Healing Our Communities, One Meal at a Time
How returning to traditional foods could save Native lives and restore cultural pride
Native communities face staggering health disparities: higher rates of diabetes, obesity, and shorter life expectancy.
Traditional foods once sustained long, healthy lives, but federal policies replaced them with processed commodities.
Programs like SNAP and FDPIR often provide unhealthy foods, fueling the very diseases they aim to address.
Tribes are reclaiming health through farm-to-table projects, cultural revitalization, and policy pushes for food sovereignty.
Real change requires systemic reform—flexible federal programs, infrastructure investment, and community-led solutions rooted in sovereignty.
For generations, the Pima people of Arizona lived long, healthy lives. But today, their life expectancy has dropped to just 47–53 years, decades shorter than the U.S. average of nearly 75.
Here’s the twist: Pima communities in Mexico, who still follow their traditional diets, live much longer and have far lower rates of diabetes and obesity.
The difference is so dramatic that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently described it as “genocide”, the systematic loss of Native food systems, replaced by cheap processed foods often delivered through government programs.
The Health Crisis in Numbers
Native Americans are 1.5x more likely to have diabetes than white Americans
1.6x more likely to be obese
Many tribal communities face chronic disease rates far above the national average
This wasn’t always the case. For thousands of years, Native peoples had thriving, land-based food systems, salmon in the Northwest, wild rice in the Great Lakes, buffalo on the Plains, and the “Three Sisters” (corn, beans, and squash) in many regions. These foods nourished bodies, sustained cultures, and supported strong communities.
How We Lost It
Forced removal from traditional lands and restrictions on hunting, fishing, and farming broke the connection to these foods. Today, programs like SNAP (food stamps) and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations feed hundreds of thousands of Native people, but too often with the very processed foods that cause diabetes, obesity, kidney failure, and heart disease.
As Kennedy put it: “We’re feeding people food that we know causes disease and we’ve been doing it for decades.”
Reasons for Hope
Some solutions are starting to take root:
Policy ideas – Kennedy has agreed with tribal suggestions such aa allowing SNAP benefits to be used for hunting and fishing gear, so people can return to traditional harvesting.
Community action – Native-led programs are bringing back ancestral recipes, growing traditional crops, and teaching young people how to hunt, fish, and gather in sustainable ways.
Farm-to-table projects – Tribes are producing food locally for schools and community programs.
Why Traditional Foods Work
Better nutrition: Wild salmon, venison, heritage grains, and Native plants are rich in nutrients that regulate blood sugar and protect long-term health.
Cultural connection: Food is more than fuel, it’s identity, language, and ceremony.
Economic strength: Local food systems create jobs, keep money in tribal communities, and reduce dependence on expensive imports.
The Policy Gap
While there’s talk of food sovereignty, funding often falls short. Kennedy’s own agency recently cut $32.5 million from the CDC’s Healthy Tribes program, removing more than 30 chronic disease prevention positions.
Real change means:
Letting SNAP and FDPIR support traditional food harvesting and processing
Building local food storage and distribution systems
Funding Native-led initiatives at the scale of the crisis
Food Sovereignty = Health Sovereignty
Food sovereignty means having control over the foods that sustain life. When Native communities rebuild traditional food systems, health improves, cultural pride deepens, and local economies grow.
As former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland put it:
“You can’t impose solutions on us and call it support. Real partnership starts with listening.”
The Bottom Line
This is more than a nutrition issue, it’s about justice, survival, and self-determination. Every garden planted, every youth taught to fish or gather, every seed saved is an act of resistance and renewal.
The question isn’t if Native communities can reverse these trends, we know we can. The question is whether policymakers will support the tools and flexibility needed to make it happen on a large scale.