This movement is called food sovereignty: the right of a people to define their own food and agriculture, to grow healthy food according to culturally appropriate methods, and to control access to land and natural resources. And while corn, beans, and squash—the “Three Sisters”—are central to this reclamation, many Indigenous food leaders are also turning to an unexpected ally: the chicken.

Though not native to the Americas, chickens have found a meaningful place in Indigenous-led food movements. As adaptable, low-cost sources of protein, they are helping Native families reconnect with land, culture, and health—on their own terms.

Food Sovereignty as Resistance and Restoration

Food has always been central to Indigenous life—not just as sustenance, but as identity, medicine, ceremony, and relationship with the land. Colonization disrupted this. Government policies forcibly removed Native people from their homelands, criminalized traditional practices, and introduced commodity foods that led to deep health disparities.

Food sovereignty emerged as a response to this history, emphasizing community-led agriculture, traditional ecological knowledge, and cultural healing. It is about more than growing food—it’s about reclaiming Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Organizations like the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, and Intertribal Agriculture Council have been instrumental in supporting Native growers, ranchers, and seed keepers in restoring traditional foodways.

Why Chickens?

Chickens are not native to North America, but Indigenous communities began keeping them soon after European contact. Over centuries, they became familiar parts of Native homesteads, especially during the reservation era when government restrictions limited traditional hunting and gathering.

Today, chickens are being re-embraced not because they are traditional, but because they serve traditional values: sustainability, stewardship, reciprocity, and community care.

Some of the reasons chickens have become valuable tools in Indigenous food sovereignty efforts include:

• Accessibility: Chickens are relatively inexpensive to keep, reproduce quickly, and can be raised in small spaces.

• Nutrition: Eggs and meat provide essential protein and micronutrients in communities that often suffer from food deserts.

• Education: Youth programs centered around chicken care teach responsibility, ecology, and ancestral values of caretaking.

• Cultural Adaptability: While not part of pre-contact diets, chickens can be integrated into ceremonial and seasonal cycles that honor Indigenous worldviews.

Native-Led Chicken Projects in Action

Across Native lands, community-based chicken programs are flourishing:

• The Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute in Arizona includes chicken-keeping as part of its youth apprenticeship and family farming programs. Chickens are raised in concert with dryland farming practices that reflect Hopi knowledge systems.

• Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota supports chicken projects that allow community members to raise backyard flocks for eggs and meat, reducing dependence on grocery stores that may be hours away.

• Sicangu Lakota Food Sovereignty Initiative in South Dakota integrates chickens into its regenerative food system, where the birds contribute to composting, pest control, and diversified diets.

These programs are not about turning Native communities into commercial poultry producers. Rather, they are about restoring control over food and reviving relationships—with the land, with each other, and with the responsibilities of caretaking that have always been part of Indigenous identity.

Chickens in the Circle of Indigenous Knowledge

What makes Indigenous chicken keeping distinct from mainstream backyard farming is not just the end goal, but the approach. In many Native cultures, animals are not viewed simply as commodities but as relatives—beings to be respected, nurtured, and learned from.

This perspective informs how chickens are raised: free-ranging, allowed to express natural behaviors, and integrated into broader land-based systems. Their manure becomes fertilizer for gardens, their feathers used in crafts or ceremonies, and their eggs shared among elders and families.

Some communities are even working to develop localized landraces, selecting chickens that are hardy, predator-aware, and well-suited to the environmental and cultural needs of their region.

Rebuilding the Circle, One Egg at a Time

The return to Indigenous foodways is not a return to the past. It is a forward-looking, adaptive movement that honors ancestral wisdom while responding to contemporary realities. Chickens, for all their foreign origins, have become part of that story.

As Native youth gather eggs in early morning mist, as grandmothers feed table scraps to clucking hens, as community gardens echo with the chatter of birds and children alike—these are acts of resilience. They are reminders that food is not just what we eat, but how we live.

In the coop as in the cornfield, food sovereignty lives.