What if disruption wasn't something to be feared, but rather embraced as a catalyst for growth and change? Join us for an unforgettable conversation with the steadfast Kelsey Scott, a woman who's redefining what disruptions means in her life to evolve as a human being. As a Lakota tribeswoman raised on The DX Ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Kelsey's unique insights on embracing disturbance, managing pressure, and enhancing resilience are informed by her life experiences on the ranch and her innovative approaches to engagement in Indian Agriculture as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
In our enlightening conversation with Kelsey, we tap into the wisdom she's garnered from working closely with cattle and horses, and learning the power of pressure and release - not just with these majestic animals, but also in her everyday life. Kelsey shares with us the parallels she's drawn between these techniques and the cycles of the ecosystem. A discussion that begins with managing physical aches and pains expands into a profound exploration of overcoming anxiety and the importance of establishing a homeostasis for overall wellbeing.
As our conversation winds down, Kelsey offers her perspective on the strides she and her father, the USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator, have taken in strategizing new ways to improve the quality of life for BIPOC agricultural leaders and producers. As we explore the power of resilience and community appreciation, we also dive into Kelsey's unique marketing strategies for DX Beef and how they've positively impacted her local community. This episode is a treasure trove of insights, offering a new outlook on embracing disturbance, managing pressure, and enhancing resilience in our lives. Tune in to be inspired and learn something new.
References:
Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, - Horsemanship
https://thedxranch.com/
https://www.projecth3lp.org/
https://www.indianag.org/
What if disruption wasn't something to be feared, but rather embraced as a catalyst for growth and change? Join us for an unforgettable conversation with the steadfast Kelsey Scott, a woman who's redefining what disruptions means in her life to evolve as a human being. As a Lakota tribeswoman raised on The DX Ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Kelsey's unique insights on embracing disturbance, managing pressure, and enhancing resilience are informed by her life experiences on the ranch and her innovative approaches to engagement in Indian Agriculture as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
In our enlightening conversation with Kelsey, we tap into the wisdom she's garnered from working closely with cattle and horses, and learning the power of pressure and release - not just with these majestic animals, but also in her everyday life. Kelsey shares with us the parallels she's drawn between these techniques and the cycles of the ecosystem. A discussion that begins with managing physical aches and pains expands into a profound exploration of overcoming anxiety and the importance of establishing a homeostasis for overall wellbeing.
As our conversation winds down, Kelsey offers her perspective on the strides she and her father, the USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator, have taken in strategizing new ways to improve the quality of life for BIPOC agricultural leaders and producers. As we explore the power of resilience and community appreciation, we also dive into Kelsey's unique marketing strategies for DX Beef and how they've positively impacted her local community. This episode is a treasure trove of insights, offering a new outlook on embracing disturbance, managing pressure, and enhancing resilience in our lives. Tune in to be inspired and learn something new.
References:
Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, - Horsemanship
https://thedxranch.com/
https://www.projecth3lp.org/
https://www.indianag.org/
Welcome to the Land Food Life Podcast. I'm your host, kara Kroger. In each episode, I'm dedicated to enlightening you with invaluable insights on how we can heal the land, our ecosystems and improve our overall health and well-being. My goal is to raise your awareness about caring for nature as a whole and the life-giving breathing soil beneath your feet, help you understand the origins and medicinal value of your food and embrace the interconnectedness of everything that surrounds you. With 25 years of combined experience, studying and coaching in regenerative agriculture, natural medicine, nutrition, cooking, mindfulness and cultivating abundance, I am thrilled to share the life-changing tools I've learned. By implementing these practices, you'll experience a regulated nervous system, a nourished body, ready to pursue your dreams with energy and vigor, the ability to collaborate with nature and a renewed sense of hope and purpose. I am so grateful to have you here today. If you like what you hear, please rate, review and help me spread this information to as many people as possible. Let's get started. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Land Food Life Podcast. I am so excited to have this conversation today. We are blessed by the presence of a steadfast and really remarkable young woman, my friend and colleague, kelsey Scott. Kelsey and her family owned the DX Ranch, which was established in the 1930s near Eagle Butte, south Dakota, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. The DX Ranch is a grass-fed cattle ranch on Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires ancestral lands.
Speaker 1:When I met Kelsey at the inaugural class of Nicole Masters Create program that started in 2021, in that first week of class, I was just immediately struck by her steadfast presence, and I really want to make clear that I am not using the word steadfast lightly when I describe Kelsey, so I just want to give the definition of steadfast, to take this a little bit deeper, so steadfast means unwavering and resolute in purpose or belief, and it describes somebody who remains constant, loyal and dedicated in the face of challenges, difficulties or temptations, and someone who is really true to their principles and commitments no matter what the circumstances, and Kelsey really embodies this to the nth degree, and she has a lot of life left to live, but the gifts she has already bestowed upon us in the 30 years she has been on this planet are a significant reminder of what we can do when we embrace being steadfast.
Speaker 1:And, ultimately, I believe that she is the perfect person to speak on the topic that we're going to be discussing today, which is all about shaking things up, shifting and evolving by way of embracing disruption for personal growth, mindset change and really raising the quality of life for ourselves and all of the beings around us. So, kelsey, I'm really honored to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. It's quite an honor to be here, especially after that introduction. I can live up to it.
Speaker 1:I think you can. I think you can, all right. So, kelsey, you literally grew up in a horse saddle and you're learning a lot of life lessons along the way, and your dad had a big influence in teaching you a lot about horsewomen ship and you and your family are members of the Lakota tribe, and I just want to note that that is a matriarchal society and that's very cool. So you guys have a number of different enterprises on the DX Ranch right. Will you explain what some of those enterprises are?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think probably the mainstay or the longest standing to our cattle herd. We have a cow calf operation here on the ranch that's really kind of shifted and taken different shapes over the generations and through the years but really each iteration of that cow calf operation has been us continuing to refine and evolve the herd to best match the environment that we're producing in. We also have had our American quarter horse registered herd that my grandfather started. That really was his pride and joy was in our horses. We've always bred for disposition first, meaning we want a nice, solid mind and character of a horse that wants to be around you when you go to the gate to catch them. We want you to have to push them out of the way to get into the corral to catch the horse. We don't want it to be the opposite of that. And so solid disposition bred first, and if the horse is a pretty color afterwards, great. But we want solid mind, solid body, along lasting ranch horse and then over the years.
Speaker 2:Really, what has, I believe, been able to grow here on the ranch is individual expressions of desires, passions and commitments to the community locally. That has taken shape in a number of ways. One is through DX Beef, which is a direct to consumer grass-fed beef business, which I started with my family when I moved home from college in 2015 or 16. And then we also have a nonprofit that we operate here called Project Help and it's H3LP.
Speaker 2:The Project Help is really our ability to try to interface with the local community members to help them feel the grounded nature that we get to feel here because of the good fortune that we believe, you know, been privileged to enjoy due to the generations before us and their hard work.
Speaker 2:And Project Help is a unique way that we can utilize that legacy herd of horses that my grandfather blessed us with to interact with local youth to help them to really build upon the building blocks of life that can help them. You know we call it lifemanship, the practice of horsemanship, but in life, and so we use these animals to help to convey confidence in the youth around body awareness, presentation, different approaches, empathy for one another, and so that's another kind of enterprise that has been established and home here on the ranch. But we also have artists here on the place. So we have DX woodworking, we have DX custom beadwork, we have photographers here on the ranch. So it's a number of enterprises right here on the ranch and the common thread, I believe, really is the fact that we have a nice solid footing to be able to appreciate and enjoy and because of that, we're able to focus on how can we contribute to the local economy and give back to the community.
Speaker 1:That's so fabulous and I absolutely love the term lifemanship. I think that we need some school courses titled that. Yeah, that's really great. So for those of you that are interested, you guys can go to is it DX ranch dot com, kelsey, where people can look at all of the different things that y'all have going on on the ranch, and you also do some vacation rentals, right?
Speaker 2:So if people want to go and we do, yeah, we have an agritourism and kind of an experiential learning offering that we provide here. So we actually host internships. We've coordinated with colleges in the past. So if you've got a college internship credit that you qualify for, you know we we actually host interns here and we really customize their learning experience around their interests. If they're inclined towards the soils, you know we can have them be more involved in the land management. If they're inclined towards the horsemanship or the, maybe they want to start a breeding program of their own, you know we really customize their learning experience and so you can learn more about the agritourism and the quarter horse business at the DX ranch dot com. And then DX beef is DX beef dot com. And then we do have project help dot org and it is project H, three LP dot org.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, and all of that is on the website there, and so I also want to share that. Y'all do the horsemanship clinics with a lot of really awesome horsemen and horsewomen and men who are teaching some of those. So it's not just y'all, but y'all bring in other leaders in horsemanship as well to do some of those clinics, is that right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We love every day, and if you're the intern here at the ranch, we're here to learn alongside of you. We think that learning is a lifelong commitment, and so it's great for us to be able to bring in other expertise that we can learn from right alongside with you, and we want to learn from you too when you come here. We really believe in that culture and knowledge exchange.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful, yeah. So I grew up riding horses. I never had my own horse, unfortunately, but I grew up riding, doing trail riding and some barrel racing, and there's just so much that horses can teach you, and I know that you guys have a fabulous reputation in both the horsemanship and the horses that you all work with and love on. I also want to just share that Kelsey is the chief strategy officer of the Intertribal Agriculture Council, and this is an organization that focuses on redirecting the conversation of food system resiliency to remind us all that our tribal agriculture producers are the descendants of the original land stewards of this continent, and the regenerative agriculture practices that are being promoted today and are in the news, they're simply a return to indigenous land steward practices. And so the Intertribal Agriculture Council works to uplift the tribal producers' voices and share their stories and their trials in feeding their community, and it really promotes the use of Indian resources and contracts with federal agencies to maximize resources for tribal members. And so, kelsey, you've been with them for how many years now?
Speaker 2:I started volunteering with the organization when I was in college, through 2011 through 2015, and I volunteered with helping to coordinate youth engagement opportunities at their annual conference and then convinced them that they should hire me to do that full time in 2016.
Speaker 1:You convinced them huh, tell me more about that. How did you go about doing that?
Speaker 2:Well, one.
Speaker 2:I got really fortunate early on in my life.
Speaker 2:I remember volunteering at the annual conference, sitting there just observing the interactions that were happening with leaders in Indian agriculture there was Ross Racine and Janie Hib and the tribal liaisons and they were interacting and I just remember the care and respect that they had in their communication, not only for one another but for their responsibility to their communities.
Speaker 2:It was just so apparent their commitment and their ownership of stepping into being that generation of leadership.
Speaker 2:And I remember sitting there, I know exactly where I was looking at them, listening to a conversation and I thought you know, I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:These are the people who I want to spend my career with. So, fortunately for me, I was able to show up and to commit to different opportunities to extend a similar form of a growing leadership at that age in my career and show to them that I really was committed to the cause as well. I jokeingly say, convince them to hire me because the youth engagement and that formal space of like we were bringing together 20 to 30 youth from across an entire region, getting them on planes, coming to one central location for a two to three day in-person learning opportunity hosted by one of the tribes within the region. It was like the first of that sort of activity that the organization had really done, and really the first of that kind of activity to my knowledge that had been done anywhere in Indian agriculture across the nation, and so it was one of those situations where we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants.
Speaker 2:We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we were trying to prepare for everything. You know, I had some really phenomenal colleagues early on in navigating those great areas where I would look at them and they would kind of look at me and we'd like raise our eyes and be like all right, just roll with it.
Speaker 2:You know like it's going to work out in the end We'll we'll beg for forgiveness later, or you know. So it's kind of a running joke around like that really know what I was getting into or what they were allowing me to get into on their behalf. But we luckily all survived really well and we had great outcomes. And now I'm really proud to say that you know, iac and our ally partnerships actually are employing some of those youth that we brought to those first events. So we really believed in establishing, you know, that bench of young leaders that can be coming up into the ranks of leadership and these other organizations that are serving our communities and really carrying this charge forward into the next generation.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it and I've met some of those folks when we've been at conferences together and really bright, beautiful people. So, yes, good job, keep the good work up. And you guys host a big conference every year in Las Vegas right when tribes, people from all around the nation come and discuss Indian agriculture, correct? And that's coming up in December.
Speaker 2:It is in December. This year it's at the Palms Resort in Las Vegas, nevada. It is December 12th through the 14th and it's a really phenomenal event. We really tailor our conversations around one recognizing and appreciating.
Speaker 2:Where has agriculture in India Country come from, what have been the barriers, what has been the resiliency that has been expressed by our communities to overcome those barriers, and how can we really continue to leverage that that is an underlying reality for all of Indian Country is just this expressed resiliency and how do we maximize that for the continued benefit Not only of our communities but of all communities? We believe that there are a lot of theories of change and philosophies in how we are in rebuilding our food systems that could shed light on improving food systems really worldwide, and so, yeah, I invite anybody to join us if you can. Registration is open right now. That's our largest event of the year, but we do also have regional events all throughout the country throughout the year. I think we maybe only have one or two left, but you can learn more about our upcoming events at indianaagorg.
Speaker 1:Great, yeah, very, very interesting organization. That is really fun to pay attention to what's going on there, just because it can bring a lot of awareness to the fact that one. We know that our food systems are struggling and broken in many ways and we have populations around the nation that are struggling more than others, and, unfortunately, many of the Indian populations grow food that they don't even get to eat, and that's, I know, one of the reasons that inspired you to start your beef company and market specifically to your community in the Shian Suh reservation there, right. So we're going to talk a little bit more about that. I want to ask a question, just so we can get the topic of disturbance underway here.
Speaker 1:So I heard you state in my research before starting this podcast. You said we are not able to manipulate every aspect in life, and horses can help us to learn that. All that we can do is prepare for the best, encourage great outcomes and adapt to the chaos when it arises. So you have a very close relationship with your father and it's my understanding that he taught you about horsewomen, ship and as he was doing so, he encouraged the use of pressure and release as a way to basically encourage certain outcomes as you were working with the horse, and pressure is obviously a form of disturbance, and release gives us the time to process that disturbance and learn from it. So could you share a little bit more about what you learned about embracing disturbance through working with horses and applying this pressure and release technique?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I have to admit it was a little later in my life where I started to interweave those two different, separate concepts. But growing up, the pressure and release make the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard. My dad really became a student of the Ray Hunt and Tom Dorant's horsemanship approaches and in practicing that here on the ranch I think he got to practice it not only with horses but with his children and he realized it worked everywhere. And what I think that this particular question is calling out is there's a reason that it worked everywhere is it's modeled after the ecosystem that surrounds us.
Speaker 2:Right, it's that disturbance that is a part of the cycles, of the process, you know, and for me one of the things that really stands out is an appreciation for the fact that we're only aware, sometimes aware of our unique vantage point in life, in circumstances, in counters, and so we never know what's going on with that horse.
Speaker 2:It's our job to try to interpret what's going on with that horse, but we don't actually know unless that horse is able to, you know, verbally, communicate with us and tell us.
Speaker 2:And so by practicing that pressure and release, we're modeling an opportunity for us as partners in that relationship the horse and the human to come together to navigate the disturbance and then to be able to have some of that time to think and to reflect and to deal with how that disturbance impacted us in our own unique vantage points within that relationship.
Speaker 2:And that's what's happening in the ecosystems. When disturbance happens, a lot of times, whether it's because of our mindset or our view, our optics or what we're trained to look at when disturbance happens in the ecosystem, we're only thinking about what it is, that is, you know, driving our own motivations around managing that ecosystem, and we're not all at the time thinking about the ecosystem from the unique vantage point of the plant community or the animal community. You know, we're thinking about it from our perspective as humans, one of the most boldly forgotten about and under communicated about keystone species of the ecosystem, but we're just thinking about it from that vantage point. And so I think that's really where the practice of horsemanship has been meaningful for me, and being able to appreciate what the pressure and release impact has on the different beings and the different organisms within the system, as disturbance comes across the ecosystem and does exactly the same thing of what the pressure and release scenario does in horsemanship.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I'd like to get a little bit more descriptive around what pressure and release looks like and, you know, give an example. Like, for one thing, when you're talking about the ecosystem, you know I'm thinking about fire ants, right? We're oftentimes looking at how we want to deal with the fire ants because they're biting our children or, you know, our animals in the front yard and so we go out and spray them or, you know, feed them poison, right? And we're only looking at it from our vantage point. We're not looking at the fact that those ants are maybe mining minerals from below the ground and bringing those deeper minerals from the soil up to the surface so that the soil can balance itself. That's one aspect, right? So can you give a specific example of this pressure and release and what that looks like for you and how you feel like the horse shows you its interaction with that type of strategy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so with the pressure and release, it's all about timing. I really feel you know, if you've ever studied or listened to or heard of any of the Tom Doran's Ray Hunt, buck Brandeman you know approaches to horsemanship. You're going to hear a recurring theme of conversation of the words that I expressed. But in the practice of this approach of horsemanship, you appreciate the timing and the how. How you go about interacting with the horse is what the application of pressure and the utilization of release truly is, you know. And so what we're looking for is applying some sort of symbol of pressure. Sometimes that is a physical pressure, where we might be, you know, putting a little bit of pressure on the end of the lead rope, holding it there until the horse yields to the pressure, and then we don't just let the yield be the only release that the horse feels, we also make sure to release, whether it's our presence, like stepping back, giving that horse space time to think, or, you know, it might be taking as much of the pressure out of the lead rope as possible to just let them feel nothing but just the weight of the halter on their face anymore, because we want them to be looking to respond to the slightest amount of pressure and we can correlate that to our ecosystems right. Like a functioning ecosystem would respond to the slightest amount of pressure. The slightest amount of a grazing herd coming through would start to get. Even the sugar contents of the grasses would start to shift in shape to best match or complement what's going to happen in the ecosystems cycle as the cattle come through.
Speaker 2:But you know, as our systems become less functional or, you know, are functioning at a less optimum rate, that pressure and release impact doesn't have as great of a response. And so it's the same with horses. We want the slightest amount of pressure to mean something to that horse. And the only way that we can have that slightest amount of pressure mean something to the horse is if we are consistent in our timing around when we share that release with them and Allowing them that space to really think and to learn from the pressure that they just Endured. We never really do anything. That is hard for them to have to endure, but they did have to mentally endure it and navigate it and make a decision around how to respond to it.
Speaker 1:So we need to make sure to give them enough time to reflect from it and that's that rest period, like in the ecosystem that we're talking about, and correlating this practice to yeah, it's really interesting because I've done a little bit of studying Pirelli, right, and it's so fascinating when you're working with horses and using these pressure and release tactics, because what comes up inside of you is all of your own Stuff, right, so you know. Just to give an example of how this really can help you grow as an individual, it's very easy to resort into the place of Just wanting an outcome to happen, right, and trying to force an outcome to happen, but the reality is is that that's not the way the world works, and so, as you're working with the horses and you're experiencing their energy, along with your energy, and the frequencies are resonating against each other, it creates so much of a learning experience for you as a person, right?
Speaker 2:And, I would add, it creates a learning experience for you as a person if you're willing to allow it.
Speaker 2:But that's one of the things society and and how we've evolved as a human race we don't practice the release enough. We're all about pressure, a lot of times, even in our own, like self Critic of ourselves. You know, we're constantly putting more pressure on ourselves, more pressure on ourselves to do more, to be more, to be this, to do that, and we're not allowing that release, that rest that you know, recusing yourself from that pressure so that your body can really and your mind can really just process and be aware of, you know, what it's like to just establish a homeostasis. And so I think that it's really a unique learning experience to study this practice of horsemanship because you can apply it to yourself. Not everybody is as privileged as I am to be able to have a horse as my lawnmower in my yard, you know. But you can study this horsemanship and you can learn from it and how you interact with people, how you Communicate with yourself and your surroundings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, another Amazing thing that I think you've, you've been so lucky to experience is you know that you had your grandfather and your father and your brother and all of these people you know doing this together.
Speaker 2:You know working through these strategies of you know developing horses and developing your horsemanship, and so much accumulated knowledge there right that was being passed on from generation to generation, which is a really beautiful and unique Experience definitely yeah, having that community of people that you can be in conversation with about these and that you can reflect on and they can kind of, you know, challenge your thought process or, you know, sometimes validate it like, validate, it's okay that you're getting frustrated, that happens, take a break. You know you need those people surrounding you to kind of be that mirror once in a while and to help you on your own path.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think I read somewhere that you really experienced a huge amount of anxiety Anytime you would ride out onto the range to work cattle right for a very long time you experienced just really a big Lump in your stomach and really had to overcome some of that. You want to talk a little bit about that and how that Transfired over time and when you finally were able to release that and what you think it was that allowed you to release that anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you bet. I think the story that you're talking about is a story that I told, reflecting on if I could only have one more ride with my childhood horse named tails. He was my grandpa's old team rope and horse and he taught all of the grandkids and kids how to ride. You know he just a trusted Steed that really did everything he could to keep us safe. You know he'd been there, done that, so he knew what to avoid, he knew where to go. And really, I think, you know, looking back and reflecting on my childhood, I think it was coming into my own confidence in my ability to Navigate the chaos and letting go of the desire to try to control the chaos, because you can't. You can't control the chaos, especially not on a ranching situation where you're dealing with, like you said, many animals that have their own minds, their own characteristics, their own Desires for what they want to do.
Speaker 2:That day I do I reflect on a lot of time, spend just looking over my shoulder wondering how far away the neighbors who are helping us ride or my dad might be over the hill, like if I was riding alone. You know, pushing a cow on the back of the herd. You know, was I doing it right? What happens if this or what happens if that? And really I think it was the clashing of the style of horsemanship and life that I was being brought up with my parents and the ways in which a lot of like society Kind of plants these ideologies in your head around having to be perfect or having to make people proud or having you know having to to do better each time and this and that, instead of just you know getting to be and to just be Firmly in who you are, be that steadfast, like you said, in who you are. And as I started to be able to Mentally, I think, differentiate those two worlds and how they don't always compliment each other, they don't always fit together politely, I started to really be able to embody and embrace and appreciate.
Speaker 2:I don't know how far away the next rider is in this gather across a thousand acres of pasture. I don't know if the cattle are gonna stampede because a coyote runs through the herd. I don't know if this or if that, but that's okay, I don't have to do those things. What I have to know is pressure and release and that I'm here, I'm, I'm safe. You know, it's almost like Retraining your brain in some ways to not focus on all of the potential bads that could happen and to just focus on all of the Great that is already surrounding you.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I heard many times growing up there's always tomorrow, you know, like the cow, if we don't get the cows with, there's always tomorrow, you know. And I was like what a novel concept if we could apply that to more Experiences and actually like embody and help kids appreciate there's always tomorrow early on, like I think that that could really help get at the root of many of the anxiety issues that you know we all suffer from is it's that that drive to have to accomplish things, to have to be perfect, to have to make people proud, and we don't have to do any of that, you know. That's absolutely something we put about ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's causing a lot of strife for a lot of people. Something that just came to mind for me as you were speaking is a practice that I've been working with, and it is just about really Embracing the life that is coming through us at any given moment. Right, so pain is a form of disturbance. Right, a lot of people struggle with pain. You know, from minute pain to very, very severe pain. So you know there'll be times where you know it's the end of the day and I've been on my feet for, you know, eight to ten hours Doing various things.
Speaker 1:You know physical labor, and you know you hurt. Right, your body hurts. There's just that feeling of achiness, and so, instead of Looking at it as a negative, I've been really honing in on feeling it right, to really feeling what those feelings are coming into my body as a signal and, instead of being negative against it, embracing it as the Real miracle of life that's trying to come through me. Right? So you know this is hard when people are struggling with hardcore pain issues that are going on and on and on. You know doing this is challenging, but it neutralizes it, right, if all of a sudden, when you go into it and you feel it and you let it come through. It just kind of like Really takes the pain level down, sometimes by about half half, and so, yeah, I really think that that kind of reflects what you're talking about there. That's something that people can think about in their own lives, right?
Speaker 2:Understanding. You know what's causing the pain or what's causing the anxiety. You know, Because the, the cattle that I would stress about, they weren't inflicting anxiety on me. It wasn't in my mind. I was interpreting potential anxiety around how they may respond. You know, and so a lot of times it's it's coming back and reflecting on what's the root cause of that pain or of how you're feeling, and Can we reinterpret what that means for us. You know we, we don't always have to associate being tired as a negative or as a failure. You can just be tired. You know Means. You really showed up for the day and you thought and you worked and and your body's tired and that can be a good thing.
Speaker 1:That's a good thing, yeah absolutely, and especially when you're raising children or something like that, the monotony of the day in and day out can sometimes be Overwhelming and you can just feel like what did I get done?
Speaker 1:Well, you raised a child, you spent your time giving to the growth and well-being of a being, and that is just phenomenal work, right, all right?
Speaker 1:Well, let's go on to another topic here. So your father, zach DeChanu, was appointed by President Biden as an administrator for the USDA's farm service agency in 2021, and in this role, he provides leadership and direction on agricultural policy and administering loan programs, managing conservation, commodity disaster and farm marketing programs, and this is an amazing role for an American Indian to be in. It's something that we need more American Indians, black Americans and other people of color in these positions, because they have a very long history of Experiencing disturbing inequities when it comes to funding opportunities and resource allocation, and so I know that you and your father have really spent many hours deliberating and strategizing. You know about different ways to effectively change the trajectory of BIPOC, agricultural leaders and producers, and so I'm just curious if some of these conversations between you and your dad, how you guys have had to change your mindsets in order to help improve the quality of life for these Communities and just all beings on the planet through agriculture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really appreciate that question. You know, I think that one of the things is not often recognized enough Is that humans are the key stone species of many of these ecosystems. Most of these ecosystems needed tending in some way, shape or form, by humans, my people. I believe to be the first stockman on this continent. We were Grazing large Herds of bison across this landscape and we knew the impact that that had on the land and we would influence where these large Bison herds would go, based on, you know, fire, ecology or Herding a foot. And so I think that where we can start to see some of the greatest shifts in really enhancing and appreciating the true trajectory for minority agricultural producers is Appreciating the resiliency that their communities have Embodied.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of times we talk, often in conversation, about the systemic barriers or the inequities they faced or all of the challenges they faced, and I don't think that that gives the communities that have endured what they've endured enough credit. Not every community would still be here through all of those inequities and barriers and challenges. I think we really need to change our framing and our dialogue away from, you know, the poverty stricken conversations about where what they've had to endure, and Instead uplift the strength and the resiliency that they've embodied through the history, that they have been a prominent part of being dismissed throughout. And I think that there are things that we can learn that in better understanding that expressed resiliency, and we can start to apply those approaches in different ways to Help communities get to where we need our communities to be a lot quicker. One of the you know unique things about disturbance is when there were Thousands of different tribes of peoples on this continent, there was the outside disturbances that were happening in a way where these thousands of different communities were able to coexist but still challenge boundaries, or Respect boundaries, depending on you know what group of people was larger and had the Upper hand in the situation, I guess, so to speak. But all of that was still done in harmony with nature and appreciating the need for respecting that relationship with our food sources.
Speaker 2:And you know, since 1492 that's not been the case in this country. There's one or a select few Bodies or groups of people that have the most power. There's nothing disturbing that. There's nothing disrupting that. There's no pressure towards it, so there's no release, and so we don't learn from one another in the ways that we could or should.
Speaker 2:And so I think, the more that we can have conversations with one another, start to institutionalize conversations in all settings around. You know what can be learned from these indigenous thought processes and approaches and what are the ways that we are continuing to dismiss or ignore those thought processes in our day-to-day lives that we might be able to kind of modify and ship and shaved and Shape, I think we'll we'll start to see a greater appreciation and respect for one another, for ourselves, for differing viewpoints, and in doing all of that we'll have to be able to give ourselves quite a bit of grace to allow our mindset to shift and to appreciate that perhaps we did have a viewpoint to begin with that wasn't the best or the most holistic, and we're too always evolving in this process absolutely.
Speaker 1:I heard a Statement the other day that really resonated with me.
Speaker 1:It was a woman named Tara Brock, who is a meditation teacher that I listened to and she was talking about how, just Simply and she might have actually heard this in braiding sweetgrass the book by Robin Wall Kimmer. But ultimately the point was, instead of saying, oh, something is out there, right, when you're talking about an animal or Something out in the forests or something like that, changing the terminology into someone right, because it personalizes it more. Right, and instead of it being something, it's someone and it creates more relational thinking. And when we can begin to focus on Relational thinking and that every single thing is connected and that one thing can't be healthy if Not all things are healthy, right, it's just that bigger picture thinking and it just starts by literally Recognizing each and every little thing that we encounter as something that we're in relationship with, which, you know, is something that native Americans have embraced in their culture for many, many moons, since the beginning of their culture several years ago we were in the pasture and our cows are similar to our horses.
Speaker 2:When we walk out into our pasture we want our cows to come see us and this herd of 250 cows started walking towards the group and they were belleran and moving and trying to get their calves attention. And Somebody said does it sound like money to you?
Speaker 2:And I said no that sounds like family you know like we really see ourselves in relation With the livestock, with the wildlife. I grew up pushing a cow up the chute or something my dad would say easy their sister just a few more steps. I mean, we really do appreciate a relationship with these animals because they give us the ability to appreciate and enjoy the life that we have, not just like on the ranch because we like make a living raising cattle and stewarding the land, but like in this ecosystem. If we did not have animals as a part of this ecosystem, the functionality of the system wouldn't be there, like we owe so much to them and we have so much gratitude for the plant community. So we have oxygen to breathe and you can become so much more appreciative and connected.
Speaker 2:And the other thing that I wanted to, you know, just comment on is how that goes deeper, or another depiction or demonstration of that, using a common phrase or terminology metaphor that's used. You know they always say put your mask on before you put on the mask of others, and that's just really conflicting with an Indigenous approach, because most often in our Indigenous communities we're all putting on somebody else's mask so we can reach and help somebody else put their oxygen mask on because we know somebody is reaching for ours and so it's not a me first, then them. It's always a them because somebody else is saying them too and taking care of us. And I think that that mindset shift and appreciation for how such a boldly overused metaphor can be shifted with just the taking one step further, taking that picture frame, one frame out, to see that somebody to the left of me is also reaching to put my mask on, so I can put my mask on for somebody else. I think it really helps to shift our orientation around what functioning like a community really means.
Speaker 1:I love that, I love that analogy and I really also appreciate what you said about, you know, cattle, and they are so giving right With these animals.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, every time I'm standing in a pasture with a bunch of cattle.
Speaker 1:They're just, you know, they're so curious, they are so present with you, they're just right there and they give so much right and we just completely overlook as we drive by them every day in road trips or for those of us who live early, you know, we just kind of oh, there's some cows in the pasture, right, but you don't really really think about how much of an impact they have on our lives.
Speaker 1:Everybody in this country is greatly impacted by the presence of cattle, and in both good and negative ways. But really we focus a lot on the negative and not on the real beauty in what they provide for us, you know, from it being a really nutrient, dense food to also just the way that they tend to the land, just on their own accord in many ways. So, yeah, thanks for bringing that up. So I'm also very curious. You talked a lot about the resiliency of the particularly American Indians and within the realm of agriculture, and I'm very curious. You know what are some of the positive ways that you've seen your fellow Lakota tribe grow by way of experiencing disturbance, and then you know, having the resiliency to learn to embrace it and evolve with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Oceti Shacoi, we roamed as far north as Canada, south to Kansas, east to Minnesota and west to Wyoming. I mean, we had a large, vast footprint in the land that we got to steward and to help evolve into the ecosystem that it is, and in doing that, our growing seasons were extended, we had access to a greater diversity of soils, so we had different types of nutrient-dense foods to be able to harvest from the land and to consume and, to you know, create the fibers and our homes with. With the transition to a more place-based existence. All of that was stripped away from us. Our ability to do those things was stripped away from us, and so we're still really in the wake of that impact. You know, you talk about like centuries of time for food systems to evolve into what that was and for our you know knowledge base to evolve into what that was, and then like to be completely removed, forcibly, from that and told this is where you'll be now. And so we pivoted. We were instead given things like flour and sugar and told to survive on it. In those instances, calories, bad or not, are better than no calories, you know.
Speaker 2:And so we're still seeing in unique ways where that resiliency is starting to propagate within our now homebound community, our non-nomadic home here on Cheyenne River and the other reservations across the Great Plains region, and one of the things that I really appreciate about the ways that that resiliency continues to express itself is there's always a community hue or tone to conversations about food.
Speaker 2:You know there's the community feeds that we do that, which are intended to bring people together to share the bounty with others who may not have it.
Speaker 2:I just really appreciate and respect the ways that that expressed resiliency surfaces in our communities, and I hope that we're modeling it right and accurately with DX Beef. Our business has never been driven by profits. It's been driven by providing a safe, very high quality and affordable product to the local community that deserves to be able to eat beef from the land within which they live, and so I think that we can start to think a little differently as we interpret what is our current food system status and what are the ways where it's really not in line with contributing to community wellness. Is it because the food system is driven by profits? Is it because it's driven by, you know, maximizing the land for feeding more people? But are we feeding them nutriently dense foods. You know where can we start to really disrupt those inequities still in the food system and start to model that more community focused approach to having groups of people that are sovereign in their food supply and a nutrient dense?
Speaker 1:food supply Nutrient dense. Keywords Nutrient dense. So, as you were speaking, I was thinking about when you started marketing your beef, this grass-fed beef. Right, marketing grass-fed beef is something that all producers who are making it have to educate their population around why people might like to eat this. How do you think that may have differed when you, since you were marketing your product to American Indians, and what kind of marketing strategies did you think about and how was it different, maybe, than somebody not marketing to that community?
Speaker 2:If you are to overlay a map of American Indian reservations across the country. It is almost an exact depiction of the map of USDA-defined food deserts across the country. And so in marketing product for me here locally, what I was recognizing, or what I recognized quickly, is that folks locally the difference or the preference between green, finished grass, finished range raised. You know that really wasn't the selling point. To be completely honest, what folks wanted was access to a food resource that was reliable, meaning it was available for sale. I mean, we are the very end of the Cisco distribution routes here in South Dakota, so there are times of the month where our grocery store shelves are sincerely empty, like nothing on them. And so by DX beef being able to have a consistent supply of a beef product here, you know, we started to customize our product bundles to match what a family one could afford, two could store and three knew how to cook right. So we really started to shift what we were processing to match those three buckets and then the ways that we were distributing or, you know, planning our delivery routes to the different communities based on that. You know, not every family has a deep freeze to be able to have a half of a beef in it. So we couldn't just sell quarters or sides of beef. We had to figure out how to be able to sell individual packaged beef, you know, bundles of 10 to 12 pounds of products with a variety of cuts in them. And so that was really the unique shift in how marketing for us was different. That I was not expecting or anticipating.
Speaker 2:And the other thing that we really pride ourselves on is transparency in the marketing.
Speaker 2:So a lot of folks, based on what they can afford is the bundle sizes that they're buying, and so we may have a 10 pound bundle of burger for a certain price and then the 25 pound bundle of burger is the same price as two of the 10 pounds. But folks, they're buying two 10 pound burgers instead and we're like wait, we can actually upgrade you to this product, it's the same price, we are going to get more. It's just some of the ways that we've tried to take that integrity in our marketing and that transparency to help to stretch the local food dollar, because we respect and appreciate how much of a desert it is for nutrient dense food here, and we are talking about the frozen product of an animal that is our relative, that we harvested off of this land. So it's only just to that animal's life that we do everything that we can to help that animal, contribute to as many people as possible, and so we really try to make sure that that follows through our entire marketing approach and our relationship with our end user.
Speaker 1:I'm just very curious, you guys, you're living on the range and there's not a lot out there. How far do you have to drive to take your cattle to be processed?
Speaker 2:We're very fortunate that we drive around 50 miles, have our beef processed here at a state-inspected facility in Oneida, south Dakota, brock's Butcher Block, what they would call mom-and-pop shop. It's a small six to eight head a day at most sort of processing center. If that resource was not available to us, we would be going a couple of hours either direction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a big dilemma that a lot of cattle producers have to deal with is how far away the processor is from their operation, because that can eat into profit, which can make or break a business. So that's very lucky that you guys have that going on. That's really great.
Speaker 2:That's a tremendous resource for them and they've been a phenomenal partner in appreciating that we are still out here on the range. There's been days where I'm sorry, I just can't get there to get the product picked up. The roads are bad or blizzards coming in. And having that relationship with them is something we really really value and appreciate.
Speaker 1:That's great. So I know we're coming up on time here. I'd like to just ask one more question and then wrap up. But you mentioned, when we were prepping for the podcast, you used the term the art of disturbance, and I love thinking about disturbance as an art form. I love thinking about anything as an art form, really, because we are all artists and we are creating our lives on a daily basis. So could you tell me a more about what the art of disturbance means to you?
Speaker 2:Even art, within one medium, can take so many different shapes, right?
Speaker 2:I mean the brush stroke, or the amount of material you use, or the timing of the day, really, that you use these materials to create the art.
Speaker 2:It can be in so many different forms, and so disturbance can too, and I think a lot of times we forget the different ways that disturbance can surface, or what disturbance can look and feel like, and the ways that we can manipulate it or interact with it, or just sit back and respect and appreciate it for the art of what it is have painting on the landscape, so to speak.
Speaker 2:And I think that a lot of times, disturbance is given this negative connotation and, for the most part, the phrase art doesn't have that connotation, and so I really like to think about it in that context. Instead, is, you know, what's the beauty that can arise from this disturbance or from this practice of disturbance, and what is hidden that we're not seeing yet in this picture that the artist did see in the picture Now, the ecosystem, mother nature, has a way, and you know she's bigger and tougher, older and will be here longer than all of us, and so she's got an art in mind when these disturbances wash over the landscape and I think oftentimes, rather than trying to pick up the paintbrush and control it, it might be worth just sitting back and seeing what exactly the picture is that she's trying to paint, and maybe we'll learn to put down the eraser and we'll pick up a paintbrush or a colored pencil and we'll help to color in some of the lines to help her get to where she's trying to be a little faster.
Speaker 1:That's a very beautiful analogy and makes me think about the ways that I use disturbance right On the basis. I in my shower with very, very, very cold water on my head and face and back, and I'm doing that disturbance to literally tone my vagus nerve and energize me and create more creativity. Sitting down to meditate and be in stillness for 30 minutes a day is incredibly disturbing. It is so not what we are used to, right to sit in silence with our own thoughts and watch them. So little things like that. Right, that's one aspect of it, and then there is just the more abrupt disturbances that we all encounter on a daily basis. So really beautiful. Well, I guess the last question I want to ask before we wrap up here is I'm wondering what do you have in your quiver? Which direction will you be focusing your energies towards to continue your work as a person and as an agriculture leader and a tribeswoman? What's on the horizon for you and what do you hope the biggest takeaway is for listeners today?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well.
Speaker 2:I'm really thrilled to have the privilege of serving as the Chief Strategy Officer for the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
Speaker 2:It's a new position for me just transitioned into it recently. I'm really looking forward to working with my team. We've got a phenomenal group at the IAC we're nearly 70 team members strong nationwide and I'm just really looking forward to appreciating and caring for all of the great work that's been done before us in my position now and planning for carrying this organization through these Indigenous thought approaches and respecting and appreciating the resiliency that our community members continue to embody and teach us about, and caring for this organization in a way that it's around for my son's generation and beyond to continue to serve as a community of practice, of coming together and of interpreting what our communities need through our own defined awareness of what they need and then advocating for that, making the steps and the strides towards being able to provide those things for our communities. And then the release of learning from that, seeing where we miss the mark, building from it, continuing to get better with every effort that we have.
Speaker 1:Fabulous, fabulous. And any last remarks about the listeners and what their takeaway, what you would like their takeaway to be here today I guess you know.
Speaker 2:Just get curious. This is the biggest thing. In what ways are you practicing pressure and release in your parenting, in your relationship with others, your relationship with yourself, and what does that mean? What does it look like and feel to you? There's not really a right or wrong answer to this. That's what I appreciate about the pressure and release approach is it's based on the circumstance and the situation. We can all start to bring that appreciation for the art of disturbance into the fold more and our conversations as we're looking at the horizon or looking at our calendar for the day and deciding you know where we're going to reorient and shift our mindset to the benefit of future Kelsey or future Kara.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. All, right, kelsey. Well, thanks again so much for joining us. I really appreciate you taking the time to spend on the Land Food Life podcast, and I just want to give everybody a reminder out there that we are really an intimate interconnection with everything that surrounds us, and so, as you move through the rest of your day to day, I hope you are blessed with the vision to see those connections and with the good of the whole in mind, because we are one, and I hope you have a beautiful and connected day and we will see you on the next episode. So thanks for joining us, kelsey and everybody else who is listening. Take care, thanks, kara. Well, my friends, there you have it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Land Food Life podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show and gained some true gems of insight that will enhance your quality of life. If you're looking for personalized guidance on holistic health, nutrition or running a regenerative agriculture business, visit LandFoodLifecom to explore my virtual and in-person coaching programs. You can also join my mailing list at LandFoodLifecom to receive exclusive perks and discounts for email subscribers only. I appreciate your valuable time spent here with me, and if you're digging this content and you're finding it helpful. Please share it with your friends and others in your network. You can post a screenshot of the podcast thumbnail, tag it on social media and rate the show on your preferred podcast platform. I am very much looking forward to our next chat in two weeks. Same time, same place. Bye for now.