Native Plants & Foods Story Map

Feed 7 Generations (FEED)

FEED leverages the collective experience of its staff to make a national impact on the health and wellness of Native people. 

For over a decade, tribal communities and passionate individuals have organized and unified efforts to enhance the health of the land and people. During this time, FEED staff established themselves as strong voices in the food sovereignty movement. They developed partnerships, created curriculum and educational content, advocated for environmental policy, and provided community education classes. These efforts made an impact and are a testament to the power of tribal communities across the country. 

 Learn more about FEED here.  

Garden-Raised Bounty (GRuB)

GRuB is a nonprofit organization working at the intersection of food, education, and health systems to grow healthy food, people, and communities.

GRuB’s Wild Foods and Medicines Program provides educational resources, community classes, and teacher trainings that connect people with the land, the seasons, and community. Tend, Gather, and Grow is a K-12 curriculum dedicated to educating youth about wild edible and medicinal plants and the rich cultural traditions that surround them. GRuB educators worked with a team of twelve people, including tribal members, to develop the curriculum, which includes a plant guide and modules on cultural ecosystems, tree communities, wild food traditions, and plant technologies. Coast Salish stories, recipes, games, videos, and hands-on activities are woven throughout the curriculum. The project aims to build food security, promote health, and facilitate connections with the land. 

The Plant Teachings for Growing Social-Emotional Skills toolkit was developed through a partnership between GRuB, Northwest Indian Treatment Center, and Seattle Indian Health Board. Over two years, a team of plant experts, mental health workers, and cultural knowledge keepers worked together to synthesize plant teachings for common Northwest plants. ​​The toolkit includes a book, cards, movement videos, and an activity guide, and can be integrated into many different settings, including behavioral health programs, community health and wellness, K-12 social-emotional lessons, and outdoor education programs.

 Learn more here. 

Nisqually Indian Tribe

Nisqually Community Garden works toward Tribal self-sufficiency and overall mental, physical, and spiritual health. We grow traditional plants, vegetables, berries, and fruit trees. All produce is distributed directly to Nisqually tribal members & the community. 

The Nisqually Tribe has a long history of Community Gardens. The current Nisqually Community Garden at the Culture Center began in 2009 on 410 acres of farmland at the mouth of the Nisqually River that was purchased by the Tribe in 1998. Hundreds of acres of this farmland were restored to the estuary after being dammed for about 100 years to make it farmable. The Nisqually Tribe Department of Natural Resources and partners removed the dams and planted thousands of native plants, restoring this critical salmon habitat. The Community Garden sits on about 70 acres of uplands overlooking this restored estuary.

 Learn more about the Nisqually Community Garden here.  

Tulalip Tribe

We are the Tulalip Tribes (pronounced Tuh’-lay-lup). We operate a Wellness Garden where plants and people come together and learn from each other.

Our program is grounded in Native American Coast Salish culture and teachings followed by best practices and curriculums. We believe our Elders are the backbone of our programming. In return for giving our Elders a platform to contribute their skills, they volunteer and share their time and gifts to give back to the community. We truly are stronger and better together as a result. I believe this is the true meaning of community engagement. 

Our native foods have come back to our longhouse on special occasions and we are thankful for these special opportunities for these plants and animals to give their lives for the health and wellbeing of our people. 

Center for Natural Lands Management

The Center for Natural Lands Management (CNLM) South Sound Prairies program works on the restoration, conservation, and stewardship of prairies and oak woodlands in the south Puget Sound region. In recent years the staff at CNLM have worked with Tribal partners and allies to incorporate and identify ways to include Indigenous needs and priorities for harvest and the reintroduction of native practice and support cultural ecosystems and access on public lands.

The harvest days have been a highlight of this work at CNLM. At one harvest day hosted in partnership with the Chehalis Tribe and FEED 7 Generations, participants shared stories of how grandmothers, great-grandmothers, aunties, and great Auntie's used to harvest camas, yet not many of the people alive today had ever harvested camas at all. There just haven't been places for a large harvest. It made CNLM realize that access to public and private lands for harvesting is a high priority of the community.

"It is encouraging to hear some of those stories and learn how they can be brought to present-day to reiterate that this is not a historical practice, it is current practice and one that isn't just spoken about in past tense." 

These Indigenous practices can and should be something that's recognized as a way that the landscape is utilized and managed today. 

 Learn more about CNLM here.  

Spokane Tribal Network 

The purpose of the Spokane Tribal Network (STN) is to build bridges in the Spokane Tribal Community and develop healthier lifestyles and lifestyle choices for all people in the community, especially among youth. They align their food sovereignty activities with the restoration of traditional foodways outlined in the  Spokane Tribe Sustainable Community Master Plan.  

STN joined what was being called by the community a Prairie Grassroot movement because prairie grass roots go deep unlike regular grassroots. They share information about traditional foods on their social media and organize harvesting days for their community to share traditional knowledge. When they have community gatherings around traditional foods they said that everyone helps others remember and learn.

“So when we get together and somebody will remember one little thing, then somebody else will remember one other thing, and then the collective nature of the knowledge starts to come together.” 

Since STN has been doing traditional food work, other interior Salish tribes in the area heard about the great work and reached out to STN to work together in developing similar programming in their own tribes. They've also started hosting events together to share knowledge across tribes and working to process plants into salves, teas, and tinctures for their communities.  

Learn more at their  website .

Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity, & Recreation Council (ISPARC)

Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity, & Recreation Council (ISPARC) was founded by First Nations Health Council, the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, and the Métis Nation BC with the goal of improving health and well-being of BC’s Indigenous people. They deliver healthy living programming to Indigenous communities across BC including lessons about healthy eating with traditional plants and medicines. They’ve started implementing a Re-Think your Drink station at all their large gatherings where they offer water infused with different traditional plants. 

"The native fusion drink station was kind of the first traditional plants and foods activity that I really wanted to bring to our leaders across the province. We started to serve the native fusion drinks at our training sessions about five years ago and they became so popular that we found out that two of our leaders actually started duplicating these drink stations in their own communities. It's been pretty cool to see these leaders putting their own traditional twists on creating drinks across communities."

 Learn more about the work of ISPARC here.  

Suquamish Tribe

The Suquamish Tribe takes their name from the traditional Lushootseed phrase for “people of the clear salt water”. These expert fishermen, canoe builders, and basket weavers have lived in harmony with the lands and waterways along Washington’s Central Puget Sound Region for thousands of years. 

The Traditional Food Program at Suquamish is on a mission to reconnect tribal members with the expert knowledge of their ancestors and their land. They teach community members about Indigenous plants using the Tend, Gather, and Grow curriculum through plant classes, apothecary work, and food preservation workshops. By sharing knowledge, the traditional foods program gets the community excited about traditional foods and facilitates community learning through tribal members sharing stories about how their families used traditional foods in the past.  

Urban Indian Health Institute

Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) is a Tribal Epidemiology Center focused on the health and well-being of Urban Indians throughout the United States. They partner with multiple organizations to host workshops and trainings including those on Indigenous plants and foods.

UIHI also supports the evaluation of Indigenous plants and foods work through applying their Indigenous evaluation framework and principles to conduct a community-based evaluation.

 Learn more about UIHI's work on their website.  

Camassia Resource Stewardship

Camassiah Resource Stewardship works with tribal communities to support increased access to and consumption of camas. They are currently working with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to develop a generational camas management plan and grow some test plots of camas on Swinomish agricultural lands. In the past, Camassiah worked with GRuB to help develop the cultural ecosystems module for the Tend, Gather, Grow curriculum. By doing this work, building relationships, and hearing the stories of resilience and struggle, they have become even more determined to try to be a strong ally or accomplice to tribal communities and individuals.

"I guess what I learned from doing all these workshops in communities is that I can be a facilitator and just kind of step back and let the plants do the work."

-Camassiah Founder

Island Health

The Indigenous Health Program at Island Health collaborates with Indigenous partners and communities to ensure that Indigenous peoples within the Island Health service region receive culturally appropriate and safe services. This includes a nutrition program that collaborates with Indigenous communities on food security and uses Indigenous plants and foods knowledge in their curricula.

A profound impact of Indigenous plants and foods work is seeing the plants spark intrinsic memories and knowledge that already exist within the community. One educator shared a story of how when she was presenting at one Nation, she passed around a container of dried nettles as a part of the presentation. When one Elder smelled the nettles, he started sharing all this knowledge he had about the plants and their stories and properties- the smell alone had evoked a memory that had long since been engrained! 

Indigenous plants and foods work has really shown that plants are the true teachers and the programs at Island Health have seen this through the impact Indigenous plants and foods work has had in the communities.  

 Learn more about the Indigenous Health Program at Island Health here. 

Bastyr University Gardens

The Sacred Seeds Trail at Bastyr University offers hands-on education and programming around ecosystem restoration, identification, cultivation, seed saving, and medicine of native plants. The project works with local Coast Salish Tribes to preserve and respectfully share knowledge of local plants and their use for food, medicine, craft, and ceremony. Beyond Bastyr classes, the program collaborates closely with the Tend, Gather, and Grow team at GRuB to provide ethnobotany field trips for K-12 students (at no cost to Tribal and Title I schools). 

"On field trips, we have an activity station we often do in relationship to evergreen trees where we 'bathe' together. First, we do a walk-through or 'forest bath', where we use our senses to smell and touch the different trees and learn about forest ecology and tree medicine. Then we use our hands to infuse evergreen trees into Epsom salts to take home and have a 'forest bath' anywhere. Students usually enter this activity with the most skepticism and leave really grounded, engaged, and curious. There is something about getting up close and personal with trees and then getting hands deep in Epsom salts and fir needles—it seems to help them open up to what's around them."

-Bastyr Gardens Staff

 Learn more about the Sacred Seeds Trail project here. 

Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe

Story coming soon...

Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe

Story coming soon...