All of our American readers are familiar with the traditional First Thanksgiving tale that is taught to schoolchildren every November: how the colonists would have starved had the indigenous North Americans not fed them and taught them how to cultivate and prepare local food. Whether presented as historical fact or as a parable for cooperation and compassion, what few lesson plans consider is what foods would likely have been served at this meal hundreds of years ago and are those recipes and ingredients still in use today?
Though his people were not the same tribe as those who took pity on the Plymouth pilgrims (that was the Wampanoag), Sean Sherman, aka The Sioux Chef, is passionate about reclaiming and celebrating recipes from the time before European influence changed the course of North American cuisine. He recently opened a restaurant, Owamni, in Minneapolis whose mission is Indigenous Education and Indigenous food access.
As a member of the Oglala Lakota, Sherman channeled that passion into years of research, including countless hours of interviewing tribal elders, and the result was a cookbook that went on to win the 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen. He’s also founded NāTIFS, a nonprofit “dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.”
By reclaiming, sharing and celebrating the ingredients and recipes, and by fostering education and community, Sherman is putting his passion to purpose, to be the answer to his ancestors’ prayers.
You can buy Sherman’s cookbook here.
Hat tip: Good News Network
Content source: The Sioux Chef on Instagram
