Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way - by Charlotte J Frisbie (Paperback)

About the Book

Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way is the first book to focus on the dietary practices of the Navajos from the earliest known times into the present and relate them to the Navajo Nationâ (TM)s participation in the food sovereignty movement.

Book Synopsis

2018 Southwest Books of the Year

Around the world, indigenous peoples are returning to traditional foods produced by traditional methods of subsistence. The goal of controlling their own food systems, known as food sovereignty, is to reestablish healthy lifeways to combat contemporary diseases such as diabetes and obesity. This is the first book to focus on the dietary practices of the Navajos, from the earliest known times into the present, and relate them to the Navajo Nation's participation in the global food sovereignty movement. It documents the time-honored foods and recipes of a Navajo woman over almost a century, from the days when Navajos gathered or hunted almost everything they ate to a time when their diet was dominated by highly processed foods.

Review Quotes

"A great resource for anyone interested in learning about and cooking Navajo foods, both foods that are considered more traditional and those influenced by American foodways, such as the popular frybread."--Transmotion

"Beautiful teachings of wellness from long-lost subsistence practices that are now finally being recognized as the keys to social health and global responsibility."--Steven Begay, Navajo Nation Council, practitioner of Navajo medicine

"Food ethnography at its best: fine-grained observations, careful descriptions of food preparation, an assessment of nutrition, and collaboration with Navajo consultants--all set in a larger framework that has historical depth."--Louise Lamphere, Journal of Anthropological Research

"For a scholarly historical approach to Navajo food culture and preparation, you can't go wrong with Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way."--Edible Phoenix

"Frisbie serves up a thoughtful and humane study [. . .] a worthy summation of a distinguished career."--Southwest Books of the Year

"The main contribution of this book is as a storehouse for culinary wisdom gathered from Tall Woman and her family (with very rich footnotes containing additional stories and notes, as well as counter-information from other community members on some food uses)."--American Anthropologist

"This book is wonderfully engaging. It is also a detailed and useful compilation of Navajo foodways and culture and is a significant addition to the library of works focused on the Navajo."--Western Historical Quarterly

"Valuable as a source of information about changing Navajo foodways as well as about traditional ways of gathering and preparing locally available foods. Embeds the material within the larger context of a growing international political movement for food sovereignty. Among Navajos, as among many other indigenous peoples, some of the major causes of morbidity and mortality are related to the consumption of highly processed foods. Thus improving diets by using locally grown produce is at once an important political as well as public health measure. Frisbie's book is an important contribution to both of those developments."--Stephen J. Kunitz, author of Regional Cultures and Mortality in America