Despite the rapid growth of the city and its environs, Riverside and the surrounding areas still contain many of the plants that local indigenous communities have relied on for centuries to sustain their health. Many of the plants found locally can be used as alternative food sources and traditional medicines. By promoting the use of Native plants, local groups seek to preserve their cultural practices while advocating for environmental safety and sustainability.

Today’s Native communities face health problems that are a result of a longer history of unhealthy diets. Beginning in the 19th century, the federal government forced many Native peoples onto reservations. There, indigenous communities had to rely on cheap, government-supplied foods to survive. This change from a locally-sourced plant and game diet to one rich in flour, sugar, fat and salt was detrimental to the health of the overall Native population.

Native food activists encourage a return to a more traditional diet to regain good health. Many Native plants are multi-purpose, serving as a food source and as medicine. Foods such as cholla cactus flower buds, mesquite, acorn, and chia seeds are nutritionally dense and have been known to alleviate symptoms ranging from lactose intolerance to diabetes. By teaching and learning about the health benefits of Native foods, advocates encourage a reconnection with the land through gathering, gardening and cooking.

For centuries, indigenous peoples have practiced resource management, carefully tending to the land that has nurtured them. For more than a century, European-American settlers have exhausted the land, believing the supply of natural resources to be endless. Today’s gatherers and weavers seek their supplies in places not as easily accessible as they once were. Expanding populations and pollution have limited the areas in which to safely gather. To make the land fruitful again, Native and non-Natives must practice reciprocity by taking only what is necessary to survive and by giving back to nature. By asking permission before one takes, one honors the land. By recognizing plants and animals as part of the living world we all inhabit, we honor Mother Earth.