Joelle Jones of Northwest Indian College

Joelle Jones is Yakama, Umatilla, and Blackfeet. Joelle says that one of her biggest accomplishments is her role as a food gatherer in her community. Raised by her mother and grandmother, she was gradually taught how to gather the traditional foods and medicines of her community. Joelle was taught their seasons, the methods of harvest, and the process to take care of the harvest. This was not taught to Joelle at all at once; it was something she was raised with. Joelle says that this is her biggest accomplishment because nothing will ever match the education her mother and grandmother gave her.

Because Joelle was raised this way, many of her accomplishments have intertwined with food sovereignty. She has attained a certificate through the tend, gather, grow curriculum which teaches about plants for K-12 education. Joelle has used her skills as an artist to illustrate shirts for the Northwest Tribal Food Sovereignty Coalition annual gathering and to illustrate her own books that show the traditional foods of her tribe. As a food gatherer, one of Joelle’s responsibilities is to return what she has taken from the Earth so that these foods will return. This translates through her pathway in education, which is focused on Native environmental science, and her internship with the Salish Sea Research Center. Through these pathways, Joelle is returning to the Earth by taking steps to help take care for the land and the water.

Joelle’s brother was the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree from Northwest Indian College, and her older cousin was the first woman in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree from Haskell Indian Nations University. Joelle says, “While a degree won’t match anything I learned from my family and culture, it will only help me and those around me progress in this changing world. It will open doors to more education and work opportunities where I can incorporate the work I already do as food gatherer, which will fulfill my responsibilities to care for the land after she has cared for me.”