The Daily Sun-Up How are Indigenous tribes getting back to native foods?
Mar 26, 2026
Tracy Ross, a Sun Rural reporter covering Indigenous and rural Colorado, shares vivid reporting from powwows to Navajo Nation kitchens. She explores loss of traditional diets, a new Dine power plate initiative, leaders reclaiming native foods, personal transformations, and the practical hurdles to food sovereignty. Short, clear scenes and powerful stories drive the conversation.
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How Forced Food Changes Created A Health Crisis
- Forced relocation and federal commodity programs replaced traditional Diné foods with lard, sugar, powdered milk, spam, and processed cheese, driving chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.
- Tracy Ross links a 19th-century scorched-earth campaign and commodity dependence to today’s high diabetes and heart disease rates on the Navajo Nation.
Use Culture And Leaders To Reclaim Health
- Reintroduce traditional plant-based foods and educate communities to prevent diet-driven disease.
- Use local leaders, chefs, and physician networks to create culturally resonant tools like the Dine power plate and classroom outreach.
Physicians Committee Built A Culturally Tailored Program
- Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine partnered with Diné leaders to create the Diné power plate and promote plant-based prevention of diabetes.
- The group combined 17,000 physicians’ expertise with chefs and tribal leaders to spread culturally tailored diet education over 15 years.