 In the 18th and 19th centuries, for instance, settlers in the US government slaughtered bison in order to contain and control indigenous people. When farming failed to catch on, the government handed out food rations. Freeman says these rations were largely unhealthy, similar to the commodity boxes of highly processed foods that native communities are given today. Her new book is titled, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground, The Politics of Food in the United States,