Viewing our relationship to land through the lens of harvesting food.
GALLERY CURATED BY FISCHER GENAU
The concept of Harvest has been the bedrock of every version of the West. At its best, growing, foraging and hunting food in this region has been a means through which to come into relationship with the land; it can be a practice of reciprocity and an opportunity to “sustain the ones who sustain you,” as Potawatomi botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer writes. Even as a value we hold in common, harvest takes many shapes in the West. Through the lenses of a cohort regional photographers, this issues Outbound Gallery seeks to reveal some of these forms, and introduces the animals, landscapes and people who mold them.
“Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them. Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer. Never take the first. Never take the last. Take only what you need. Take only that which is given. Never take more than half. Leave some for others. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. Share. Give thanks for what you have been given. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.”
–Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm in Kamas, Utah, milks the family cow as two of her children keep a vigilant watch for the family’s notorious goose, who is known to take her job of protecting the chickens a bit too seriously. Neeleman and her husband, Daniel, raise Berkshire pigs and Angus cattle on their farm while also raising a brood of their own—they have eight children, the youngest born this January, and 8.9 million people on Instagram keep up with their lives on the farm. PHOTO BY PAIGE SOUTHWOOD
LEFT: Susan Sekaquaptewa’s home garden is seen within the surrounding desert landscape in Second Mesa on the Hopi Reservation. Sekaquaptewa explains that growing food is a traditional Hopi way of engaging in relationship with the land. It can be both a spiritual practice as well as one of self-sustenance. The Hopi have long held methods for growing food in a harsh, arid environment, like dry farming, but Sekaquaptewa says as climate change enflames these challenges, the Hopi people are further separated from growing and raising food, a direct connection to their culture. PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN | RIGHT: Sekaquaptewa arranges water walls around tomato and pepper starts in her home garden in Second Mesa on the Hopi Reservation in April 2024. The water walls protect the plants while the threat of spring frost persists. Sekaquaptewa is a member of the Hopi Tribe and a University of Arizona extension agent serving her tribal communities by connecting them with resources from Arizona’s land grant university. The Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program was established in 1990, 75 years after the parallel program for non-tribal communities was established. Sekaquaptewa provides learning opportunities ranging from horse digestion and rangeland grass health, to soil preparation and financial literacy for tribal producers. PHOTO BY MICAH ROBIN
Susan Sekaquaptewa is a member of the Hopi Tribe and a University of Arizona extension agent serving her tribal communities by connecting them with resources from Arizona’s land grant university. The Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program was established in 1990, 75 years after the parallel program for non-tribal communities was established.Susan Sekaquaptewa is a member of the Hopi Tribe and a University of Arizona extension agent serving her tribal communities by connecting them with resources from Arizona’s land grant university. The Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program was established in 1990, 75 years after the parallel program for non-tribal communities was established.
Kash Gleason, a 19-year-old Yakama tribal member, pauses to look at the bison he hunted at Beattie Gulch on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park during the tribal bison hunt on February 20, 2023. The bison is the first that Gleason has hunted in Yellowstone. Eight Native American tribes have federally recognized treaty rights to hunt bison outside of Yellowstone, which is one of the ways park bison populations are managed. In 2023, a harsh winter caused a record number of bison to migrate out of the park, resulting in the largest number ever harvested by tribes. Gleason traveled 16 hours with his family from his home in Yakama Nation, Washington, for the hunt, and for the promise of bringing an important ancestral food back to his community. For generations bison have been a source of food for indigenous peoples, and tribes from the Columbia River Basin plateau would travel to the Yellowstone area to hunt, trade and bring home meat to their families. PHOTO BY LOUIS JOHNS
A forager harvests a wild morel mushroom with a knife, which helps keep them clean and limits damage to the underground mycelial network that births them. Morels pop across the Mountain West in early spring and summer when ground temperatures reach roughly 50 degrees and disappear once they hit 60. The mushrooms can be found in river bottoms, woodlands and burn areas where abundant flushes of mushrooms are common in the first two years after a forest fire. PHOTO BY BEN PIERCE
A woman holds up a bloody elk heart from a fresh kill. When hunting in the vast Bridger-Teton National Forest, a successful kill is just the beginning of the experience. Next comes the task of field dressing and packing out the elk quarters on horseback, which is no small endeavor—a typical bull elk yields over 200 pounds of meat. The chance to harvest an elk each fall is a unique privilege, and one that shouldn’t be taken for granted. PHOTO BY DELLA FREDERICKSON
A four-man crew from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation draw in gillnets that they use to catch non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake. The Tribes established this fishery to protect native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout, which are threatened by predation from the non-native lake trout, and they sell the gillnetted lake trout at vendors across Montana through their company Native Fish Keepers to offset the costs of boats, fishing gear, and personnel. PHOTOS BY LYNN DONALDSON
Fischer Genau is the Editorial Intern for Mountain Outlaw magazine.
