The typical Basha’s parking lot in Indian Country tends to concentrate Reservation life: families and elders come to shop, but addicts and those that have fallen between the cracks roam the lots looking for handouts, a friendly face or an opportunity to take their journeys forward or backward. Alcohol flows freely as does sorrow. “I used to use alcohol to cope,” says Twila Cassadore (@twila_cassadore_ ). “We as Apache tend to be silent and cover our trauma. But that silence forces us to cope by using alcohol or worse: meth, heroin, cocaine.”
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Twila regularly organizes vigils of “Mothers Against Meth” on the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache Reservations. And last Friday a few dozen folks in recovery, those supporting their recovery and those coping with the loss of those that weren’t saved gathered in Whiteriver to pray, to share and to heal. “I will never be whole again. But I cope. And I use our traditional foods and Apache life ways to cope. Right now for example, the mining companies are sucking all the water out from under our land. The trees are dry and the berry bushes have shriveled. But the plants are just dormant. They’re coping. But one day, when the water returns they will thrive. I look at these suffering plants like the Apache body. One day when tradition comes back, the Apache body will once again become strong.” ..
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“Twila is why we do what we do at the People’s Farm,” says @apachefarmer. “She is what it means to be Apache. She follows the cycle of nature in expressing Apache wisdom and teachings.”
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“Capitalism is hard for the food system,” says @twila_cassadore_ .”it forces us to time our lives around our jobs and Nature doesn’t work that way. The Apache lifeway is to follow the rhythms of Nature and to let Nature guide your movements. I always say plants are your friends. You can introduce yourself to them and learn their ways. That’s how the Apache thrived for so many years.”
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We were privileged to spend time on the White Mountain Apache Reservation with expert forager and food systems leader Twila Cassadore (San Carlos Apache) along with young farmer and organizer Clayton Harvey (White Mountain Apache) as they visited familiar bushes in the mountains to selectively harvest berries to dry. .
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