Craig Torres, Lori Sisquoc, and Barbara Drake (left to right) | Photo: KCET
Native cultural educators Kat High (Hupa), Craig Torres (Tongva), Lori Sisquoc (Cahuilla/Fort Sill Apache), and Barbara Drake (Tongva) have worked for years to restore, research and promote the use of indigenous food plants in California and elsewhere. Along with several other Native activists, Drake, Sisquoc, and Torres are founders of the Chia Cafe Collective, which works to educate Californians about traditional edible plants and their uses.
What do native plants mean to Indigenous peoples?
Kat: Everything we needed in our life came from our native plants. So if we wanted at tool, it came from our native plants. If we wanted food it came from out native plants. Our whole lives was based around this Garden of Eden that we call California.
Craig: Its part of my cultural identity, it connects me to the land. Those plants are what sustained my ancestors for thousands of generations on this land. Living in the area that I do, were surrounded by different cultures, were impacted by all these different influences that take us away from our identity of the land. So the one thing that I can really say that connects me to the land and to my cultural identity, are the plants. I believe that anybody who comes to this land, who makes this their home, needs to understand the importance of the native plants and to start utilizing them. Because theres a lot of healing and theres a lot of food and medicine in those plants.
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Do Native peoples view plants primarily as a resource, or is there a deeper connection?
Craig: When we see these plants and the animals, we dont see them as natural resources that are there for our taking, we see them as relatives that live in their own communities, just like other humans live in their communities. There is a particular protocol and etiquette that you need to have with these communities and thats what sustained my ancestors for not hundreds of years on this land, but thousands of years. It hasnt been more than a few hundred years that newcomers have come to this land and its been degraded so much in just a short time. One of my goals is to educate people on developing those relationships again and understanding it. They are here. Were not in a foreign land, its here and they need to understand the importance of those type of relationships that have existed and sustained humans forever on this land.
Kat High | Photo: KCET
What are the goals of Chia Cafe Collective?
Craig: As Chia Caf Collective, there are certain goals and results that we want from the work that we do. One of the original goals that [Barbara] had was to make a lot of our harvesting places accessible to people, and to elders who werent able to get out there and harvest for themselves. It was also to provide education to not only our own communities, but to the general public about the plants and the importance of native plants.
Today, our palates have become so desensitized because of a lot of the processing that our foods contain with the white sugar, and the flour, and many of those things. Were trying to reintroduce people to some of the contemporary foods, the contemporary dishes, by having those items. Sometimes we do use white flour. Sometimes we do use products like agave syrup, but its a combine those two, and get people used to that way of eating. Then they can gradually start removing some of those items, those products, the white flour, and reverse the process of what has been done. I think those are some of our goals. Its a philosophy that were trying to impart on the general public as well, and trying to reindigenize California once again.
Craig Torres makes chia energy bars. | Photo: KCET
What are some recipes that you make using native foods?
Craig: One of the things I make I used to call chia candy, but I changed the name to chia power bars because of the health benefits. I started adding unsweetened coconut, then the dried fruit, the different nuts. It came out to be like a chewy granola bar. Thats what I make now. Its something you can take with you on a hike or if youre outdoors gardening, you can keep it in a little baggie. It really boosts your energy level, it gives you a lot of energy.
Barbaras been doing teas for years, and the white sage tea is one that she talks about a lot. Its a little sweeter, because it has all those nice things in it, like the antibacterial properties, antimicrobial, antiseptic.
Barbara Drake makes white sage tea. | Photo: KCET
What does the Chia Cafe Collective hope to teach Californians?
Craig: We, as Chia Caf , try to educate people on the importance of the native plants, and advocate redoing your landscape in native plants, because thats going to resolve some of the issues that were dealing with, with the drought right now and the water crisis that we have.
Lori: Now, we all live here together, non-Indian and Indian. Anywhere you go, you should learn how the Native people who lived, how they live now, who they are, so thats why we share, because we want people to be aware of our traditional ways and how we took care of this land, and utilized these plants, and theyre here now to respect that. A lot of our great helpers come from the outside community that really helps support us, so that we can do what were supposed to be doing.
Are other Native peoples going back to their traditional foods?
Lori: All of our communities are threatened, and losing people from diabetes and other diseases that come in from the introduced diet. A lot of the tribes have been going back to their traditional foods, and growing them, and sharing them, and utilizing them, and making themselves healthy. Its all about that, about making our communities healthy again and working at it, and correcting things because of boarding schools and reservation life, and all the
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Craig Torres, Lori Sisquoc, and Barbara Drake (left to right) | Photo: KCET 
