Farmers Market
Dear Editor: During this time of year, when all our crops are in, our nets stowed and the only harvesting left is maybe another deer or two, the Sitka Local Foods Network would like to extend its gratitude to all who support us and the local food movement.
We would like to give special thanks to the Alaska Native Brotherhood, the Alaska Native Sisterhood, Baranof Island Housing Authority, SEARHC, Laura Schmidt, Lisa Sadlier-Hart, Francis Wegman-Lawless, Ellen Frankenstein, Tatum Sornburger, Lauren Hughey, and all the other volunteers who make the Sitka Farmers Market possible, and especially all our wonderful vendors who make it a big success.
The Sitka Local Foods Network is indeed a network, we are supported by more folks than we could list in this small letter, but to each of you – thanks! The fabric of the local food movement is continuing to grow and change, and we can take comfort knowing there are so many generous, hardworking people in this community tending to it.
The mission of the SLFN is to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested foods in the diets of Southeast Alaskans.
President Matthew Jackson
Vice President Chris Todd
Secretary Ben Timby
Treasurer Kathy Jones
Board Members Charles Bingham, Jennifer Carter, Brandie Cheatham, Edith Johnson, Greta Lewanski
Standing Rock
Dear Editor: If you dig in the colonial records of Massachusetts, you’ll find the first “Thanksgiving” wasn’t actually declared until 1637, 17 years after the pilgrims landed at Plymouth. What was the occasion you might ask, if not the mythic feast we think is historical fact? The safe return of a colonial war party, who bragged in colonial records of massacring 700 Pequot men, women, and children.
Four hundred years later, colonization is still happening at Standing Rock and elsewhere. As I type this, men, women, and children are being hosed down with water and pepper spray on a freezing cold Dakota winter night. They have committed no crime other than interfering with corporate profits.
Looking back at all the Indian wars, at slavery, at a women’s right to vote, we think to ourselves, “How could anyone live with such injustice! If I had been alive then I wouldn’t have turned a blind eye to racism, to genocide, to sexism.” It’s time to wake up. Those struggles aren’t ancient history. They are alive today. That’s why we can’t just stand by any longer. That’s why I’m standing with Standing Rock.
Try calling the Morton County Sheriff’s office responsible for this violence at 701-667-3330. Don’t stop there.
Matthew Jackson, Sitka
