4.29.2021
The 33 Project
Happy Thursday! Going to jump right into the recs this week because, you know, life/work/allofit.
1/ I am extremely proud of my incredible girlfriend Susannah on the creation of her plant-based butter!! She recently released this video on instagram to see who is interested in trying it out. If you’re a food person, in the industry or a chef, please message her so she can learn more about your needs and get you a sample. I personally can endorse the product as the best plant-based butter ever made.
2/ I found this article on returning stolen land to Native Americans to be fascinating. It’s about time to reckon with the past, to offer up concessions and a new path forward.
I never fully grasped the demographics of Native Americans living in the States.
In some respects, ours is an era of Native resurgence. For all we have suffered, there remain 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States. When the first national parks were created at the end of the 19th century, only about 250,000 Native people were left in the U.S. Now there are more than 5 million Native Americans throughout the country, roughly equal to the number of Jewish Americans and millions more than the number of Muslim Americans.
I also thought the following was especially well said.
Being Native is not so much a disposition or having a certain amount of blood running through one’s veins as it is a practice around which families and tribes are built. For a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, buying a bison burger at Whole Foods might satisfy their caloric needs, but being able to hunt and harvest bison, in keeping with their spiritual and cultural practices, feeds their culture and community. Native life was diminished when our land disappeared beneath our feet, and it is further diminished when the manner in which we access “public” lands is scripted by the government.
I also found the explanations and justifications for why giving back the land makes sense to be particularly compelling. Great read.
3/ I guess it’s nice to have the words for what a lot of us are feeling lately. Languishing. Good luck getting into that flow.
That’s all for this week. If you enjoy these recs, please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone and send me your own recs, too!!