Devon’s Wisdom: Decolonize Your Diet

Devon Mihesuah (Choctaw) is a friend and colleague since my days at the University of Kansas. She inspires me on so many levels. She’s one of the most prolific scholars and writers I have ever known. A great mom. Life-long athlete. On this space, I want to highlight her work on Indigenous Foods and refer you to two of her books that I love: Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness and Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge Protecting Environments and Regaining Health. Recovering also includes case studies, a curriculum guide and really doubles down on the number of recipes that feature pre-contact ingredients. It’s why she recently won the Gourmand’s Best Indigenous Book in the United States.

These are just two of her books that I think are must-reads. If you are on Facebook, she runs @IndigenousEating with a big following and she’s a one women wealth of food information, recipes, gardens, health and she walks the walk everyday.

In her own words when she generously (as always) replied to my ask for a few words:

“Food is more than just what is on your plate. It’s about how it got there, who made it happen, how you feel about it, and appreciating the Natural World that created the ingredients. I was one of those kids whose parents had to go find them to tell them dinner was ready. I had access to creeks, fields, and woods growing up. Every family member we visited had places to explore, so I have always been aware of the Natural World, animals, how things grow, and how quickly the environment can be ruined. Always brought animals home, had many pets, and watched family garden. I’ve written about this many times, but the gardens I have now are patterned after my family’s gardens. A central theme of my first novel, Roads of My Relations, is the family garden that holds together generations of traumatized Choctaws through removal and its aftermath. You write what you know.”

Devon also wrote an article back in 2003 about changing our diets by focusing on pre-contact foods. She had a friend that read it, took the message to heart, and lost 125 pounds and that prompted Devon to keep going, with the two books mentioned above. Never underestimate your ability to change lives.

Devon coined the phrase Decolonize Your Diet and she lives it. She took heat from some corners of Indian country for being honest and writing about the dangers of frybread and other beloved and politically explosive things. A lot of people have gotten on that train, but I do think she was country when country wasn’t cool on that front.

Thank you Devon, for always being an educator and a supporter of folks trying to find their way.

~ Stacy Leeds, January 2, 2021