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110th Meskwaki Powwow kicks off with visit from Secretary of Ag candidate Chris Jones

By Robert Maharry 4 min read

MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT -- With a change of plans due to flooding at the Powwow Grounds, the 110th annual Meskwaki Powwow kicked off in earnest Thursday afternoon at the outdoor arena behind the casino featuring an appearance from a special guest -- Chris Jones, the Democrat running for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture in the November election. 

Jones, a former research scientist at the University of Iowa and the author of "The Swine Republic," is challenging incumbent Republican Mike Naig, and he focused his remarks, which ran about 10 minutes, on the Meskwaki Nation's food sovereignty program and how something similar could be adopted across the state. 

"I think this could be a real model that could be emulated around Iowa," he said during a subsequent interview. "They're growing their own food here. It's not awash in pesticides and preservatives. The community's trying to reduce their obesity rate and reduce their rate of cancer and of diabetes, and they're focusing on their diet and their farming system." 

By now, the statistics on Iowa's high cancer rates are well known, and Jones pointed out that in the U.S., there are 16 acres of fruits and vegetables per 1,000 people -- in Iowa, the number is only two acres per 1,000. 

"As a consequence, we import almost all of our food here. It comes here from California, Arizona, Chile, Texas and Florida, and of course it's awash in preservatives to get it here," he said. "So let's set up some fruit and vegetable programs here to serve our community much like the Meskwaki are doing here. So this could be a model for other communities around Iowa." 

Thursday marked Jones's first ever visit to the Settlement, and the Ankeny native and Iowa City resident noted that he saw "a lot of happy people" upon arriving. Because the cancer issue has become such a widespread topic of discussion in Iowa recently -- after Jones spent years drawing attention to the state's water quality and the consolidation in agriculture -- he said he is happy to see other candidates like gubernatorial hopefuls Zach Lahn and Rob Sand attempting to meaningfully address them. 

"Candidates from both parties now are seeing the issues and seeing the effect that it has on the quality of life here," he said. "The timing has been great. I'm happy that both parties are now talking about this." 

The biggest difference between himself and Naig, Jones added, is that his opponent believes water quality improvements must come from within the current "Corn-soy-CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation)-ethanol" production system. 

"Instead of trying to patch that up continuously like we've done for the past 50 years, which has not worked. We've seen our nitrate levels in our streams continue to increase. Let's try to develop a production system that does not pollute," he said. "And so that means the integration of other crops like oats and food crops, forage crops for cattle, the return of cattle to pasture. That’s a more sustainable and humane and resilient system. So instead of patching up the corn and soy system with diapers and Band-Aids, let's create a more resilient system." 

As Secretary of Agriculture, Jones told the newspaper he would use public money to help create an "off ramp" toward more sustainable systems while imposing regulations, especially on inputs, for those who wish to continue in their current ways. On the particularly hot button matter of data centers, he called them a poor use of land and advocated for at least a one-year statewide moratorium. 

"It's scary that, seemingly, these big companies have gotten control of our local governments. And so I do think we need a timeout," he said. "Let's have a moratorium. Let's figure out what's going on. People are really unsettled by this data center issue. There's almost universal opposition to this in the rank and file of both parties, so why does this continue? I think using our land for its highest purpose, which is food production, is a good thing. Data centers are not the highest use for this land... Now, by the time citizens hear about these things, it's almost a done deal already, so that needs to stop." 

Jones said controlling pesticide drift would be another top priority of his if elected. With Sean Keahna and Larry Yazzie serving as the emcees, Wayne Pushetonequa delivered the opening invocation in the Meskwaki language as the Robert Morgan American Legion Post 701 Honor Guard presented the flags before the first official dance just after 1 p.m. 

This year's Meskwaki Powwow Princess is Malayiah Butts, a student at South Tama County (STC) Middle School. 

Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.

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