July 21, 2020

In northern Wisconsin, Potawatomi farm addresses health risks and food shortages among Indigenous people

Author: Frank Vaisvilas

BLACKWELL – Heart disease and cancer are among the leading causes of death of Indigenous people in Wisconsin, but a northern tribe is looking to reverse the trend by promoting healthy diets with food grown locally.
The tribal farm is also a matter of sovereignty for the Forest County Potawatomi Community, which looks to take care of its own using its own land, according to tribal spokesman George Ermert.
And the Potawatomi are making a deliberate effort to avoid becoming a food desert, a locatio