All right. So I'm here with Foster Cournoyer-Hogan. Um, Foster, can you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your background.  

  Hau Mitakuyapi, cante waste nape ciyuzapelo. Foster Cournoyer-Hogan emaciyapelo. Hi, my name is Foster Cournoyer-Hogan, I am a senior at Stanford University graduating in a few weeks. Um, I'm from Parmalee and yeah, that's a little bit about me.  

Cool. And for those of you who don't know, Foster’s been with the, um, with our organization, the Food Sovereignty Initiative for, um, for a number of years, um, Foster, tell us a little bit about how you got involved with our program.  

Yeah, so my, I think I was a freshman, the summer of my freshman year of college. I was looking for a summer internship or summer job and came across this opportunity that the school offers to partner with any nonprofit. And so I was asking around like what I could do, where I could go, and I knew I wanted to come home for the summer, but I just didn't know where, where to be placed. So then someone made the connections with Mike [Mike Prate, Development Director of the Sicangu CDC and former FSI Director] and Mike was like, yeah, sure, come on. You know, we'd love to have you here. So then got placed with the Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative and from there, and I came back the following year and I think last year was my first break. And then here I am again with the WIK internship.  

Yeah. And so for those who don't know, um, our WIK internship Waicahya Icagapi Kte um, which is, um, ‘They Will Grow into Producers,’ it's our beginning farmer and rancher program. Um, so Foster, what, what made you, um, become interested in that internship?  

Yeah, so I, I wanted to come back to this, to this, um, to the Food Sovereignty Initiative. You know, I've had a lot of great experiences here. I learned like everything, I learned so much and just the simple exposure to what tribal food sovereignty is like really changed my life and my perception of the world, like what it means to be food sovereign, but to also like be food sovereign in an indigenous manner, like from an indigenous perspective. Yeah. So that was really eye opening for me. And now, you know, I'm taking that into my own practice of, you know, foraging, um, hunting, fishing, you know, doing it in a culturally respective manner. And, you know, just taking the time to learn about a lot of different things and even gardening, gardening, you know, the common store, vegetables like tomatoes and stuff, but also a three sisters indigenous seeds. That's something that I'm really interested in and trying to get into more as I'm learning. Um, I thought this internship would be another perfect learning opportunity for me. And, you know, I can learn more beyond what I was already exposed to and I am, I'm learning so much more like with the chickens and ducks up here at the garden. I don't know anything about chickens and ducks, but I'm learning a little bit about them. They're fun.  

Yeah, for sure. So if someone were to ask you like maybe, you know, your little brother, what does food sovereignty mean to you? How would you explain that to him?  

I always have trouble with this question, but I think for this food sovereignty, you know, that's, that's its own thing and an indigenous and tribal food sovereignty is another, or, you know, food sovereignty by itself. That's, that's just having your own food, growing your own, um, harvesting your own, you know, not having so much dependency on, um, stores and big companies. Um, but indigenous food sovereignty is something different, entirely different because you're focusing on the, the epistemology of the peoples, you know, for a Lakota peoples, you're focusing on our relationship with the Buffalo nation, plant nation, you know, other four legged relatives. And you're doing that in a culturally respective manner. You know, you're, you're just focusing on the prayer in it. And I think that's something that's that I'm trying to focus more on. Cause you know, gardening is, is a skill that takes a lot to master, but I think this indigenous side is, is a lifelong journey that you just have to practice every single day. So that's, that's kinda what I'm focusing on is that distinction because people, I don't think people are aware of that. And I want to raise awareness of that because that's, that's important because that's who we are as a people in that, you know, that just strengthens our tribal sovereignty as well.  

Yeah. Awesome. That's a good response. What about your, your thoughts are, your perspective around food? How has that changed over time? Um, you know, from like high school and to, you know, now where you're kind of doing more of the, you know, gardening right now and working with chickens, how has that changed over time?  

In high school, you know, I, I would have known nothing about any of this. I wouldn't have even a clue. You know, I learned, I knew some, like I knew the health disparities that we face and, you know, in high school I stopped drinking pop. Like just what do they call it? Cold turkey. I just stopped cold turkey. And I still haven't drank pop since then. But I think just the simple act like that, um, was a good start. You know, I didn't know too much about, I knew what chokecherries were, you know, wild plums, stuff like that. 

Yeah, exactly. I love that. Um, so jumping back to, um, the internship, what's been your, your favorite part about it and like, what are you looking most forward to?  

Hm. I, I like the, you know, the things that we're learning, and learning about different healthy soil management, you know, composting, um, starting seeds, you know, I, I tried to start seeds, but didn't really know what I was doing. I just bought some starter plants from the SGU Greenhouse last year, but now, you know, learning how to do things on my own, um, from someone that knows more about it. I like to do that more than, you know, watching YouTube videos and stuff. I say that would be probably my favorite thing is like actually getting my hands dirty out in the field and doing things like that. ‘Cause that's, that's fun, to get away from the screen since we're all on the screen all the time nowadays. 

Definitely. Totally. Yeah. I think, um, I think gardening can be really hard work and I think what really pays off for, for me anyways, is that being able to see, you know, the people from our community, you know, benefit from, from what we're doing and be able to, you know, buy and eat the produce that we grow. So I'm really excited for the farmer's market. I just want to put this plug in there, that we're starting, you know, two months earlier than we normally would. So, you know, I'm pretty, we're pretty excited about that.   

  It is exciting. There's so much fun.  

Yeah. I definitely, I, I, I love seeing people too and I think, yeah, the pandemic it's really been really hard for me not being able to see people and, um, having that connection with people. It's a lot different over, um, you know, over Zoom or, um, you know, over like these, you know, live events like that. Um, so I'm really hoping we can get back to doing more of that one day. Um, yeah. So after the internship's done right now, kind of wraps up in the fall. What are your plans, um, afterwards?  

Yeah, so afterwards, you know, like I said, I'll be graduating next month in a few weeks, and I’m going to take a break this summer, focus on the internship, and I'll be going on to my Master's program in the fall in August, but that's online. I'll be around, um, probably focusing on school and might get a part-time job, but I think definitely taking the time to do, to do my own research on different plants and stuff. ‘Cause I know the majority of my knowledge is on like the summer harvesting and spring. I want to learn more about like the fall, you know, after everything is kind of brown and hard to identify. That's what I want to learn is how to still find stuff, even though it might not look like it's there, but it is, that's something that I really want to learn. So I think that's, that's my next goal and in this journey.  

Cool. And one of the deliverables for the internship is kind of to develop, a business plan, with a potential for applying, for money through the internship. Do you have an idea of what you think  your enterprise will be focusing on?  

Yeah, I've been thinking about this and something I really enjoy doing is making teas and drinking teas. So I think that could be something, ‘cause you know, you don't see, there's a few indigenous owned tea businesses, but it's very small and I think experimenting with different tea blends of, you know, what grows here in this region, but also what could be, um, grown in a garden like chamomile and lavender and also like just using ceyaka and now dandelion, um it's, uh, bergamot, you know, I think that would be something cool to just have the different tea blends and being able to package that and sell them and you know, it's all in compostable material. I think that's important is trying to combat climate change, especially with this work, you know, that's important. I think that would be cool. 

  You've been listening to Food Revolution with the Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at Sicangu Community Development Corporation, instagram @sicangucdc, and check out our website at www.sicangucdc.org. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you next time in two weeks.