#FoodHeroes | Learning from the past and planning for the future – How the Brunos are keeping indigenous food systems alive

“There is no fear because nature will always be there in some form. And the hope is all my work can be passed to three other youth out there so it can grow” - Clifton Bruno.

Clifton Bruno is Wasco from the Columbia River basin in Oregon; where his peoples have lived since time immemorial and are one of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Spring Reservation. His wife, Christine Bruno’s tribal heritage is Comanche with Basque, Irish and English heritage; she has always lived in Oregon.

Clifton and Christine are both indigenous educators and consultants in the greater Portland Metro Area and surrounding Pacific Northwest Region, where they teach about and tend the lands, waters, First Foods, and environment with Native and non-native communities of the region. 

The Brunos joined with Portland Native American community organizations to access traditional gathering grounds to bring nutrient dense, traditional, seasonal foods to Native elders and families in urban settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the end of March and early April, in partnership with Portland Metro Parks and Green space, Native American Rehabilitation Association youth program and the kitchen at the Native American Youth Association (NAYA) in Portland, they harvested, prepared and delivered over 700 meals with the nutrient-dense, springtime green – stinging nettle.  Meals included stews, pesto, soups, teas and seasoning. Summer harvests of berries, fish and fireweed are currently postponed due to large fires in the traditional gathering areas in the mountains.

Since childhood and now as a grandfather, Clifton has been visiting and tending the Wasco traditional gathering lands, choosing the plants and animals for his family’s food. For many decades now, he and Christine have been working together with the Native American associations, Portland State University’s Indigenous Nations Studies program, schools and local governments to sustain and teach about regional First Foods, tending protocols, harvesting cycles, restoration practices and the centrality of food in local indigenous peoples’ ways of life. Their work ranges from the classroom, to public lands and waters, to local parks, community centers to the negotiating tables. 

With local governments, Portland Parks and Recreation and the Native American Community Advisory Council (NACAC), they are shaping new futures for public lands with time-tested traditional knowledge; incorporating indigenous led restoration work, and increasing access for traditional tending, planting and harvesting.

What started many years ago as groups of families teaching their children these traditions, expanded to “connecting with people with similar visions to work on making land accessible to gather food traditionally and practice these traditions for the people who some were forcibly relocated during relocation processes in the United States and some by choice have wound up in our urban areas and suburban areas. And helping them still connect with culture, still access foods and medicines and still maintain that knowledge and pass it down to future generations. By coming together we help fill in missing pieces that were lost due to colonization and loss of 90 percent of the indigenous population due to early diseases that came with the people who explored the region,” explains Christine.

Pre-COVID times, during the fall they would be organizing massive gatherings to honor and celebrate the return of the salmon to the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, bringing together more than10,000 people. Not this year. Now they are collaborating with local organizers and Salmon Nation peoples along the West coast, and potentially around the world, to create a hybrid-virtual honoring and celebration for the salmon runs this fall.

As they have always done, the Brunos continue to adapt to present situations with their knowledge, skills and generational vision of health for the environment and people. Bringing the medicine and teachings of food to their broader community. These food heroes are working to restore long-term health and peace with the surrounding environment and communities through indigenous food systems.

This article is part of FAO North America's Regional Food Hero series in the lead up to World Food Day.