Necessities of Life by Boderra Joe
Biyáál Trading Post ‘revolves around’ food sovereignty
Boderra Joe’s article was on the front page of the Navajo Times’ December 21, 2023 Edition. Here is Graham Beyale holding a copy of the newspaper. Wydell Sells/Biyáál Trading Post
SHIPROCK – Biyáál Trading Post is a small business focused on Indigenous food sovereignty. It’s rooted by Diné farmer Graham Beyale, who created reciprocity to share with people across the U.S. and overseas.
Since 2020, Beyale’s four-acre farm in Shiprock has been rooted and has sustained itself for the past three years.
“The first thing that we ever sold were blue corn,” the 33-year-old farmer said. “We sold them online,” where the seed was planted.
As much as 90 percent of Biyáál Trading Post’s revenue comes from selling its produce online or via pop-up shops like flea markets and farmers markets.
“We sell regularly,” said Beyale, who added that holiday bazaars have been welcoming to regenerate revenue and to maintain needed supplies or equipment around the farm.
“We’ve also been fortunate enough to receive support from grants,” Beyale said, who is Hooghan Łání and born for Tł’ááshchí’í. His maternal grandfather is Táchii’nii, and his paternal grandfather is Tábąąhá.
The business received a grant through John Hopkins University, which provided roughly $8,000 for hydro-panels from the company Source in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The farm uses four hydro-panels, which collect water from the air through condensation by creating synthetic dew. This allows the water to be filtered and potable.
Beyale, a born and raised Shiprock resident, said the business receives a ton of support from the community. Even though the trading post began as an online business because of the pandemic, the community still has been supportive of purchasing many goods.
The farm now has a website, which Beyale said he’s still improving. The website has three categories: tea shop, farm products, and seeds.
“Not only have I sought to find sustainability in my water, in my food, but also in my finances,” Beyale said. “Being able to create a job, being able to create a market from what we grow here, that’s the goal.”
The business has shipped many orders to Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Maine, Florida, and many more.
“As we grow, hopefully, we’ll be able to expand that to other countries,” Beyale said. “The dream of being able to provide these foods to Navajos and all over the world – and whoever wants to be part of that, it’s happening.”
Since 2020, Diné farmer Graham Beyale of Shiprock has rooted “Biyáál Trading Post” on a four-acre farm that produces many nutritious sources such as tea, squash, melons, and seeds. Beyale hopes to revitalize Indigenous food sovereignty for the community. Boderra Joe/Navajo Times
Indigenous thought process
After facing many trials and errors and being in a dark pit of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, Beyale pulled himself out and grounded himself in an environment that best suited his needs.
“It’s hard for young people to live on the Rez. to stay on the Rez, and to flourish on the Rez. It’s very hard,” Beyale said.
Beyale said the goal of having a farm is to show it is possible.
“The business revolves around Indigenous food sovereignty,'“ Beyale said.
“There’s a lot of branches off of that; one is being able to provide readily available ancestral ingredients.”
By ancestral ingredients, he means corn, cornmeal, Juniper ash, Navajo Tea, and much more.
“To be able to grow them here and make that available,” Beyale said, which he hopes could be implemented and encourage ancestral diets.
The purpose of Indigenous peoples’ existence is to find balance in the land around us, which Beyale refers to as the “Indigenous thought process,” by finding balance in your surroundings.
Trading
Balance, in a way, is also sharing stories.
The “Biyáál Trading Post” name developed from bí, bíí (his/her/they/them), and yáál (cents/forms of coins). Beyale said his grandpa shared a story that the term yáál derives from trading items with another party.
“The two parties would put down two blankets, and then each party would then put items on there for trade,” Beyale said, referring to the story his grandpa told him. “When it was a good trade, that was ‘yáál.’ OK, that’s good, that’s good enough.”
As colonization interrupted, Beyale said yáál is now used as a “unit of currency,” from where the name transpired.
“I found myself in this position as a business owner and developing a sort of trading post type of thing,” Beyale said. “If anything, that story goes to show that my family were probably good traders … if being named that.”
Beyale reflected on his upbringing and the idea of the trading post, which he said most of us grew up around. He believes it is part of the Diné history, but from experience, trading posts have a way of exploiting people.
However, the purpose of Biyáál Trading Post is solely for the community to understand and grow in a space that allows the community to partake in it by walking the cornfield and picking their squash or corn.
Seed keeper
Beyale, a “seed keeper,” said the purpose of developing the farm is to use it as an experiential farm where the community can visit and learn how to care for and grow corn and tea and collect seeds.
As a seed keeper, Beyale believes genetic diversity is important because it involves understanding how the crops are grown and how to protect them.
Crops such as corn, squash, beans, tobacco, melons, potatoes, onions, and so forth are all important to Diné because they have been nutritious to their existence.
“All of those, we need to be able to bring back that genetic diversity because one of the things that is really scary, is that I come to learn recently is that 99 percent of agriculture corn comes from a variety called ‘yellow dent number two,’” Beyale said, “which is a type of yellow corn grown across the U.S.”
Beyale explained that large agricultural companies can do genetic copyright on the DNA of seeds. For example, a farmer had a personal cornfield close to a company’s farm, and its corn would cross-pollinate with the farmer’s corn. The cross-pollunation overtook the DNA in the farmer’s corn through time.
“This company won a case saying that the corn that he has is genetically copyrighted to us, so we own those seeds. So, we essentially own whatever you’re growing ,” Beyale said about a farmer and a company.
“That is one thing that is happening in the world that we are continuously being taken advantage of as Indigenous people,” Beyale said. “Not only in our art, our land, our water but also our seeds.”
Biyáál Trading Post offers the “Navajo Tea Sampler,” which contains 20 packs of various teas, including Navajo tea, mint blend tea, sage blend tea, lavender tea, and lemongrass blend tea. Diné have used teas for medicinal purposes for generations for joint pain, upset stomach, and to promote healthy kidney function. The tea sampler is available on the Biyáál Trading Post website. Boderra Joe/Navajo Times
Reciprocating for community and relationship
Beyale believes farmers must protect their crop and seeds when growing them yearly.
“If one crop fails, that’s OK because one crop can flourish,” Beyale said. “That’s what we know as Indigenous people, so that’s why we encourage genetic diversity.”
Through this community effort led by Beyale, he hopes the farm continues to grow.
“That’s the goal to be able to show and share this (farm) with the community,” Beyale said. “Get kids to learn how to grow, to get them familiar with putting their hands in soil and playing in the ditch because that’s how I grew up.”
Beyale would like the farm to provide that to the community because it is an opportunity to be in a space where one can remove oneself from on-the-go life. He hopes the farm can redevelop a more intimate relationship on where and how people receive food.
“Our energy. Basically, our energy,” Beyale said. “That’s the idea around Indigenous food sovereignty.”
To read the original Navajo Times online article, here is the link.
Boderra Joe is a Diné poet, journalist, and photographer from Bááhazł'ah (Twin Lakes), New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. She is Bit'ahnii (Folded Arms Clan), born for Tabááha (Water's Edge Clan). She is the author of Desert Teeth (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022). She holds an MFA and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is a recipient of the Willapa Bay AiR Fellowship, the Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) Fellowship, and the Bosque Redondo Memorial Artist-In-Their Residence Fellowship.
