Tosh graduated from Baldwin High this weekend. We had the celebration in the morning before the ceremony so he could run around and visit friends afterwards.  We prepared a variety of dishes, including grape and sweet potato salsa, cookie pizzas, venison and meatless burritos, tomato and corn salsa, lemon-raspberry ade, mimosas (champagne, orange juice and Triple Sec) for stressed parents,  with three types of chips: pita, whole grain, and veggie. I forgot to take pics of everything.

Grape Salsa: click here for the recipe

Sister-in-law Adele Mihesuah chops onions for the grape and sweet potato salsa

Ari cuts up grapes

Tosh, the Senior class president, gives a speech about the senior class gift.

Tosh's godfather Kevin Blake cuts scallions

We made a ton of sweet potato salsa.Click for recipe You can eat this with chips, roll in burritos, put on meats, or eat alone. I scrambled eggs with them the next day.

Fruit pizza was a hit. We made six of them.

Pure sugar. Cousin Jolene made the great cake. Purple shoes symbolizes Baldwin High School; the orange is Baker U.

Day 46

Professor Marty Reinhardt and his intrepid group of traditional eaters are on their
46th day of the challenge. You can read their interesting daily journals here:
https://share.nmu.edu/moodle/course/view.php?id=33

The food sounds terrific. Someone (ahem, Marty) might consider organizing a conference on traditional eating, or perhaps an indigenous "Chopped" or "Top Chef"-type competition. Without the crazy short time limits on cooking, of course.

Go DDPers!

Exercise

There have been many discussions about how eating our traditional foods and abandoning processed, greasy, salty and fatty foods can bring about dramatic health changes. But we also must exercise. Historcally, tribespeople did not simply sit around eating unprocessed foods. They gathered, planted, harvested, rode horses (after breaking them), dragged belongings and heavy game they killed, set up tipis and other homes, chased after children, butchered game, moved rocks, ran, walked, and swam. Some netted fish and hauled in their heavy catches. Others canoed or kayaked rough waters. Hunting sometimes took hours or even days. Gatherers often had to forage for miles to find edible plants. Fighting was stressful and energy depleting.

Day-to-day living was consistently active and tribesmen and women burned thousands of calories. Today it is easy to sit and watch t.v., surf the web, or feel too tired to even walk around the block.

Try to do something.
For the past eight weeks I've been on a "Walk Kansas" team. I've been a runner since age 11 and have never kept a diary of my exercise. Nor do I wear a watch, but am fairly aware of how long I stay out. I also have been a competative musher, skijorer, tennis player. Archery kept me occupied throughout my early life, as did exploring creeks around my family home. Lately I've kept track and see that I've put in an average of 47 miles of running and walking per week, plus swimming, gardening and weights.

For info: http://www.walkkansas.org/ Maybe you can organize such a program in your area?

Speaking (or, writing) of fitness: Congratulations to son Tosh for being named Athlete of the Week of the Jim Thorpe Native American Games. https://www.facebook.com/jtgames12 The Games will be held June 10-17 in Oklahoma City.

Tosh running steeplechase

One does not have to compete to be fit!

There are many things one can do and walking is one of the easiest. Here is a link to exercise tips on my American Indian Health and Diet page:
http://www.aihd.ku.edu/exercise/get_started_on_fitness.html

Get moving, everyone.