​By Tia-Alexi Roberts, Narragansett (CS Staff)

Food is a living expression of culture, memory, and identity. Across Native American nations, it remains a powerful act of resistance and reclamation. During Native American Heritage Month, we honor the Indigenous knowledge keepers who are revitalizing traditional foodways, restoring relationships to land, and challenging colonial erasure through the dishes they create. Indigenous chefs are not only preserving ancestral ingredients and cooking techniques, but also strengthening food sovereignty, community health, and cultural pride.

The Xikrin Peoples face severe humanitarian and environmental crises as Vale’s nickel and other metal mining contaminates their rivers, harms their health, and destroys their ancestral territory, endangering their cultural survival and the environmental integrity of the region. The negative impacts on the health of the Xikrin people are so severe that some studies show that 98% of the communities in the Cateté lands are seriously contaminated.

By Chenae Bullock (Shinnecock)

By Daniel Salvador Chindoy Muchavisoy (CS Intern)

"As manifestações Indígenas na COP30 não são violações de segurança. Os Povos Indígenas estão exercendo seus direitos humanos fundamentais e expressando frustração pela falta de acesso aos espaços onde são tomadas decisões que os impactam de forma desproporcional." -- Aimee Roberson (Choctaw e Chickasaw), Diretora Executiva da Cultural Survival

“The Indigenous demonstrations at COP30 are not security breaches. Indigenous Peoples are exercising their fundamental human rights, and expressing frustration due to a lack of access to spaces where decisions are made that disproportionately impact them.” --Aimee Roberson (Choctaw and Chickasaw), Cultural Survival Executive Director

By CS Staff