Name: Reagan Wytsalucy
Location: Blanding, Utah
Education/background: Master of Science in plant sciences, Utah State University
Title: Extension assistant professor of agriculture & natural resources and 4-H at Utah State University
Tribal affiliation: Navajo Nation (Diné)
What led to your passion for Indigenous foods?
It was at the beginning of my higher education. I was in a different career field during my first year of college. And I didn’t like the career field…I don’t like to be in a situation where I feel like I’m idle and I don’t have a direction to move forward in my life. I like to live by having a purpose to allow me to set goals and move forward. Agriculture was one of the things that was brought up by my family and we discussed some good options. I looked at lots of schools and I had a sister attending Utah State University already. Out of all of the land-grant universities in the west I felt like Utah State had a more well-rounded program that would allow me to focus on the areas I was interested in, which was the overall vision to bring agriculture back to the Navajo Nation.
I started on that pathway and there was discussion in my family about these peaches that my dad grew up with when he grew up in Shonto Canyon. The peaches are known to be grown by Southwestern tribal communities upon arrival of the Spanish into the Southwest. They are a traditional food source that was utilized for hundreds of years as a main staple in Native American diets, which allowed them to persist through the harsh environment. I brought these stories up with my thesis committee, and major professor Dr. Brent Black, who eventually became a leading advisory role for my graduate studies looking into the history and traditional practices of Native Americans’ use of the peaches grown in the Southwest. At that time, I was an undergraduate researcher interning under him. Once I told him the story about these peaches, he informed me that I could get funding for travel to go look for these fruit trees and to get seeds to germinate. He suggested doing a full study to bring these trees back to the Navajo Nation and incorporate it into a scientific research project. My second year of college I started transitioning to doing a lot of research in my program and started this project. This work was carried into my master’s program.
Why do you think it’s important to make traditional foods more accessible?
Much of this is tied back to the traditional diets that our people have followed for generations. In contrast, today’s diets, filled with additives and processed ingredients, have created a heightened sensitivity in our bodies to modern foods. This shift has contributed to a significant rise in chronic health conditions closely linked to both diet and tradition.
Historically, our communities have developed a growing dependence on food distribution programs and modern societal systems, including reliance on currency for sustenance. This shift has made it increasingly difficult to maintain the time and resources needed to cultivate traditional farming practices. These practices often require traveling to farm sites that are distant from urban conveniences such as schools, grocery stores, and gas stations. As a result, there has been greater reliance on grocery store systems rather than growing our own traditional food sources.
Encouragingly, many young people are now striving to revive traditional farming practices. However, this effort is hindered by the loss of knowledge. The generation most familiar with these practices has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, with many elders either having passed away from COVID or being unable to physically teach younger individuals due to age-related limitations.
A promising approach involves blending traditional and modern farming methods, situating farm sites in more accessible areas while still preserving key aspects of traditional practices. Though this doesn’t fully return to ancestral farming locations, it represents meaningful progress in addressing food security within our communities.
Food insecurity is a serious issue, not only for Native communities but across the country. Access to healthy, natural, and additive-free food sources remains a significant challenge for many.
What is your advice for young people who want to learn how to grow traditional foods?
With Native American agriculture, you must understand the landscape and work with the natural landscape in order to farm it. I often say we need to have a mindset of living with the land and not living on the land. Throughout history, Native Americans have learned to farm with the lay of the land and with the way the water naturally runs. In the past, the Navajo people used the entire landscape and region and localized our food production to areas where water was collecting so we guaranteed we could capture the water for our crops to be irrigated. We didn’t have technology to pump water to areas of higher elevation. More often than not, we relied on precipitation and natural springs to water our crops.
I would recommend young individuals go back to either identifying or finding heirloom seeds. If they don’t have access to seeds, start farming with seeds they can source. Start saving seeds of plants that are becoming more regionally adapted to the local climate and conditions. Utilize the landscape to benefit the crop production you are going to be establishing. This way the landscape benefits the crops, and the crops benefit the landscape. As you’re doing this you must be able to find a balance within the system you’re creating in a landscape. Look to the methods of the past to understand where you are in the present; that will direct where you want to go in the future.
What other ways are you involved in the education, restoration and accessibility of traditional Native foods?
It’s hard to inspire young individuals to take an interest in farming, or to talk with their grandparents about traditional ways, especially when they’re at a point in their lives when they’re still trying to understand themselves. It’s important to teach people that these are nutritious food resources that can be a good addition to their diets. We have a massive variety of ways technology is accessible and we know youth are interested in that. I keep asking myself, How do we use technology to educate our kids to develop an interest in wanting to grow their own traditional foods again? That’s where STEM, plant sciences, animal sciences, all of these areas of focus come in with 4-H. There you have the greatest opportunity to repair and make a change in systems that the working class and elders have struggled with for years. We want to start initiating a spark of interest in youth to explore their interests, whether it’s a talent or a hobby. We want to give them a variety of experiences to take that knowledge into a career field. There’s a lot of opportunity to encourage youth to become future leaders in society who will make necessary policy changes and healthier choices.
I’m also creating a Native American Agriculture curriculum with some extension colleagues in Nebraska. I have established community gardens to create spaces, not just for people to grow food, but to serve as educational demonstration sites. All of this work allows me to expand on my initial vision of bringing agriculture back to the Navajo Nation, but it doesn’t end there. It expands beyond that. Hopefully we can start repairing our society and seeing our young individuals take leadership in society and make positive changes.