By SALON | Ashlie D. Stevens
Food Editor
Excerpt (read the complete article here) :
The fight for Native food sovereignty is more than just a return to traditional diets — it’s an act of resistance, resilience and reclamation. Centuries of colonization, which methodically dismantled Indigenous food systems, have left lasting scars, which is one of the reasons food sovereignty can mean multiple different things: from reclaiming local food systems, to creating food policies that enhance community health, to targeting food as a mechanism for entrepreneurship and economic development.
Films, cookbooks and even competitive cooking shows are spotlighting this revival, honoring the land and the traditions that have sustained Indigenous communities for generations.
In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, here are a few essential resources to deepen your understanding of the movement.
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“The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen” by Sean Sherman
Similarly, in his work, James Beard Award winner Sean Sherman reimagines Indigenous cuisine, bringing ancestral foodways to the forefront of the modern culinary conversation. Many may know Sherman through his Minneapolis restaurant Owamni, which the James Beard Foundation declared the best new restaurant in America in 2021 — quite a feat for a kitchen that eschews wheat flour, dairy, cane sugar, black pepper or any other ingredient introduced to the continent through colonization.
“The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen,” which was released in 2017 from University of Minnesota Press in Minneapolis, allows readers to explore Sherman’s work anc culinary a little closer to home.
“Sherman dispels outdated notions of Native American fare — no fry bread or Indian tacos here — and no European staples such as wheat flour, dairy products, sugar and domestic pork and beef,” the book’s description reads. “‘The Sioux Chef’s’ healthful plates embrace venison and rabbit, river and lake trout, duck and quail, wild turkey, blueberries, sage, sumac, timpsula or wild turnip, plums, purslane and abundant wildflowers.”
It continues: “Contemporary and authentic, his dishes feature cedar braised bison, griddled wild rice cakes, amaranth crackers with smoked white bean paste, three sisters salad, deviled duck eggs, smoked turkey soup, dried meats, roasted corn sorbet and hazelnut-maple bites.”
