A bowl of creamy cheese grits. Food writer Erin Byers Murray hopes that exploring the story of grits will help spur more discussion about how food shapes our culture, as humble ingredients are elevated into expensive dishes even as we come to terms with long-lost, or ignored, origin stories that deserve recognition. Lauri Patterson/Getty Images hide caption
Wild rice grows along the edges of the Kakagon River in Wisconsin. Joe Proudman/Courtesy of University of California Davis hide caption
The USDA has been providing food aid in the form of canned, shelf-stable nonperishables to Native Americans for decades. Shana Novak/Getty Images hide caption
A freshly brewed cup of Navajo tea. This beverage is caffeine-free and tastes earthy and grassy. Ada Cowan hide caption
Lillie Pete sifts the juniper ash before adding it to her blue corn mush. Laurel Morales/KJZZ hide caption
A prehistoric granary overlooking Cedar Mesa, a site inside the newly created Bears Ears National Monument in Utah that is sacred to many Native American tribes. Natives still hunt and forage for food and medicine throughout the Bears Ears region. Josh Ewing/Courtesy of Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition hide caption