Native America Calling: Seneca recipes, a salmon disaster and migrant workers

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Native America Calling

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Native America Calling: Seneca recipes, a salmon disaster and migrant workers

Monday, July 28, 2025

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The Menu: Washington tribe responds to a man-made environmental disaster; shift may be in the works for immigrant farmworkers; and recipes help Seneca language revitalization

President Donald Trump is signaling a shift in the ongoing push to deport immigrants as the reality of taking migrant farmworkers out of the fields, disrupting businesses and the country’s food supply starts to become apparent.

Legal status of hired crop farmworkers, fiscal 1991–2022

The share of hired crop farmworkers who were not legally authorized to work in the United States grew from roughly 14 percent in 1989–91 to almost 55 percent in 1999–2001; in recent years it has declined to about 40 percent. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

About 40 percent of the 2.6 million farm workers in the U.S. are estimated to be undocumented. A portion of those are Indigenous people from Mexico and Central American countries. Tune in to hear about how the Trump administration may be adjusting its stance.

And in a setback for tribal habitat restoration efforts, a tanker truck spill in Washington state killed thousands of fingerling salmon. Learn how the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is responding to the man-made disaster.

Plus, a search for words in their language led a husband-and-wife team to 300-year-old texts. Jamie Jacobs and Coreen Thompson discovered how French Jesuit missionaries documented Seneca names for traditional foods, cooking — and even recipes.

Guests on Native America Calling

Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas

Coreen Thompson (Tonawanda Seneca), cultural educator