APRIL 2024 | 43 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS Only in June 1924 were U.S.- born Native Americans uniformly granted American citizenship through the Indian Citizenship Act.6 Nine years after the enactment of the Indian Citizenship Act, many Native Americans were not fully enfranchised under state law and were unable to vote, secure congressional representation or consideration, or uniformly participate in the American political process that would produce the AAA in 1933.7 Further compounding issues of political access, tribal subjection to reservation and removal era policies had significantly disrupted tribal food and agriculture systems, resulting in separation from traditional food sources, burdensome influence over tribal production agriculture practices8 and dependence on federal nutrition support.9 Additionally, despite the congressional assertion of the encouragement of tribes to take up yeoman farming,10 allotment policies in the early 1900s resulted in further divestment of tribal lands, creating a land ownership system not conducive to common tribal production agriculture practices.11 Tribes were severely underrepresented and under-considered in farm bill titles until more recently. While tribal nutrition programs – like the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (colloquially known as “commods”)12 – have existed since the 1970s,13 consideration of production agriculture through the lens of tribal farmers and ranchers on tribal lands wasn’t realized until the 1990 Farm Bill.14 Efforts to advocate for tribal farmers and ranchers consolidated after the 1980s farm crisis when the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) was formed in 1987.15 IAC recognized THE FARM BILL IS ONE OF THE LARGEST PIECES OF OMNIBUS LEGISLATION passed by Congress. Farm bills are generally authorized for five years and permit programmatic and funding support for food and agriculture systems in the United States.1 The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (AAA), now known as the first “farm bill,” passed in the wake of the Great Depression and was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to address volatility in American agriculture markets.2 The price volatility of agricultural commodities was predicated by an excess supply of some commodities and severe supply deficits of other crops and food products due in part to weather-related disasters and exacerbated due to poor production practices in conflict with good environmental and natural resources management.3 However, this first farm bill did nothing to address agricultural cultivation and production practices that disrupted critical natural resources.4 It also contained no provisions considering tribal agriculture, tribal producers or tribal lands.5
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTk3MQ==