Hello and welcome to my website! First and foremost, I would like to applaud you if you are here to live a better lifestyle for you and your community! GO YOU! Its no secret that our own people are some of the most unhealthiest minority out there. I will get into the facts in a bit but I wanted to just give a little more information about myself. Here we go.
I am 24 years, young I know. I am 1/2 Native. I come from two traditional Pueblo's in New Mexico, Jemez and Taos. However, most of my family hasn't lived on any of these reservations since the late 1950's due to the Relocation Act. Therefore, I guess you can say we are Urban ndns. I grew up in the very big San Fernando Valley aka Los Angeles, California. Although, there were times that I did struggle with my identity, I always had a strong connection and bond to my Native roots.
Growing up, my family and I would constantly travel back and forth to New Mexico to participate in our Feast days. If you have ever been to a feast day, you know how magical it is. Dances, drums, celebration, family...and of course, FOOD. How could you forget about that right?! Food has always been an important aspect of our culture, if not the MOST important. After all, Feast Day was about the celebration of harvest and eating am I right? For the first part of my life, I seemed to always eat more than I should have at one house at one time. Every time though..INSTANT REGRET. How could you resist those Famous Jemez Enchilladas or my Aunt Delores' potato salad with red chile on top??? You couldn't! It seemed to always creep up on me.
As I grew older, into my teen years, I started to analyze all of the Feast Day food. I started to wonder why these foods were staples in our diet. Why were they considered traditional foods? How are they considered traditional foods and why did they make me feel so bad when I ate them? Its these questions that led me to my purpose and mission to start digging deeper into our ACTUAL HISTORICAL diet. Obviously, these so called "Feast Day foods" weren't used by the ancients long ago. But why are we still implementing them into our diet and ceremonies if they don't serve our spirit and bodies?
Unfortunately, a lot of our communities eat like this on a daily basis. Maybe not the entire Feast Day spread but rather processed foods, high sugar content, over consumption of meats and dairy. Again, I want to help fix this problem that has been mowed over for a very long time now. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, Native Americans as well as Alaskan Natives are the HIGHEST ranking collective group of human beings in the United States to have a greater chance of having Diabetes. Kidney failure is just one of the more severe outcomes of Diabetes. Kidney failure in Natives once again, was also ranked the HIGHEST.
Unfortunately, I have seen and witnessed my own family suffer from both Diabetes as well as Kidney Failure. This isn't a joke anymore. We are such a strong, beautiful and thriving culture, yet, we don't actually FEEL like it. Medicines, prescriptions and diet fads are not ways of thinking long term. What I am after is a LIFESTYLE. Not a diet but rather a livable, sustainable lifestyle that supports our inner and outer health.
I have created this website in hopes of sharing my recipes as well as inviting others to share their own recipes. I hadn't mentioned yet that I made the choice to go Vegan. It has changed my life and is surprisingly easier than I had ever thought. After researching what my ancestors were eating, I had come to find that we were mainly Vegan. Everyone is different and I'm not saying to go Vegan (but if you do, the Earth thanks you!) but I encourage you to do some research. Find out what foods work best for your genetic makeup. What will serve your mind, body and spirit. Find out what that is and stick to it. Once you find your way, you will not want to go back to the way you were feeling. Thank you so much for being here and If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at anytime. Ta'ah.
XOXO,
Shell
