Keep What You Catch: Promoting Traditional Subsistence Activities in Native Communities

Testimony of A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa)
Director of Programs – Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative 

Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing on “Keep What You Catch: Promoting Traditional Subsistence Activities in Native Communities.”

June 20, 2018

Introduction
Chairman Hoeven, Vice-Chairman, and members of the Committee, my name is A-dae Romero Briones. I am a member of the Cochiti Pueblo, one of 19 Pueblo communities in New Mexico. I am also Kiowa from the Kiowa Tribe in Oklahoma.

I serve as the Director of Programs for the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative (NAFSI) at First Nations Development Institute (First Nations). First Nations’ mission is to strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities. We invest in and create innovative institutions and models that strengthen asset control and support economic development for American Indian people and their communities. We believe that when armed with appropriate resources, Native peoples hold the capacity and ingenuity to ensure the sustainable, economic, spiritual and cultural well-being of their communities. This belief largely stems from examples of long-standing food system management that includes subsistence practices in Indigenous communities.

Fill out the form on the right to download the rest of the testimony.