "The following interview was recorded for the Poor Proles Almanac podcast with guest Dr Martin Reinhardt from the Center for Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University. The Decolonizing Diet Project is an exploratory study of the relationship between people and indigenous foods of the Great Lakes region. Very few studies have ever been conducted on this subject matter, and studies that examine the physical, cultural, and legal dimensions are practically non-existent. This research explored not just how to eat as people on the landscape ate in the past, but it looked to see how to integrate this past with the present and to see how a diet framed in native berries, leeks, wild game, whitefish, maple syrup, wild rice and much, much more changed the quality of living for its participants. This was an exciting and inspiring conversation, and it's one I think you guys will enjoy."

Andy:

...So we've started talking about this bigger picture conversation of how decolonization plays into food and thinking about paths forward, but I do want to ask a little bit more about the specific diet itself that you were eating as part of this process. I was looking at some of the charts in terms of the foods that were being consumed on average, and it looks like, I believe, the highest quantity food consumed was maple sugar, which is really interesting for a couple of different reasons.

Obviously, with the Great Lakes region being a cold place that's wet, Sugar Maples are everywhere, and you're going to have a lot of maple syrup or maple sugar if you granulate it. But also, it's a sweetener. You would think it's terrible to have a diet that's like majority white sugar, but despite it being a majority different sugar, it's still really healthy. So I'm kind of curious about your thoughts about that.

Dr. Martin Reinhardt:

Well, I'm a maple-aholic, man. I like my sweets, and that's, you know, that's the number one. Of course, you know we have other things that are sweet too—the berries, even the inulin powder that comes from Jerusalem artichokes, right? So I mean, there are a lot of ways you can sweeten your foods, but, absolutely—maple is one of those ones that's a real cultural icon here. We are woods people in this area, and the Keweenaw Bay Indian community, they were the largest producer of maple products in the world for a long time, until, of course, they were disenfranchised from their traditional subsistence patterns. There are people like my friend Jerry Jondreau making their way back to that, revitalizing those traditions in their community.

I always say that we have this range of tastes in the American diet. The American diet is made up of, like, every other culture in the world, right, and you can find everything. You go to New York City, and you can find every kind of food in the world there. So in the American diet the spectrum of foods that you can eat is this broad —and I'm only holding my hands here because you can see it on the camera. Otherwise it'd be way out there.

But the Anishinaabe traditional diet is not that broad a spectrum. In fact, it's probably like that. (Gestures to indicate something smaller.) But when you really get into it, it's deep. So you get this spectrum that only goes so broad for Anishinaabe traditional foods, but when you start really looking at what our people did with it, it's deep. And most of the American diet, we probably get about that deep into it. (Gestures to indicate something shallow.)

Andy:

So while we have a wide spectrum, we don't—and I'm assuming you're talking about this idea of how to utilize it and the different ways that it can be utilized—

Dr. Martin Reinhardt:

Yeah, like, again Jerry Jondreau, my friend, he just sent back some blueberry maple vinegar with my daughter when she went and visited with him the other day. Try that with some wild rice casserole, like a stir-fry casserole. I don't know what you call it, but it's just the experimentation of food. Trying different things together, and then coming up with these new tastes. And in utilizing, truly utilizing, what exists in the world around you. You know, the intimate relationship that we foster with the plants and animals around us makes us more respectful of them...

Click Here to Listen to the Conversation

Click Here to Read the Rest of the Transcript

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || Martin’s work is not simply a call to eat more maple syrup. Food sovereignty, cultural identity, decolonization—those are all big things. If you pull one thing from a big thing without considering the rest, you risk making a mistake. In this case, if you reduce the message to a clarion call for a maple syrup diet, your stomach probably won't thank you. In that same vein, here’s a write-up cautioning against fixating on isolated bits from Traditional Ecological Knowledge instead of understanding that we’re talking about something holistic and all-encompassing. And it comes from Jerry Jondreau, the friend Martin referenced above, along with his partner Katy:

"Though many “regenerative” practices are taken directly from Indigenous and traditional approaches, Jerry and Katy point out that in the process, they have been corrupted: both the term and the strategies are decontextualized, reducing what should be a way of life to a set of discrete practices that ultimately fail to address the root causes of ecosystem degradation.

Indigenous agricultural and forestry practices, on the other hand, are inherently regenerative in that they encompass daily life grounded in place, rather than a reductionist process that promotes extraction. “In other words, you cannot help but begin a healing and healthy relationship with place when you exist among it,” Katy says."

For additional context, Jerry’s grandfather Boyzie played a pivotal role in defending Indigenous treaty rights here in the Great Lakes. Here’s a beautiful short film exploring his example from the 1970s—Gathering the Pieces: The Jondreau Decision.

|| 2 || Quick Primers: This slideshow from Martin's presentation on the Decolonizing Diet Project, which began in 2012, offers a basic understanding of the research's intentions, scope, and findings. If you’re more interested in diving directly into the kitchen maneuvers and dishes from the collaborative work, hunting down a copy of the Decolonizing Diet Project Cookbook might be a good choice.

The Poor Prole's Almanac: The conversation with Martin was hosted by Andy of the PPA, a platform for learning more about restoration agroecology, generally from a radical lens. Conversations covering myriad subjects are tied in, so in Crosshatch fashion, take a look, find what looks like it might wake you up in the morning, and follow that lead. Don’t know where to begin? Consider reading Andy’s unpacking of the term "agroecology".

The Weft — News and Events

We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!

|| 1 || Tip of the Mitt Fiber Fair, May 31st-June 1st. Emmet County Fairgrounds in Petoskey. A celebration of all things Michigan natural fiber, including workshops, vendors, petting zoo, food, and more. More details here.

|| 2 || Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference Tickets Now Available!—Leelanau County. Mon-Tues, Aug. 18th-19th. Space is limited; two days packed with valuable content designed to get you excited about the remainder of the season and thinking ahead to future years. Not quite ready to commit? Click here to learn more about this year’s conference, or here to purchase your ticket now.

|| 3 || Repair Café: A Green Door Folk School + TADL Collaboration. June 14th, 10am-2pm. Traverse Area District Library-Woodmere. Bring items for repair, get paired with a fixer, and repair your item. Free, more details available here.

|| 4 || Land-Based Projects: Installation-Based Input Sessions—May 19th, 10:30am-12pm and May 21st, 5-6:30pm, Virtual. These share-and-listen opportunities build from the foundation of Crosshatch's first land-based summit, and feature guest speaker Jennifer Flynn, EcoCorps Program Director with SEEDS Ecology & Education Centers. Register and/or find more information on the ZOOM gatherings here at the links above.

|| 5 || Earful of Fiddle Music & Dance Camp. Rodney, MI, June 22nd-27th. Classes, jam sessions, camping, and community. "We encourage learning to play by ear, knee-to-knee, foot-to-foot, from tradition bearers in a non-competitive setting. The result is the perpetuation of community-based entertainment and creative traditional arts practice." Find out more here.

|| 6 || Book Reading and Fiction Writing Workshop with Christine Maul Rice. May 21st at Bee Well Mead & Cider and May 22nd at Grass River Natural Area. More details on the Antrim Writers Series event to come. Find more information at the links above.

|| 7 || Interlochen's Nature & Art Series—"A variety of two-hour programs focusing on creative exploration of nature, art, and food", offered June through August. Check out classes and dates, and register here.

|| 8 || 2025 Grower Stipends from the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Applications open now. Twenty-nine $3,000 stipends for growing and seed-keeping are available to individuals indigenous to North America. Applications are due May 16th. Find more on the direct support program here.

|| 9 || The Crosshatch NW MI Small Farm Jobs Board—Check out the job board here. Posting positions is strongly encouraged. Please share in your networks, and keep an eye out for more openings that might be a good fit for you or someone you know.

|| 10 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: Funky Uncle, WHEE3TRIO featuring Gilad Hekselman, Jeff Haas, Marion Hayden, Laurie Sears, Anthony Stanco, and Tariq Gardner, The Max Lockwood Trio, Addison Agen, Ancestral Haiku, Big Fun, Expand Storytelling #8, Hannah Laine (and her 8-piece band), and The Alluvion Big Band.

Find more information at www.thealluvion.org.

The Whole Field • Volume 4 • No. 9 • Full Moon • May 12, 2025

Exploring Food Sovereignty and Cultural Identity: The Decolonization Diet Project with Dr. Martin Reinhardt

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

The Weft — News and Events

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