Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A bison boost for Native economies

“Buffalo is better for you than skinless chicken,” Karlene Hunter will tell you. “It has more omega-3s than an avocado.” Hunter is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and CEO of Native American Natural Foods. The company, which she cofounded in 2007, makes all-natural, low-calorie buffalo snacks (Tanka Bars, Tanka Sticks, Tanka Bites) sold in over 6,000 retail outlets, including Whole Foods, REI and Costco. Hunter’s company, which aims to source its food and ingredients from Native American producers, is now beginning a new project: Help native ranchers find economic opportunities and create more Native American sources of buffalo meat for her products.Currently Native American Natural Foods buys the wild rice it uses from Red Lake Nation Foods in Minnesota and its cranberries from processors in Wisconsin who deal directly with native growers. Yet only 17 percent of the company’s buffalo supply comes from Native producers. The new project, called the Tanka Fund, would help finance and support Natives in raising bison on Indian land in Western and Midwestern states. To make this happen, the company recently teamed up with Indian Land Tenure Foundation, a national organization that restores Native control of reservation lands that have fallen out of tribal ownership. “It’s a pretty broad area where buffalo do well,” says Cris Stainbrook, president of the Tenure Foundation. Over the next ten years, the money that Tanka Fund hopes to raise will be used to convert one million acres of land to tribal buffalo production. In addition, they plan to help support programs that introduce “sustainable, healthy food systems in American Indian communities.” Raising bison on Indian land isn’t new. Currently, there are groups like the Intertribal Buffalo Council, made up of 59 tribes, which own 15,000 to 20,000 buffalo intended to serve tribal communities. The Tanka Fund, however, will be looking to support entrepreneurs looking to engage in the market, rather than restoring communal herds...more

2 comments:

drjohn said...

In the mean time to correct the hunger among these indians my ideas is to start soliciting the BLM horses that are in lock up,slaughter them and make a delicious stew that can be canned with a long shelf life to feed these indians. One 1000 pound horse will yield 800 pounds of edible safe nutritious meat and if you figure a fourth of a pound to each child there is enough to feed 3200 kids.

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