The Importance of Indigenous Food Traditions

Credit: Tracy Stuckrath — thrive! meetings & events

To celebrate Native peoples throughout the US., Tracy is chatting with Chef Sean Sherman, co-owner of the restaurant Owamni (Minneapolis, MN) and founder of “The Sioux Chef”, a company dedicated to revitalizing and reclaiming Native American cuisine.

A member of the Ogalala Lakota Sioux tribe, Sherman is fervent about bringing indigenous food systems like wild food usage, land stewardship, and pre-colonial foods to the modern kitchen and dining table.

He is doing something right. In June, Owamni was named Best New Restaurant of 2022 by the James Beard Foundation, the “Oscars of food.”

On the menu at Owamni are dishes that prioritize Indigenous-sourced foods native to the region. What is NOT on the menu are beef, pork, or chicken nor wheat flour, dairy, cane sugar, or black pepper — ingredients introduced to the continent after Europeans arrived. He wants to create a “decolonized dining experience” and help us to re-identifying with the foods native to our land.