A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast

by Charlotte Coté

Overview

Winner of the 2023 Donald L. Fixico Award for most innovative book on American Indian and Canadian First Nations History from the Western History Association

Honorable Mention for the 15th Annual Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award

Foregrounds the importance of Indigenous food in cultural revitalization and healing

In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (c̓uumaʕas) brings sockeye salmon (miʕaat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. C̓uumaʕas and miʕaat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community’s efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge.

In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Coté shares contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Coté offers evocative stories of her Tseshaht community’s and her own work to revitalize relationships to haʔum (traditional food) as a way to nurture health and wellness. As Indigenous peoples continue to face food insecurity due to ongoing inequality, environmental degradation, and the Westernization of traditional diets, Coté foregrounds healing and cultural sustenance via everyday enactments of food sovereignty: berry picking, salmon fishing, and building a community garden on reclaimed residential school grounds. This book is for everyone concerned about the major role food plays in physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295749518
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	01/28/2022
Series:	Indigenous Confluences
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	805,249
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charlotte Coté is associate professor in American Indian studies at the University of Washington and author of Spirits of Our Whaling Ancestors: Revitalizing Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth Traditions.

Table of Contents

Preface: ha&qustipa;um | We Are What We Eat ix

Acknowledgments: λeekoo xv

Phonetic Key xix

Introduction hacatakma cawaak | Everything Is Interconnected 3

Chapter 1 Tiic &rquiipa;aqλ | Understanding Food Sovereignty and Its Potential for Indigenous Health and Decolonization 23

Chapter 2 Cuuma&rquiipa;as | The River That Runs through Us, the Communal Fish Pot 56

Chapter 3 Tuuk^wasiil | The Tseshaht Community Garden Project, Cultivating a Space for Community Healing and Wellness 87

Chapter 4 Quu&qustipa;iciλ | A Conversation with kamâmakskwew waakiituusiis Nitanis Desjarlais and naas&qustipa;aluk John Rampanen 113

Epilogue Indigenous Health and Wellness and Living during a Time of Uncertainty 138

Glossary Adam Werle 141

Notes 145

Bibliography 161

Index 175

What People are Saying About This

Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi)

"I am so grateful for Charlotte Cote’s A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, which creates a path into the living foodways and thoughtways of her people. Her warm, storytelling voice and sharing of collective knowledge embody the generous spirit of a feast, and this book itself, is a feast."

Kyle Whyte

"A powerful philosophy of food sovereignty. Coté successfully navigates myriad scholarly and nonscholarly voices, telling a compelling comprehensive story that helps us understand the practices and policies needed to make change in our food systems."

Hannah Wittman

"Adeptly uses a deep storytelling method, including both lived experience and critical analysis of history and theory, to examine experiences and transformations of Indigenous foodways."

Editorial Reviews

"This book is based in, and within, Indigenous knowledges; specifically, Tseshaht philosophy and ontology. To be privy to such information feels like an incredible gift: Coté's stories are generous and insightful."

Pacific Northwest Quarterly (PNQ) - Tabitha Robin

"This is an innovative work that tells living histories not just through people, but also through rivers, gardens, berry patches, and more. This dynamic and engaging book pursues an Indigenous-centered methodology that speaks to health and healing, ecology and environment, community and sovereignty, past, present, and future, and beyond."

Western History Association Donald L. Fixico award committee

"The most recent book by Charlotte Coté (Tseshaht/Nuu-chah-nulth) continues her trend of exceptional scholarship that draws from her academic and personal expertise on the politics of food sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples in the Pacific Northwest...A Drum in One Hand provides a broad exploration of the Indigenous food sovereignty movement as seen through the lens of Coté and her family’s practices."

Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal