THE ROOTS OF FOOD GRATITUDE: SIOUX CHEF
SIOUX CHEF
Deep Food Gratitude connects indigenous people to indigenous wild life - both flora and fauna. Wild native foods have kept them alive and thriving for millennia. Chef Sean Sherman and Dana Thompson, co-founders of Sioux Chef, leading efforts to reconnect Native Americans with native foods local to their tribal ancestral lands. And they are introducing the rest of us to these beautiful native cuisines.
The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, Sherman’s wonderful cookbook, written with Beth Dooley, belongs on your shelf. Published by University of Minnesota Press, it is 2018 James Beard Award Winner: Best American Cookbook and has been named one of the Best Cookbooks by NPR, The Village Voice, Smithsonian Magazine, New York Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, and others.
Hunted, fished, and foraged ingredients are presented simply in some of Sherman’s dishes, to focus us on pure wild flavors, while in others, he transforms them into sophisticated multisensory works of art.
Squash Soup with Squash Blossoms. Courtesy of Sioux Chef.
Consider smoked turkey soup with burnt sage, squash and apple soup with wild cranberries, cedar braised bison with wild aronia berries, wild fruit crisp with sunflower seeds, hazelnuts and roasted corn sorbet.
Sioux Chef operates both as a catering company and as an educator. Beyond sharing the sheer pleasure of experiencing ancient wild flavors, Sioux Chef’s mission is important. First and foremost, it aims to help Native Americans live healthier lives.
By Heidi Ehalt. Chef Sean Sherman. Courtesy of Sioux Chef.
Today, Native Americans are 50% more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white Americans, according to the HHS, and many suffer from diet-related diseases. Ever since the US Army pretty much wiped out Native American food supply, practically reducing bison populations to extinction, eliminating massive territories of wild lands, Native Americans were forced rely upon cheap government-rationed foods, such as macaroni, white rice, lard, flour, and bacon.
Sherman, who belongs to the Minnesota-based Oglala Lakota Tribe, became concerned about the health of his people. He became interested in the food systems that once nourished Native Americans.
Sherman heavily researched, talking to family and tribal elders as well as gathering knowledge from and collaborating with chefs, foragers, ethnobotanists, event planners, artists, and food producers from a number of different Native American tribes. Together, they are working to nourish chronically malnourished Native American communities -- bodies and souls.
You will not find beef, chicken, pork, refined sugar, dairy products, wheat flour, or other foods brought to America by European settlers on any of Sioux Chef menus. You will find (and fall in love with) wild venison, bison, rabbit, trout, duck, quail, turkey, berries, sage, sumac, timpsula (wild turnip), plums, purslane, amaranth, goosefoot, and sorrel, You will find heritage squash, tomatoes, and corn.
By Mette Nielsen. “Smoked Whitefish & White Bean Spread.” Courtesy of Sioux Chef.
One supplier, Wozupi Tribal Gardens, is a 16-acre farm that specializes in American heirloom fruits and vegetables, including Cherokee beans, Potawatomi lima, Oneida corn, Arikara yellow squash, Hidatsa shield beans, Lakota squash, chokecherries, wild plums, apples, apricots, tomatoes, and Juneberries.
Sioux Chef brings recipes for healthy traditional food to reservations, such as the Prairie Island Indian Community, southeast of Minneapolis, home to members of the Dakota Nation.
While you might have your Thanksgiving dinner menu all set for tomorrow, you might consider a Native American menu for next year. We’re super-tempted by “Sweet & Sour Roast Goose with Autumn Squash & Cranberries.” You can find the recipe here on Food52.
By Mette Nielsen. “Squash & Apple Soup.” Courtesy of Sioux Chef.
And check out these Sioux Chef recipes recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning:
There are still over 500 Native American tribes in the US, and over 600 tribes in Canada. Over 20% of Mexicans are indigenous people. Each has a rich culinary heritage. They can all benefit from a return to native foods.
North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), the nonprofit Sherman and Dana Thompson co-founded, is developing various initiatives, focused on native food education and access in tribal regions.
NĀTIFS Indigenous Food Lab is working with ethnobotanists to identify more native plant species. They are also working on opening Indigenous Food Hubs in cities, each with a restaurant and a training center with an indigenous food curriculum.
Check out more about Sioux Chef story in this video.
Learn more about indigenous food and the chefs that are bringing it back to life, including Loretta Barrett Oden, Lois Ellen Frank, Nephi Craig, Karlos Baca, Rich Francis, and Neftali Duran, founder of iCollective, an autonomous group of Indigenous chefs, activists, herbalists, seed, and knowledge keepers.
Much gratitude to Sioux Chef, iCollective and all of those who are brings Native foods back to Native people and helping us all to connect with their beauty. We feel energized. We want more.
Read more about Beautiful Leaves all this week on BeautifulNow, including 10 Reasons to be Thankful for Travel, Gratitude: Good for Body Mind & Soul, Walk the Walk of Gratitude: Beautiful Hikes, You are BeautifulNow! Thank You! and Thanks for Wild Turkeys. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
By Mette Nielsen. “Cedar Tea.” Courtesy of Sioux Chef.
Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!
Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Competition.
