It looks shiny and new on social media, but smoked salmon has been part of Indigenous tradition for centuries.

Valerie Segrest’s elders and her community are the reason she dedicated her life to food systems.

Segrest grew up a part of the Muckleshoot Tribe, located just south of Auburn, in a community where the closest grocery store was nearly 10 miles away in an area considered “food insecure.” Her elders often told her, “If I just had access to my traditional foods and medicines, I wouldn’t be sick.”

As spring breaks through the cold, gray skies of the Pacific Northwest winter, Native foods educator and Muckleshoot tribal member Valerie Segrest harvests nettles with her two young daughters, teaching them how to sustainably cultivate these greens that deliver essential nutrition and medicine. (Lauren Frohne / The Seattle Times)

"One meal of traditinal foods a week can make this community healthier," says Valerie Segrest.