The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many holes in the U.S. food supply chain, and some of the people who were affected by it the most were members of the country’s indigenous tribes. Several tribal nations are in the process of establishing their own supply chains by building and running their own processing plants, helping to avoid similar problems in the future.
One such plant is Osage Nation Meat Processing in Hominy, Okla. The facility, built quickly last year in part with federal funds for COVID relief, is meant to help maintain a steady food supply to tribal members in the reservation.