A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast (Charlotte Coté)

Winner of the 2023 Donald L. Fixico Award for most innovative book on American Indian and Canadian First Nations History from the Western History AssociationHonorable Mention for the 15th Annual Labriola Center American Indian National Book AwardForegrounds the importance of Indigenous food in cultural revitalization and healing.In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (uumaas) brings sockeye salmon (miaat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. uumaas and miaat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community's efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge.In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Coté shares contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Coté offers evocative stories of her Tseshaht commun