Food, Fitness, Wellness + Indigenous Voices
The Concept
Throughout Cherokee Nation, well sites and spring houses once served as community gathering places. These sites provided a water source, but were also cool places to store foods. This is a modest attempt to recreate such a space. A gathering place to experiment and share thoughts on life in Indian country, particularly health, wellness and sometimes politics. Listen to stories, tell stories, build each other up, laugh, love and lead. Built with other Indigenous women in mind, this is a place to share ideas and life hacks to help each other be stronger, healthier, more active, and reclaim/evolve Indigenous wellness in a realistic way. Many things about Indian country make it hard to sustain a healthy lifestyle and we won’t shy away from talking about that, and every thing else.
Recent Posts
Worth the Money: Three
This blog contains a series of posts entitled “Worth the Money.” For those of us who grew up without a bunch of money, we sometimes have to convince ourselves to buy something that initially makes us bristle. I get it. Sometimes, you have to spend some money on your health,…
Can’t Eclipse Optimism
Yesterday was the big eclipse. I’ve been reading with great interest the various stories and responses to this event from tribal communities. I always remind folks just how diverse tribes are in their languages, cultures, lifeways, histories and in personality traits that grow from both nurture and nature. The eclipse,…
Famous Last Words, Dean 2.0
Last week, most of you heard that I’ll be starting a new gig soon. In the latest episode of “the 20 year old Stacy never saw this coming,” I’ll pick up as dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University effective February 1, 2023. This…
Auntie Ballers and How Natives “Discovered” Basketball
Basketball holds a special place in Indian country. In fact, Natives “discovered” basketball and now claim it as their own. True. It’s ours. If you are skeptical of this “discovery” assertion, you should have been in Norman, Oklahoma this weekend for the Annual “Oklahoma’s Best” All Indian State Tournament. Or…
Lori Enlow: The Gift of Life
L Despite my best efforts and self-awareness, my mind will still sometimes take a word and then pop-up a stereotype. A quick image in my mind of what X should look like. When you hear the words “ultra-marathoner” and “endurance athlete,” what do YOU think of? My friend Lori Enlow…
Picking Up Broken Glass + Broken Hearts
This week, I audibly sighed. At so many things. Near the top of that list? A few of the questions posed to the Hon. Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo woman nominated to serve as the next Secretary of Interior. Not just the Indian Affairs part of Interior, the whole Department…
Stacy Leeds: Being (un) Healthy
I’m a professor, former law dean, judge, mom. The last 25 years, I’ve been going hard and fast. Most of the time, my energy is spent on the good stuff I wouldn’t take back, but I have a tendency to revert back to a lifestyle that could kill me if…
Gluten/Wheat and the KFC “Last Supper”
Yeah, I can’t eat gluten or wheat either. I figured this out in 2010 when heading home from a trip to DC. A lady on the airplane saw me touching my eyeball socket, grimacing. She asked if I was getting a migraine. Yep. I got them all the damn time,…
Hiding Stuff in Food: For Adults
Many of us moms have tried to sneak something healthy into our kid’s food. Sneak the “yucky” or less glamorous into their favorite foods. This mom venture is met with varying degrees of success. I failed pretty miserably at this scheme once my son reached age 6 or 7. But…
Stacy Leeds: Being (un) Healthy
I’m a professor, former law dean, judge, mom. The last 25 years, I’ve been going hard and fast. Most of the time, my energy is spent on the good stuff I wouldn’t take back, but I have a tendency to revert back to a lifestyle that could kill me if I didn’t get it together.
Meet Up @IndigenousWell and Do Indigenous,Well
Built with other Indigenous women in mind, this is a place to share ideas and life hacks to help each other be stronger, healthier, more active, and reclaim/evolve Indigenous wellness in a realistic way. For me, that means eating more whole foods, more plant-based foods but still have an occassional big marbley ribeye. It also means saying yes to familiar/yummy things at community events, ceremony or family dinners, but knowing it just can’t be an everyday thing if I’m gonna be at the top of my game for the long haul. Many things about Indian country make it hard to sustain a healthy lifestyle and we won’t shy away from talking about that, and every thing else.