2023 RWJF Culture of Health Prize Winner
Reclaiming Cultural and Agricultural Sovereignty Is Key to Zuni Pueblo’s Community Power
We all want a healthy future for our community's children and grandchildren. Zuni Pueblo is bringing that future to fruition through intentional stewardship of ancestral practices.
Nestled in an arid mesa spanning 450,000 acres, nearly all of the 10,000 Zuni people—descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo Peoples—live together in a centralized village, where history meets the present. Walking through Zuni Pueblo reveals growing gardens with rain barrels capturing water to nourish plants; young people playing outside; and cultural celebrations where different generations interact and support each other as leaders, knowledge-bearers, and constant learners.
At the center of it all is Zuni’s culturally rooted collaborative approach to care: the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP). This community-led effort brings together food sovereignty, community education, language and cultural preservation, sustainable agriculture, and water conservation.
Octavius Seowtewa and his grandson take a stroll in the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) garden. Intergenerational learning is a cornerstone of ZYEP’s work.
The people of Zuni Pueblo are working together to build a healthy community grounded in their sovereignty and culture.
Food sovereignty leaders Zachary James and Dylan Solomon, Jr discuss the rainwater collection system at Zuni Youth Enrichment Project, which allows the garden to flourish and grow. The rain barrel collects water off the roof and stores it in large clay pots decorated by local artists.
The Zuni community defines food sovereignty as “our ability to grow, share, save, and be nourished by our Native foods, contributing to the health of our people and the continuation of our traditions.” This is central to ZYEP’s mission. Reclaiming Zuni culture includes the language. Zuni Pueblo is one of the five known tribes in the U.S. where traditional Native languages are spoken at home and first-generation Native speakers are still among the community. Youth-focused initiatives play an important role in preserving the language.
Zuni Pueblo’s values run through every aspect of its programs, which include a Rain Harvest for Agriculture Policy and a Rain Harvest Rebate Program. These cross-sector partnerships with the Zuni Public School District and Zuni Utility Department are engaging the community in creating a Culture of Health that reflects and prioritizes the Zuni Pueblo’s heritage and traditions.
At the end of the day, the groundwork would be understanding that health to us comes from within, culture is our health. If we can really influence the community to embrace true food sovereignty, we will have less health disparities and adverse health outcomes… When you look at the heart of Zuni and health in the center, we all have the ability to make changes together.
Tara Wolfe, program manager, Zuni Youth Enrichment Project
“In Zuni Pueblo, we explore and practice power in a way that is culturally relevant—we sit down together, give everybody their space to speak, and understand that there’s a mutual respect and responsibility among people and to our lands.” says Tahlia Natachu-Eriacho, ZYEP executive director.
The Zuni community prioritizes self-governance given centuries of structural injustices that eroded their way of life. This oppression led to inadequate economic, education, and health systems that left the community among the most impacted by COVID-19. But the pandemic spurred innovation that has bolstered the Zuni Pueblo’s sovereignty in many ways.
Through the creation of an Agricultural Committee—made up of Zuni cultural stewards, farmers, water program leaders, and more—experts pass down Zuni farming and water conservation efforts that are essential when living in a desert. Especially amid the climate crisis, capturing rainwater as the primary source of agricultural irrigation for farming and garden sites has been a highly successful strategy. These efforts are rooted in their collective understanding of power which is essential for collaboration and interaction with the land. “The mainstream understanding of power does not always align with what Zuni views as power, because we were taught different approaches to reclaiming power and what power even looks like,” says Tahlia Natachu-Eriacho, ZYEP executive director. “In Zuni Pueblo, we explore and practice power in a way that is culturally relevant—we sit down together, give everybody their space to speak, and understand that there’s a mutual respect and responsibility among people and to our lands.” Their work includes the reintroduction of 2,000-year-old corn harvesting processes that were lost in the forced shift away from ancestral agricultural practices.
“I appreciate our diverse understanding of history and culture, carefully expressed through our daily conversations. Many generations contribute to Shiwi cosmology [the Zuni understanding and knowledge of the world]. Our actions are as important as our words,” says Curtis Quam, A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center Director and ZYEP Agriculture Committee Member.
Kenzi Bowekaty leads a harvest blessing ceremony with the Headstart class as they visit the gardens and greenhouse, which are part of the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project. The food harvested from these gardens goes to feed the students.
Museum director Curtis Quam and Tahlia Natachu sit together at the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center to discuss upcoming programs.
Khassandria Hattie stands on a Zuni Youth Enrichment Project parade float highlighting their food sovereignty work during the 58th Annual Zuni Tribal Fair. The event’s theme was "honoring the strength of our youth."
During the pandemic, the Zuni Agricultural Committee and ZYEP brainstormed ways to keep the community connected through traditions. ZYEP’s office space and youth center, Ho’n A:wan Park (“Belonging to all of us”), was used to package and distribute gardening and rain harvesting kits to 500 families, reintroducing traditional gardening practices at home. ZYEP continues providing kits to about 100 families per year; families have expressed a greater interest in maintaining home gardens than community farms as they continue upholding traditional agricultural practices.
“Driving around Zuni and seeing the multiple gardens that have been built over the last three years, and seeing a rain barrel in every garden, really goes back to the idea of power,” says Brittny Seowtewa, ZYEP’s Food Sovereignty coordinator. “It gives people power by giving them the resources to be gardeners and sustain their families.”
There’s a focus on and investment in Zuni youth and knowledge-sharing across generations. While leadership transfers valuable knowledge to youth, the Zuni people also believe young people have as much to teach as they do to learn. Elders and youth work together using traditional forms of seed-keeping and harvesting. As a result, types of corn that have not been grown in the area for generations are now thriving. Zuni youth are learning traditional prayers, ceremonies, and harvesting practices so that they might continue to pass knowledge on to future generations.
Youth programs within ZYEP include a summer camp, after-school programs, the Food Sovereignty programs that center on reclaiming traditional techniques, and internship programs that prepare youth to become the next Zuni leaders.
Ultimately, health equity means more than access to nutritious food. For Zuni Pueblo, it also comes from a sense of independence and the reclamation of traditions in every aspect of Zuni people’s lives.
“At the end of the day, the groundwork would be understanding that health to us comes from within, culture is our health,” says Tara Wolfe, ZYEP program manager. “If we can really influence the community to embrace true food sovereignty, we will have less health disparities and adverse health outcomes… When you look at the heart of Zuni and health in the center, we all have the ability to make changes together.”
