A college student shows support for the #1stsacredfood campaign. Photo by Young Women United / Twitter
Programs like Women, Infants and Children must recognize the struggles facing women and mothers in Native communities, Rachael Lorenzo (Mescalero Apache / Laguna Pueblo) of Young Women United writes in an opinion piece for The Hill:
Women and parents who need assistance from WIC are usually low-income and do not always have the resources or time to exclusively breastfeed. According to the Department of Agriculture’s site, families are given a more expansive food package every month plus a free electric breast pump if the child(ren) are exclusively breastfed. For Native American women, these guidelines can be problematic. Those who live on reservations may live in a food desert where they will have to travel long distances to buy food as well as traveling far to go to work. Many of the jobs held by Native people are those in Indian gaming facilities. Many of these families live in poverty while working full time jobs. Survival in a very westernized world has severely altered indigenous ways of life, from not always being able to grow our own food to having our children in schools that do not always recognize the unique communities they are in, further exacerbating generational inequities. The WIC program is an example of state and federal policies not recognizing the unique struggles that Native communities face. Candidates for office or elected officials who speak to Native communities are always calling for the need to honor self-determination and sovereignty. The reality is that our indigenous identities have almost completely been wiped away thanks to state and federal policies (re: Indian Removal Act and the Allotment Act) that make self-determination hard to obtain and even harder hold on to.Get the Story:
Rachael Lorenzo: Native women must make their own choices about breastfeeding (The Hill 6/30)
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