I was fascinated to read of Sherman's journey to rediscover and promote native dishes. I enjoy foods of many cultures and we have some delicious native dishes from our many tribes in Oklahoma. I celebrate the recognition of Natives and their history. Like most people in America, our heritage is a mixed bag with natives and Europeans both in our bloodline. The past cannot be returned. Neither my Mennonite farmer ancestors or my Northeastern tribal ancestors will ever be able to reclaim what was once theirs, but we can honor the memory. I honor all the people in my heritage who overcame persecution and suffering and have continued to forge a life in this country. I give thanks that, perhaps, people are finally understanding the injustices that were done to the natives, as had been done to many who were driven from their homes and landed here. Moving forward and celebrating the food and culture of indigenous groups will help promote this awareness and provide a path to a better future for all.
This article satisfies on many levels: gastronomic, cultural, historical, and environmental. Thanks for publishing this beautifully written and inspiring piece.
1
My father was a Zapotec. When I have the urge for Native American food, I search for Oaxacan restaurants. We have at least four in metro Seattle. Oaxaca, like Yucatán, and Chiapas is MAJORITY indigenous!
2
So, if I have to pay the New York Times to be able to see the actual recipes are you in turn paying this Native group for every recipe viewed? Would only be fair.
1
I can't wait to order the cookbook. More articles like this, please, NYT. Please delve into the cooking of Native Americans along the Gulf of Mexico whose influence on southern cooking cannot be denied.
4
good food
So very happy to see Sean Sherman and these native recipes featured, especially as we head into the winter months of the year when warming and cozy foods are so welcome.
We are fans of Mahnomin, sumac, juniper, cedar and other indigenous ingredients that bring such delicacy, brightness and depth to dishes. Sean's cookbook, "The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen," takes us deeper into the native palate, and everywhere in the US you can find some of the necessary ingredients. Grab a wooden spoon or pull up a chair, America!! Deliciousness awaits!! Celebrate the accessible culinary tradition of the American Indians.
9
As a member of the Cherokee Nation and living in the state with the most Native American tribes, I’ve always wondered about native cuisine prior to the introduction of processed foods. When we first visited Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation capital, and saw the “Restaurant of the Cherokee” I thought “bingo!” No such luck, “Indian tacos” was the only “native” offering. Heading south to the Chickasaw Nation and their stellar cultural center that includes a restaurant, I again sought native cuisine. While there were some native choices it was not all I’d hoped for. We then heard of a native restaurant/chef in Denver(Tocabe) so made the trip there. It was worth the drive. Now, reading this article, I can see why there’s a paucity of native cuisine even in “Indian Country.” The ingredients are not readily available and if obtained are generally expensive. I hope this article opens people’s eyes to the possibility of expanding our culinary options and fulfill Mr. Sherman’s dreams of ever more native options at restaurants.
19
If you are fortunate enough to live near Denver, may I recommend Tocabe?
4
Having spent most of my youth in Montana, I regret not learning more about the Native American culture there. Oh, wait, my elementary school was named Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce tribe... that much I knew. Thank you for this. My eyes are so much more open and I’m delighted.
2
Happy to find that, excepting agave & chia, we pretty routinely eat all of these. No one should be intimidated to try Native foods & cuisine.
Walking with a Navajo elder in '08, she pointed out a plant that as a child, she gathered seeds from, as she put it it, to stretch the corn in bread.
It turned out to be Lambsquarters, Chenopodium album, Nav. T'loh ligaii, "white grass." We not only use the leaves as greens, but sell them at farmers market.
Ref. Mayes & Lacy, _Nanise'_
4
If it weren’t for the necklace and haircut I would never have thought he is a Native American.
2
Interesting and uplifting
It would be cool if Mr. Sherman could persuade Big Bat's (on Pine Ridge) to serve some of these things, instead of the standard convenience-store fare I saw last time through.
4
Excellent article! Thank you Mr. Sherman.
3
Thank you Chef Sherman. I am so grateful to have these recipes and to learn about indigenous cooking. Thank you NY Times for publishing this article. I would love for there to be a regular NY Times column featuring Native recipes including more about the food history. I am certain we have a country full of fabulous Native chefs. Let's find them, celebrate them and learn from them. Finally.
16
His title made me smile. His recipes made me hungry.
6
Very interesting and I hope try the Native American recipes Mr. Sherman. I enjoy spending time on the North Shore in Minnesota where they use wild rice in tacos, breads, pancakes and much more and they are all delicious.
5
Yes, it would be wonderful to eat at Native restarants from coast to coast...Thank you, Sean Sherman, for all you do to create and inspire this kind of future!
9
So proud to say I knew you when!!! Awed by your accomplishments, Sean. We are all so proud of you here in Montana.
8
THank you so much for your research And. your recipes. You are wonderful and generous. This is so valuable
7
This was a fascinating article. Most New Yorkers have tasted cuisines from around the world, but never the native food of this land. These look like very delicious and healthy dishes.
The article also highlights the importance of native plant species. It is only recently that Americans are realizing that our ecosystem cannot function on the many imported plant varieties that cover our country. It would be great to see more emphasis at garden centers, and in farms, to natives.
21
"I am not interested in recreating foods from 1491 — " I can't argue with what follows, but still it would be super interesting to actually taste food as it was eaten prior to all the machinations of man. I'm thinking buffalo steak over a fire with some gooseberry wine?
7
Thank you for this.
7
Please open a restaurant in LA showcasing the different foods of the Tongva and other regional tribes!!
8
Delightful! So much better than those inauthentic recipes in Pow Wow Chow.
3
Wonderful book and article,
Thank You for featuring it in the NY Times Paper today
13
For another fascinating Indigenous cooking lesson, try to make it to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum, just north of The Dalles, OR. Among their many world-class exhibits [https://www.gorgediscovery.org/discover/exhibits-programs/] CGDC shows a half-hour looped video following native harvesters as they process & prepare acorns, a food staple across much of the High Desert - Great Basin country, & surely for other cultures in oak woodland environs.
Also, in the same general 'neighborhood' [https://www.museumatwarmsprings.org/collections-the-mastery-of-traditional-craftsmen/], the Warm Springs Museum has an excellent portrayal of how roots, shoots, seeds & berries supported generations of people in this same arid landscape, with harvest, preparation & storage techniques still in use today.
11
Looks delicious!
3
What an enormous loss the cultural and literal genocide of indigenous peoples is for all of us. Thank you for doing this.
20
Restaurants, please! Looks great, but I'm not one to cook much.
3
I think Mr. Sherman will ensure immortality to these recipes and stories/histories by collaborating with curriculum experts and crafting classes for young students. I would have been ecstatic to have learned about native culture and foods as a 7th grader in Jr High school. Instead I learned to make macaroni salad in a girls-only “home economics” course. Phoo!
15
It's ridiculous that Native American cuisine isn't familiar to every American, and available in restaurants in every major city. Native American cuisine needs more people championing it like Sean Sherman. I want to eat this food.
23
For all those wondering why we've "never" had a Native American restaurant in NYC: Actually, we did - in the mid-1980s. It was called Silverbird, after its Navajo/Apache owner Reuben Silverbird, and it was located on the Upper West Side, at West 84th St. & Columbus Ave.
Here's a review from People: https://people.com/archive/this-thanksgiving-new-york-has-yet-another-reason-to-be-grateful-to-the-indians-silverbird-vol-26-no-22/
14
Ugh, can we stop using the phrase "lower 48"? Unless you are only excluding Alaska and MAINE, it is incorrect terminology. Hawai'i, as I'm sure everyone here is aware, is the south-most state in the union.
"Contiguous States" - States that touch one another, i.e. excluding Alaska and Hawai'i
"Continental States" - States that are on the North American continent
How hard is it to get this right?
1
@Hannah Not to be picky but The northernmost state of the contiguous 48 is Minnesota not Maine. Angle Inlet in Minnesota is at 49 degrees, 23 minutes north. That is farther north than any part of Maine.
6
Filet of Custer noticeably missing.
6
Thank you for sharing.
Now if indigenous lives could be a regular occurrence in the news rather than a Thanksgiving occasion...
11
Interesting how Exxon/Mobile ads kept scrolling though my feed. Quite a strange combination.
4
Pieces like this make my New York Times’ subscription all the more valuable. Thank you.
16
When the Native American restaurants begin to open, I want a reservation (the table kind).
14
Fabulous piece! I've got to try tepary beans! I'm also surprised that there is no type of pig or chicken native to North America.
4
@Grant They are only distantly related to pigs, but javelina (peccaries) look, and are said to taste, much like them. They were an important food source for many indigenous tribes, particularly the Mayans.
2
What a gift you and your colleagues have made...
7
This food is beautiful and as a resident of the Pacific Northwest I cannot wait to put together the salmon dish. The premise of this piece will stay with me and I'm turning it over again after reading; that we trudge to the grocery store for packaged food while delicious ingredients surround us in their natural setting is a shame. Even though I'm in the city there is opportunity to explore food in this way and I'll definitely make a point to do so. I'm inspired.
7
Beautiful story, stunning pictures, and mouthwatering recipes-
Thank you so much for this featured article, I intend to try as many recipes as possible!
5
It is not lost on me that this wonderful article was featured during Native American Indian Heritage Month, but also that they are the original Americans whose land we are all on. This was so moving, and goes to show how far we have to go. Thank you, Sean Sherman.
150
November, not October, is Native American History Month.
1
As a fellow tribal member who also grew up around commodities and Native dishes, it's so inspiring to see Chef Sherman's first-person narrative in the New York Times.
Foods cultivated by the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere, including corn, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, et al, literally changed the world after Contact, reducing infant mortality and nutritional diseases like scurvy in Europe and beyond. The irony is that Native people were given the worst. possible. diet. in the form of commodities and cheap processed foods that continue to blight our communities.
Thank you, Sean, for everything you do to bring indigenous foods and cuisine the attention they deserve.
182
Thank you for sharing these recipes and your stories.
It put a smile on my face, and more importantly for a Food article, made me hungry.
And several of the recipes look accessible to an intermediate home chef like me!
I wish you only success in your endeavors to awaken this continent to the splendor of native cooking.
136
Thank you for featuring Sean Sherman and his story. I am fortunate to live in Minnesota, close enough to Minneapolis that I have had at least 4 meals from the Sioux Chef, all of them fabulous.
As a fibromyalgia sufferer, restaurant food often triggers a pain episode. Sean's dishes have never done so. His ingredients do not lead to blood sugar spikes nor after meal drowsiness, yet are very satisfying.
And be sure to catch his cookbook!
189
Nephew Sean Sherman possesses the skills, knowledge and values to bring to the public an important slice of this country's history. With more that 600 Indigenous tribal nations in the country, his quest for new knowledge will never end. Sean's lessons are as much about about Indigenous earth wisdom and resilience as they are about the dire threats of colonization. Sean has a direct lineage to the original Black Elk, who was great grandfather to the famed warrior chief Crazy Horse. Thanks to Beth Dooley and Dana Thompson.
330
@Ben Sherman Wonderful to read of your nephew and his recipes from indigenous American history before Columbus's people arrived. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. How beautiful that you and your nephew Sean Sherman are descended from Black Elk, the Oglala Lakota wise man, "the medicine man", whose world vision was of the great tree that symbolized life on this earth and all people. We read Black Elk speaks. Thank you.
21
@Ben Sherman
And thank you, Ben, for all your hard work over the years to bring attention to Indigenous tourism and economic development in Indian Country.
26
@Ben Sherman
Pine Ridge, Black Elk, Black Hills, Chief Crazy Horse. I saw the very early days of the Crazy Horse monument in 1959 and returned with my husband in 2015. How wonderful that the Museum and other projects for the complex have come to fruition! The exhibit with all the large photographs and stories of the chiefs and warriors was amazing and brought us to tears. The history we are/were never taught!
One of the worst lies is about the"few" wagons the came out to the area. Paintings and photos show a huge, long wagon train filled with surveyors, businessmen, etc. all looking for resources to plunder and make money from.
So much untruth, so much fake history. Crazy Horse's sculpture is now close to completion. Huge, strong, dramatic. Awesome, and we should all study the real history where we can find it. If you are traveling and gushing over Mount Rushmore, just drive by--you can see it from the road--and go to the Crazy Horse monument.
22
As a middle aged man from a country with a large diaspora , I now realize how easy it is to lose culture ; it just requires sufficient numbers of one generation not learning or being taught, for any number of reasons.
I'm really proud of what Sean Sherman has done to reassemble and preserve his people's recipes and dishes which were almost certainly about to be lost.
8
Thank you for sharing this! I hope your thoughtful approach to food and culture is embraced by all.
8
This is a gift. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to trying these recipes.
12
In reading the article I feel sad about the horrors of the past treatment of the lovely indigenous people but I also feel so happy to see the history of the their culture and think about experiencing their food.
Thank You so much NYT and Mr. Sherman.
12
Thank you for bringing this important voice to our attention NY Times Cooking. Our national dialog has missed these voices for too long. Recipes actually look accessible to the general reader.
7
What a brilliant feature to advance in the lead up to thanksgiving !
6
And The Sioux Chef food is delicious! So glad to see the message and goals are being widely known!
8
Wonderful article! Having recently seen him speak in Minneapolis, I can say that Chef Sherman is even more compelling and charismatic in person. Hoping that his indigenous food empire will spread far and wide! Best wishes to Chef Sherman!
8
Here is Australia, before any public meeting, it has become customary for the convener to acknowledge the elders and thank the original nation who lived on the lands we now do.
It is a small thing, but after hearing it enough, one learns that, for example, we live on the lands of the Eora people of the Galigal nation. That small piece of information keeps alive their memory, as well as provides a stepping stone and threshold back into learning more about them, if one is interested.
As an American, when first exposed to this custom, i thought it silly but as I have lived here longer, and seen how my daughter and her peers have come to know about the folks who lived here first, I see its value and honestly? am ashamed that such a practice can't exist in the US.
We spent our growing up summers visiting the lands of the Lakota; as a primarily southern family we ate hominy, squash, real wild rice and other produce the Chef mentioned and my uncles hunted and fished real animals. Then when I went to Iran to study, before the Revolution, imagine my surprise to find the nomadic peoples there, preserved surplus foods similarly, if not the same ways my grandmother or our Mexican housekeeper did.
Thank you Mr. Sherman.
16
@Meeka This practice is now starting to happen in the US. I have been at two health-related conferences in the Northwest that have acknowledged the tribes on whose traditional territories the meetings are being held.
12
This makes me think that some regions and cuisines have maybe stayed closer to their indigenous roots than others. Cajun food, for example?
2
Really great read. I am happy to see Indigenous Americans reclaiming their rich culture and heritage, and sharing it with the world. I would also add that Sean is correct. A large part of Mexican culture and culinary recipes are directly passed down from the indigenous communities that survived and even in some cases thriving in Mexico.
While we think of these Mexican dishes as Mexican or even Spanish, let's remember their Native American roots as well. Even many of the dishes and produce we eat everyday are still pronounced in their native Nahuatl language (Tomatoe/tomatl, Avocado/Ahuacatl, chocolate/chocolatl, Guacamole = Ahuacatl + mole (avocado sauce in Nahuatl.)etc.
13
So fantastic. Thank you, Mr. Sherman, for your diligence in preserving/recreating these incredible dishes, and thank you, NYT, for bringing it to our attention.
12
It is always heartening to hear about a person who has worked hard to add beauty and depth to the world while improving the lives of others.
22
Back in the 1980s there was a Native American restaurant on the UWS of Manhattan - I think it was called Silverbird. Went there once on a date and I had rattlesnake (don't remember the sides) which of course tasted like chicken.
6
This past May, I had the good fortune to sample indigenous cuisine at a restaurant while on a visit to Vancouver. We had earlier gone on a forest walk through Stanley Park guided by a lady who had grown up there and she told us stories of growing up in her tribe and about the food she grew up with. She also made us taste various plants and told us how they were prepared or used. One interesting thing she told us was that there was no dividing line between food and medicine. The right food served medicinal purposes when needed -- not unlike ayurvedic practices in my native land. We asked her if there were any indigenous restaurants in town and she promptly recommended her friend's restaurant, Salmon n' Bannock (7-1128 W. Broadway.) We had knowledgeable and patient waiters who gave us thorough information about each dish we ordered, including which tribe each came from. If you ever find yourself in Vancouver, I'd highly recommend this restaurant.
18
Love this - wonderful extension of his book and restaurant cuisine.
2
Exciting to learn of Chef Sherman’s extensive research into Native American growing, harvesting and food preparation practices!
It is wonderful that this rich heritage is being restored and renewed.
I look forward to dining in the Native American restaurants that Chef Sherman hopes to launch.
Question: is Chef Sherman sharing any of his work or recipes with the Smithsonian’s Native American Museum? It would be great to see an exhibit on Native American agriculture and cooking, and to taste some of these recipes at the museum’s restaurant.
In addition, an event featuring Chef Sherman’s cuisine and research would be a great fundraiser for the Native American Museum and would publicize Chef Sherman’s work for investors and the public. How about it?
19
@ANetliner
Another very old, uniquely American cuisine, almost murdered by the majority culture, is that of the African slaves. It is being slowly revived by folks, food historians like Michael Twitty, a good friend of mine. African slaves routinely (when possible) learned from and traded with Native Americans for spices, seeds, new foods and medicinals,if only to make their own lives more bearable. Instead of doctors, slaves depended on "root men/women" for healing and for augmenting their meagre and unhealthy diets.
But let's not forget either that some Native American nations, (Choctaw, Chickasaw)in Florida, also held black slaves, and were not forced to emancipate them until several years AFTER the Civil War ended.
1
Thank you, Sean, for this wonderful, enlightening article. You are a superb writer, and obviously a great historian for your people and an amazing chef. I learned so much from this piece and am excited to try your mouth watering recipes. Even more important, I learned so much from your article about the rich lives, culture and history of our native peoples, from Mexico up to Canada. I am embarrassed about how much I don't know about the native cultures across North America. I need to educate myself even more, and doing that through food is a great way for me to engage and learn. Thank you again!
15
Hailing from upstate New York, and having gone to school at Syracuse University, I especially appreciate the Onondaga recipe. That and the trout and Salmon recipes I will certainly make; certainly the slow cooked salmon and perhaps the Buffalo recipe.
Come on down to West Palm Beach and open a restaurant. I'll certainly eat there.
Much success to you and others.
7
Wonderful. Beautifully written. A lovely and fascinating article with unique recipes to try. I appreciate greatly the deep-rooted dedication to indigenous food history and culinary culture. The entire story felt like a breath of fresh air.
10
Please open you restaurant(s) soon! Beautiful, historic food with your eloquent stories. I'll be in line.
7
This is fantastic! We've embraced a more paleo diet recently, and are exploring the wide range of what we call Mesoamerican cuisine, using the ingredients native to North and Central America. Is this the next trend in restaurants?
4
@JS I hope so!
Fabulous article and the dishes look amazing! More articles like this please.
20
The breadth of the recipes is most welcome. They are a means to restore the this important aspect of the cultural traditions suppressed during the period of colonialism and the attendant disruption of the unique hunting and gathering traditions.
I grew up within the Fond du Lac reservation, not as a tribal member, but as a grandson of Finnish immigrants. It puzzled me as to how it could have been that my ancestors could have acquired land interests within the reservation.
As a lawyer, it also puzzled me that the U.S. Patents for the land interests were dated in 1914. However, the treaty establishing the reservation was in 1854. I will leave that as a puzzle for readers to explore.
I did wild rice by hand and you don't try it, it tries you. I never processed it in the traditional ways. I look forward to honoring the rice and salmon with the recipes by the Chef.
14
@Dale C Korpi Possible a result of Dawes Act allotments being sold?
I have to say, had I not known these were/are Native American dishes, then going simply by the photographs, all these recipes look quite familiar and all could easily be from much of the forward thinking western cuisine of today,recipes which are fresh, colorful,simple and importantly nutritious.
6
One of the depressing aspects of indigenous cooking is that hundreds of indigenous species, probably many more than that, went extinct due to colonizers.
Some crops and land had been tended for hundreds of years, and when the westerners waged their campaign of genocide the heirloom varieties that were tended by the indigenous people were lost, never to be seen again.
It makes me so happy to see people reclaiming their culture through food and other ways today though. Gives me a glimmer of hope for the future, if only a glimmer.
21
Growing up in California I spent many a field trip wandering around the missions up and down the state. The missionaries “great achievements” is always the focus. What they did to the indigenous peoples tended to be a footnote. On one such trip, where I can’t remember, there was a large rock off to the side in a hacienda garden. Several smooth bowl sized hollows were in the stone. One of them had collected a bit of water and a bird was bathing in it, which was why the rock caught my eye. Above it was a small plaque saying the rock was once used by the Chumash to grind acorns into flour. I remember wondering what that would taste like. I also remember asking my teacher. Who said “probably bad.” Even as a kid I knew that was bunk. People like food that tastes good. It’s in our nature. I’ve always believed one of the best ways to experience another culture was through its cuisine. Thank you for these recipes. And should Los Angeles ever get an indigenous restaurant, I guarantee I will be there.
22
Sean is an excellent writer and I enjoyed reading his story. What a fascinating and valuable project. I'm excited to try several of his recipes and I sincerely hope that he will continue to contribute to the NY Times!
10
Sharing this wonderful article and recipes with my students as we read indigenous authors. I also have quite a few students of Native American ethnicity who were so excited to see some of their traditions and foods highlighted in the New York Times. Kudos to the Chef and author. This is why I love the NY Times.
33
Sounds and looks delicious. I've sort of had the notion that pre-contact Native American diet must have been pretty dull and boring.
This article has disabused me of that idea! I'll have to try some of these.
7
The Ohlone operate a successful Native restaurant in the SF Bay Area. The Hopi have a restaurant in their cultural center on the mesas. In Albuquerque the Pueblo Center has a superb restaurant offering foods from the various New Mexico pueblo cultures. Last, and not least, the museum in Washington has a very popular restaurant offering versions of Native foods representative of tribes nationally.
42
@luther Thanks for sharing these recommendations, I'm excited to try them!
3
It certainly can be argued that, since the white invasion of Native American lands began, Native American cuisine has effected virtually every cuisine in the world, with ingredients and combinations Europeans, and even Asians, had never before imagined. The same goes for farming techniques. The PEOPLE are some of our country's greatest treasure, and all of their culture should be honored and preserved.
35
I loved reading Sean Sherman's story and look forward to trying the recipes and savoring the history.
13
In addition to the breathtaking recipes, "Sioux" chef has to be one of the most amazing homophones and play on words in history.
76
These recipes look fantastic! Great timing, for Thanksgiving. I especially like the Three Sisters dish. It has a lot of history, and is sustainable.
11
@Mary M
I want to try the same, Three Sisters dish! My kind of food!
I read The Sioux Chef cookbook a little while ago, and it was one of the most enjoyable cookbooks - no, books period! - that I've read in a long while. His cuisine is not an impulsive statement, but rather a very thoughtful, deep, expressive, mourning, celebrating, and inspiring life's work. If this article at all peaks your interest in Native American food ways, I highly recommend his book.
38
My Native American ancestors relied to a great extent on pine nuts. We still gather them and love them lightly roasted. This hasn’t changed for eons. Although they are used in current recipes, think pesto sauce, I don’t know how they were used in original food preparations.
15
I am so happy to finally see something on Native Americans. It is so rarely seen, even though they were so cruelly treated by the expansion to the West. They had everything and they lost everything.
114
@Martha They didn't "lose it", it was taken!
7
@Martha
I am reading The hearbeat of Wounded Knee. What an amazing book!
2
I love this! I’ve always been fascinated by how the food we eat can carry so much cultural history. I especially love how these recipes are geared toward modern palates while still retaining their original essence, bridging the gap between yesterday and today. I’m so pleased the NYT is highlighting the important work of the Sioux Chef and educating readers about our nation’s indigenous people. More of this, please!
258
@Christina Yes, please more articles about our nation's indigenous people. Very interesting.
6
Wonderful! I wasn't able to find a reference to Mr. Sherman's restaurant location. Perhaps the NYT could add this information at the end of the article.
3
@123jojoba I want to say Minneapolis.
6
@123jojoba -
Sean Sherman's Sioux Chef is based out of Minneapolis. He used to run a fantastic food truck Tatanka, and now does catering and pop ups in the Twin Cities. I'm told his demonstations of native recipes and techniques were a highlight of this year's state fair (I probably can't adequately explain this, but the state fair is essentially in the city, and it's no joke that it's the best 2 weeks of the year).
I've been fortunate enough to eat Sioux Chef food a few times. It's worth it to find a reason for catering in Mpls/St Paul. If Sean decides to open a permanent restaurant, I'll be there every time I'm in the Twin Cities.
https://www.tatankatruck.com/
https://sioux-chef.com
2
@123jojoba He had a food truck https://www.facebook.com/tatankatruck/
but apparently it closed so he and his team can focus on opening his Indigenous Food Lab/restaurant/training center.
1
Thank you so much!!
3
Beautifully written!
3
"Sioux Chef"? Perfect!
7
Thank you for bring this story to The NY Times!
2
It's about time. Enough said.
6
Please, Please, Please bring a Native American restaurant to one of the city centers you mentioned!
7
This article was so interesting and I appreciated the recipes, thank you for such creative ideas. Gayle, Pittsburgh, PA
2
no deer? no elk? no moose?
3
I've read that Los Angeles has a huge Native American population. Yet I don't know of a single Native American restaurant here. With so many different ethnic restaurants in this city, this is a shameful void. Will someone please fill it?
7
Great article. It's high time US publications hightlighted indigenous cultures, as the Canadians are increasingly doing. For too long indigenous nations have been looked down as unsophisticated tribes; this level of environmental and culinary sophistication shows otherwise. The real barbarians are the purveyors of the fake food listed as the so-called 'commodity food staples' that kill not just taste buds, sugar levels and waistlines but also the environment.
(Too bad we have to pay extra for access to the actual recipes. I feel it is disrespectful on on the part of the NYT to cut off entire sections of the newspaper from its loyal subscribers. )
18
It's about time! Now let's get the art museums to step up to the plate!
5
@Marjorie Summons
You need to come to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian - fabulous cafeteria
1
What about the dishes of the Southwest; viz. Pueblo cuisine?
1
Highly recommend his book, Sioux Chef, published by University of Minnesota Press, and winner of the James Beard Award.
8
Great article, and some lovely-looking recipes that I’d love to try out, but they are fire-walled behind yet another subscription. It seems a bit bait-and-switch - doesn’t it? - to have the article in the main newspaper for regular subscribers, and the recipes hidden away unless we pay out more money. A pity.
17
Very inspiring Sean!! Thanks for the great work you are doing!!
2
When an article is published, the recipes linked to in the article should be available for 24 hours.
Would the NYT print the article in the paper, and then tell you that you need to buy an additional paper to read them?
Why is that acceptable online?
It really feels like bait and switch, doesn't it?
22
Get The NY Times cooking app and save these recipes digitally at any time.
2
These recipes look stunning, both in taste and flavor.
Kudos to Sean Sherman!
2
I will be the first in line when the first Native American restaurant opens in New York. I’ve been hoping for one for years!
7
@Paul Palansky, There actually was one in NYC in the mid-1980s - Silverbird.
1
I have to say that if you eat salmon that has been cooked over an alder fire after it has burned down, you won't want salmon any other way. Here we have regular cooking classes with a tribal member Indigenous foods specialist, as well as gathering and preparing traditional plant medicines and supplying them to our community.
41
Reading the comments and this wonderfully written article I think it’s important to reiterate that Sherman isn’t “trying to go back to 1491” with his recipes.
Sure, cilantro comes from the middle east, but it’s used heavily throughout Mexico along with native tomatoes and onions. Limes are also staple to the Mexican diet but are also middle eastern.
The turkey, pheasant and deer we bring to our Thanksgiving tables are quite native of course, with non-wild turkeys bring one of the few domesticated animals originating in the Americas.
Point is we trade food broadly. Even prior to 1491, food trade was extensive through river and coastal networks. A good book on the subject is 1491 by Charles Mann. Fascinating history, but when it’s read and done what we are really discussing here is what recipes define our culturally identity, and the ingredients may not be as native as we would like to believe, not even 500 years ago.
21
Wonderful article, thank you. Renews my interest in foraging and keeping my eyes open when I walk.
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What a beautiful and enlightening article! Thank you, Chef.
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This is fantastic and those recipes are making me hungry! Surely we will start seeing Native American restaurants.
Growing up in Alabama, I learned about the Cherokee and Creek in Alabama History. I remember tasting a basic Three Sisters corn, beans and squash hominy, but I never really considered the diversity characterizing the cuisine of indigenous peoples throughout North America.
My heart hurts when I think about the way the U.S. government treated the native people. It hurts so much to think about the land my family currently owns being part of the Creek Land Lottery. When the Creek were betrayed by Jackson (the favorite of the current occupant of the White House), defeated at Horseshoe Bend, then pushed out of Alabama, their land was divided and given away. War of 1812 veterans got first dibs in the lottery. My ancestor was one of them. He got a beautiful patch of Tallapoosa River bottomland where the very people he helped kill once hunted and fished. This overwhelms me with shame.
When I was in third grade, my class visited Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (just a hop, skip and a jump from where I grew up), and rather than teaching us about Creek culture, they handed us wooden rifles and lined us up on the hill, teaching us how to aim and charge. This was 1991.
It would be amazing to see a “Three Sisters” type restaurant near Horseshoe Bend to change the narrative for a new generation. To finally tell the truth.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
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@Corrie Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt comments. This article seems to be greatly affecting its readers - and that’s good.
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@Victoria Newcombe when Sean described the untamed beauty of his great-grandfather’s childhood, then Wounded Knee, I was on the verge of tears. Why can’t we do a better job teaching today’s kids about the history of indigenous people? We gloss over the ugly truth and it has had a terrible effect. 2019 is Alabama’s bicentennial, for example, and do we hear a thing about the Creek and Cherokee and the rest of the Five Civilized Tribes” who committed to trading and living peacefully with white settlers but were all betrayed? No. Furthermore, no one can truly understand the history of Alabama without also studying the Georgia Land Lotteries. They distributed the Creek lands little by little through several treaties that were ultimately designed to betray them, pushing from Georgia into East Alabama, But do we learn that in Alabama history? No. At some point, we need to admit the truth about what happened. Reading about the government-issued food replacing traditional cuisine was a gut punch. How could we do this to people? How could we destroy an entire way of life? I have studied Andrew Jackson in depth, and the glee he expressed both privately and in speeches when the Creek ceded the land should classify him as a monster. A brute. But he’s lauded as a hero to so many Southerners. Why? Because our history books don’t tell the truth. That’s why Sean’s work is important. If we can’t educate people with books, maybe we can educate them through food.
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@Corrie
When I read that in Mr Sherman's house, one found the government standards/staples given to poor people, especially government cheese, I remember hearing about how the black urban poor folk stood in line in the 60s and 70s for the same surplus agricultural staples and were mocked, insulted and degraded for accepting them.
But none of those staples
would have been available without the USDA programs to purchase the farmers' surpluses, keeping their prices high enough for them to make a profit.
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Thank you, Sean Sherman (and the NYT). I am so excited to see your article and try your recipes!
Christina Lopez Robison
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Just bought two pounds of tepary beans. I’m going to make the three sisters when the beans get here. Thanks.
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This article, and the recipes, are brilliant and exciting. I am so happy to see this in Times. Can't wait to cook the dishes.
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Does anyone have a list of spices Natives would have used? I see the use of berries, herbs, and aromatic plants, but I wasn't sure if the use of spices like coriander, bay, and pepper, as well as other spices was more European-influenced.
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@RJ
Juniper berries, wild ginger, spruce and cedar wood roasting, maple syrup, seaweeds: these were some of the native methods of flavoring. Fresh berries vary by region, but also were import for flavors.
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Most of the spices we use today come from across Europe and Asia so would not have been used by Native Americans prior to the 1490’s. Bay leaf is European. Coriander/cilantro is Middle Eastern.
Chile peppers are native to Mexico so some southwestern tribes would have used them. (Not peppercorns, like black pepper, though. That’s native to Asia.)
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@RJ Sassafras leaves are/were used by Native Americans such as the Houma tribe in Louisiana to flavor soups and gumbos. The dried, powdered leaves are called file and are also used to flavor root beer. I have a large sassafras tree in my backyard and occasionally add a couple of dried leaves to seafood gumbo.
Native Americans also used the tender tips of cedar and pine trees much the same way as we use rosemary. The flavors are quite consistent with each other.
Sage leaves were commonly used in the west.
In this era of farm-to-table restaurants, it is most fitting that someone of Native American heritage would remind us of our oldest American food heritages.
This is about saving and nurturing important ingredients and traditions not only for those from the tribes, but for all of us.
It is a fine example of eco-friendly sourcing of organically raised animals and produce. And it is a fine way of teaching all of us to appreciate more.
The recipes are a wonderful gift.
Thank you Sean Sherman!
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I loved this article! Thank-you so much!
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Thank you to the author and colleagues for researching and introducing this celebratory collection of recipes! The land that I caretake was home to Mahicans. Their food sources still abound here. Yes, the original way of “shopping” requires patience and strength to identify, gather, store and prepare sustenance. However, hours spent filling baskets with tangy greens, delicious black walnuts and shagbark hickory nuts pass quickly. I’m not the only gleaner: squirrels and chipmunks frantically hoard ahead of me. Herds of deer and flocks of turkeys munch on acorns; sociable winter birds chatter as they collect seeds; all manner of caterpillars have a last nibble before they pupate for the winter. On my most fortunate days, I am awed by a pair of majestic Bald Eagles that fish nearby in a tributary of the Hudson River. Some years an enormous Golden Eagle appears briefly. I am humbled and honored to live amongst the same flora and fauna respected by indigenous cultures. Again, many thanks for this inspiring article!
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Global warming is causing great changes rapidly to our environment. One thing Native Americans excelled at was adapting to a changing environment in finding and using to the utmost extent what nature provided. These recipes it seems also excel in making use of local ingredients. There is much that Native Americans have contributed to our culture and much more that they have to offer if we will pay attention to them.
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Thank you so much for a beautiful piece on indigenous food.Not only for the recipes but the history and the notion of respect for plants and animals.That we are not above nature.Thank you again!
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This is a very important article for me. My Mother’s ancestry was half Chippewa through her mother. My Mom and her 5 siblings were left motherless at young ages. I have often wondered about their food supplies way up there near the Canadian border in Montana. This article gives me insight. Thank you so much, and I will be looking for Sean’s book and more recipes that reflect our Native American culture.
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@M Elizabeth Thomaso
Chippewas used to eat lots of walleye, whitefish and wild rice. And the occasional Sioux.
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We now live in Florida, and this article, Mr. Sherman, reminds me of how much we miss Minnesota. Thank you.
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I can’t get over the thought that indigenous people anywhere, or everywhere, probably did not have or take the time to shop (or gather) the ingredients for regular gourmet cooking. Anyone agree?
It seems disingenuous to suggest otherwise, speculating on what a modern cook might have prepared if he/she had the time and tools and incentive.
2
Research since the 1960s with hunter-gatherer societies in Namibia/South Africa (and, just this year in the Philippines) shows that folks spend 20-25 hours a week on “work”, including the getting of food, and 20 hours or so on household chores, including cooking. That study in the Philippines recorded a whopping 30 hours per week of daylight leisure time. Don’t buy a Hobbesian, colonial line about pre-agricultural/industrial society: it’s wrong. Today you learned!
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@Martín The East and West coasts of the U.S. were teaming with game, fish, and plants the natives cultivated in a variety of ways, including selective burning of forests to keep them productive. In northern California, for example, acorns, deer and abalone were among the staple food items.
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Rather than not having the time to gather food, all they had was time - to focus on the place that food represents in the connection each of us has to this earth we live on. The sacred act and power of gathering, cooking and eating was a central parting daily life. Original farm to table! Anyone agree?
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Thank you! I will cook several of these recipes for Thanksgiving!
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Thank you for this! I'll be trying out all the recipes in the coming weeks.
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Thank you!! With a part of my family being Choctaw- I really enjoyed and appreciated this! I attended a summer camp for native American children and we would gather nuts, flowers, berries etc and would cook then together. My favorite dish we made was fried Tiger Lilly.
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This article is also food and nourishment for my soul. Thank you.
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This is wonderful! Can't wait to try them out. I thank Sean for sharing the foods and his personal history. I had someone just mention if I ever had "Three Sisters" dish yesterday, and today I see the recipe. Amazing!
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Wonderful article! The chef's childhood memories are so touching and one can well imagine the landscapes! I deeply love Native-American culture(s) and am eager to learn more every day. Thank you for the links as well, leading to so much precious information. Native communities must be proud of their origins and should be more present in the overall US cultural panorama.
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This is a fascinating story. I love how he has researched other tribal diets. I'm encouraged to work on a more Indigenous diet.
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This article moved me so. Deeply thoughtful, beautifully written, wonderfully strange. Thank you.
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I learned something — even though I’ve studied Indian cultures, including cooking, all my life. Was always told that The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash, are a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) term. NEVER heard it used by Cherokees. Fascinating.
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@L.Tallchief - Generally, the Pueblos were and are involved in "three sisters" plantings. If you look at the indigenous seeds exchanges going on from around 1100 forward, you can see how the propagation moved. https://www.nps.gov/band/learn/historyculture/ancestral-pueblo-farming.htm . Current Pueblo agricultural departments within Hopi and to the south (Including Salt River and Pima/Tohono O'odham) provide additional agricultural information.)
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@L.Tallchief
As a member of the Cherokee Nation, let me let you in on a little known fact: The Cherokee *are* Iroquoian.
The Cherokee (both Oklahoma and North Carolina) and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee are the last of the southern branch of the Haudenosaunee-speaking tribes.
All three bands are culturally very similar to our cousins in New York. We have been cultivating the Three Sisters for thousands of years. Now you know.
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This was great from start to finish. Thank you.
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Excellent addition. May I recommend "Ethnobotany of the Hopi" by Whiting, as another element of research.
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Thank you for such a beautiful and rich article!
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Incredible article and incredible recipes! Indigenous cuisine deserves a bigger platform.
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@Grace Go to Oaxaca Mexico.
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