Kanatakeniate Tom Cook, Mohawk Elder, key Native American activist, and ceremony leader, was an early organizer of the White Roots of Peace traveling movement in the 1970s. He was also a correspondent for the newspaper, Akwesasne Notes. He covered the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973-74. Tom founded the Slim Buttes Agriculture Development Project (SBAG) in 1983 to bring food security to the Pine Ridge Reservation, described as a "food desert" and that faces increasing environmental concerns from mining and industrial farming. Additionally, he has dedicated his life to the continuation of the Sun Dance ceremonial practices thought the Afraid of Bear – American Horse tiospaye.
More than just a gardening program, SBAG is a social movement, teaching cultural values of self-sufficiency within the cross-generations of the tiospayes (extended families) which form the basis of social interaction on the reservation. After decades of dependency fostered by Government Commodity foods, the act of growing one’s own food and feeding ones family and neighbors is an act of food sovereignty and independence.
