The founder
of The Sioux Chef, a company devoted to Indigenous foods, created
recipes to showcase tribal diversity across the lower 48 states.
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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Growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1970s, I
ran wild with my cousins through my grandparents cattle ranch,
over the hot, sandy South Dakota land of burrs and paddle cactus,
hiding in the sparse grasses and rolling hills. We raced over the
open plains, and through shelter belts of tall elm trees, the air
full of dust and sagebrush. Our dogs chased prairie dogs, pheasants,
grouse and antelope, and alerted us to rattlesnakes and jack rabbits.
In late summer, wed harvest chokecherries and timpsula, a
wild prairie turnip, and pick juniper berries off the prickly trees.
We camped in the Badlands, sleeping under the stars, and gathered
in our familys rustic log cabin deep in the Black Hills.
Back then, there were no restaurants on Pine Ridge, just one grocery
store and a couple of gas stations dotting the immense reservation.
Our kitchen cupboards were stocked with government commodity food
staples canned fruit, canned meat, powdered milk, bricks
of yellow government-issued cheese, and dry cereals and oats packaged
in white cardboard boxes with black block lettering.
Luckily, we also had the birds we hunted, beef from the ranch and
eggs from the chickens my grandmother raised. As members of the
Oglala Lakota Oyate, part of the Great Sioux Nation, we took part
in many celebrations and gatherings like powwows, sun dances, birthdays,
weddings, naming ceremonies and cattle brandings, and our moms,
aunts and female cousins cooked up contemporary and traditional
dishes, like taniga, the Lakota intestine soup with timpsula. The
sweet aroma of simmering wojape, the Lakota chokecherry dish, time-warps
me back to my 6-year-old self.
I often think of my great-grandfather, who was born in the late
1850s and grew up like any other Lakota boy, riding horses bareback
to hunt with a bow and arrow. At the age of 18, he witnessed the
Lakota and Cheyenne victory against the United States government
at the Battle of the Little Bighorn; he also encountered the aftermath
of the Wounded Knee massacre, where hundreds of Lakota men, women
and children were viciously slaughtered.
Later, his children were forced into boarding schools, forbidden
to speak their Native language, required to learn English and to
become Christians. Through the 20th century, these harsh efforts
at assimilation began to erase thousands of generations of Indigenous
traditions, wisdom and ceremonies.
As soon as I was 13 and legally eligible to work, I got my first
job, at a steakhouse in Spearfish, S.D. I knew a little about cooking:
As the oldest child of a busy working mom, I was often the one who
got dinner on the table for my sister and me. I swept floors, bussed
tables, washed dishes, prepped food and eventually became a line
cook. In college, I picked up work with the United States Forest
Service as a field surveyor, identifying plants and trees in the
northern Black Hills, and learning their medicinal and culinary
properties.
Through my career as a professional chef, opening restaurants and
cafes in Minneapolis, I gained experience cooking Italian, Spanish
and other European cuisines. But it wasnt until I spent time
in Mexico, observing how closely Indigenous people live to their
culinary traditions, that I realized I had very little idea of what
my own ancestors ate before colonization.
So I began to research the history of our land before the Europeans
arrived. How did my Indigenous ancestors grow, hunt, fish and then
preserve and store their food? Who did they trade with, and where
did they obtain their salts, fats and sugars? I met with community
elders and connected with Native chefs, historians and academics,
such as the ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner, and the Lakota author
Joseph Marshall III, while also discovering rare historical accounts
like Buffalo Bird Womans Garden, the memories
of a 19th-century Hidatsa farmer who lived in what is now North
Dakota.
[Read
more about how Sean Sherman came to understand the foods of his
heritage.]
In piecing together so much of the story that has been lost, I
learned that the original North American food system was based on
harvesting wild plants for food and medicine, employing sophisticated
agricultural practices, and on preserving seed diversity. My ancestors
used all parts of the animals and plants with respect, viewing themselves
as part of our environment, not above it. Nothing was wasted.
There are 573 federally recognized
tribes in the United States alone, and 634
First Nations Aboriginal groups in Canada. About
one in five Mexicans identifies as a member of an Indigenous group,
according to recent figures from the Mexican government.
In 2014, I started a business, The Sioux Chef, with a focus on
identifying, sharing and educating people on the authentic Indigenous
foods of North America, from Mexico to Alaska, with dishes free
of the colonial ingredients Europeans introduced: wheat flour, dairy,
cane sugar and even beef, pork and chicken.
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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Our team connected with Indigenous chefs, farmers, seed keepers,
academics and leaders to create menus for feasts that we served
in tribal communities. We worked with Indigenous chefs on the West
Coast who use wild manzanita berries and acorn to add tang and substance
to berry compotes and puddings. We obtained seaweed from Maine to
season Atlantic oysters, and white cedar in Duluth, Minn., for a
venison roast. Elders tell us they havent tasted these flavors
since childhood.
Make no mistake: This is not survival fare. These are bright, bold,
contemporary flavors for todays palate.
The Times asked me to choose dishes that, viewed together, form
a portrait of Native American food in the United States. The
10 recipes here reflect my teams work over the past five
years, traveling across the country and working in tribal communities.
I am not interested in recreating foods from 1491 rather,
I hope to celebrate the diversity that defines our communities now.
And so these recipes offer a glimpse into the range of dishes Indigenous
chefs and cooks are making today, and highlight ingredients from
the regions they reflect.
For example, in the recipe here from the Pacific Northwest
home of many Indigenous groups, including the Muckleshoot tribe
blackberries add an assertive tang that cuts through the
rich flavors of the salmon that has sustained communities there
for generations. The contrasting colors are stunning. These two
iconic regional and seasonal foods seem so right together.
Through this work, I have become increasingly aware of how much
food and history surrounding us goes unnoticed. The greens typically
called weeds that get ripped out of backyards make a delicious salad
and can be a bold garnish think of purslane, or wood sorrel.
A sprig or two of cedar adds zing and aroma to braised meat and
game, as in the bison pot roast with hominy, flavors from the Dakota
plains.
The true foods of North America may not be available at every grocery
store or even online, and they are not coming from industrial farms:
They are seasonal and vary from region to region. To experience
true Indigenous foods is to explore the many different ecosystems
of plants and animals wherever you are. In many of these recipes,
I offer substitutions, but hope readers will want to experiment
with true regional ingredients, sustainably harvested.
Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, known for their thriving food
cultures, have zero Native American restaurants that represent the
same land they are built on. My team and I are working tirelessly
toward the day we will be able to drive across this continent in
any direction, stopping at Indigenous restaurants and experiencing
all the richness of the varied original American cultures.
The 10 Essential Recipes
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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1.
Bison Pot Roast With Hominy
The American bison that once roamed the Great Plains were considered
sacred animals by the Lakota and other people of the region, and
served as a critical food source that was celebrated in ceremonies
and honored in prayers. According to numbers published by the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service, there were 30 million to 60 million
bison in North America in the 1500s. By the end of the 1800s, settlers
had decimated the population. In the late 1990s, the number of bison
in North America had grown again, to nearly 300,000 animals in public
herds and on ranches. Its exciting we now have access to this
vitally important meat. When its slowly braised, the lean,
mild bison becomes fork tender; hominy brings substance and a subtly
sweet, nutty corn flavor. A small branch of foraged white cedar
adds a woodsy note, but juniper berries achieve a similar effect.
(View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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2.
Roasted Turnips and Winter Squash With Agave Glaze
Traditionally, this dish, also from the Great Plains, would include
timpsula, the wild turnip that grows in patches across the region.
(Old Lakota harvesting stories tell of how the timpsula point the
forager from one plant to the next.) In Lakota homes, the turnips
are often braided and dried for use throughout the winter. Unless
you live in the region, fresh timpsula is difficult to come by,
as its not sold commercially. Its also milder and slightly
denser than the garden turnips weve substituted in this traditional
pairing. The agave glaze adds a touch of sweetness to the vegetables,
and the toasted sunflower seeds add crunch. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
|
3.
Roast Turkey With Berry-Mint Sauce and Black Walnuts
The flavor of heritage turkey breeds is richer and more pronounced
than that of commercial turkeys sold at supermarkets nationwide.
Put plainly, these breeds taste more like turkey. Heritage birds
are raised outside, pecking at a varied diet. They tend to have
meatier thighs and smaller breasts, and a higher ratio of dark meat
to white meat. The Onondaga tribe, among others from the Northeastern
United States, would have been able to serve them with forest berries,
perking up the rich, dark meat with color and flavor. Sparked with
mint, this berry sauce is bright and fruity, with just enough acid
to complement the richness of the turkey. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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4.
Tepary Beans With Chile-Agave Glaze
The small tepary beans that grow in the harsh, dry American Southwest
are an heirloom variety that has been cultivated and harvested wild
by countless generations of Native people in the region. The Diné
(more commonly known as the Navajo) seed savers even protected them
during the Long Walk of 1864, a brutal forced march to eastern New
Mexico, hiding the beans in their clothing. This is an amazing bean
that can withstand and even prosper in the most extreme heat and
drought. The white variety I use here is slightly sweet and nutty,
while the brown variety has an earthier flavor. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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5.
Rocky Mountain Rainbow Trout With Trout Eggs
Whole trout makes for a stunning presentation, especially when it
is topped with delicate pink roe, which sparkles like gems on top
of the fish and imparts a salty, mineral flavor. Trout from the
icy Rocky Mountain streams are at their best in late spring, when
the ice has just melted. Cooks from the Shoshone tribe, among many
others, make delicious meals using the entire fish, wasting nothing:
Cheeks and eyes are considered a delicacy, as is the roe harvested
from the females, which is prized for its distinct flavor and its
relationship to renewal. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
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6.
Chia Pudding With Berries and Popped Amaranth
Based on flavors from the Ohlone tribe, this simple pudding doubles
as both breakfast and dessert, and gets its silky texture from chia
seeds. Though optional, the wild manzanita berries that grow abundantly
throughout California make a wonderful addition to this dish. When
the berries are ripe, they turn a burned-red hue and become slightly
sticky. The flavor is often likened to sour apple, which adds a
nice tang when crushed with milder mixed berries, though any combination
of mixed berries lends plenty of acidity. Toasted amaranth seeds
gives it all a nutty crunch. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
|
7.
Seared Salmon With Crushed Blackberries and Seaweed
A traditional staple on the Pacific Northwest coast, salmon is considered
a sacred food. This dish is often slow-roasted on cedar or redwood
spikes near an open fire, giving the fish a beautiful smoky flavor.
In the kitchen, searing the salmon in a skillet allows the true
flavor of wild-caught fish to shine through. Seaweed harvesting
goes back countless generations, and so the salty seaweed is a great
accompaniment here, along with the sweet local blackberries, a combination
that is natural for the Muckleshoot and other tribes of the region.
(View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
|
8.
Wild Rice and Berries With Popped Rice
As delicious simmered until tender as it is popped until puffy and
crisp, real hand-harvested wild rice, available from a few vendors
online, is unlike any commercial paddy rice. Nutty and woodsy, it
cooks in half the time of commercial wild rice and tastes of the
piney forests and clear northern lakes. In the Anishinaabe language,
wild rice is manoomin, or good berry, and
is served at many ceremonies in the Great Lakes region, from holiday
celebrations to weddings and funerals. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
|
9.
Three Sisters Bowl With Hominy, Beans and Squash
There are quite a few legends within various Indigenous communities
involving the three sisters: corn, bean and squash. The ancient
and advanced farming techniques from the Cherokee and so many other
tribes throughout the East Coast yielded countless strains of these
ingredients, in many sizes, colors and flavors. These diverse seeds
are not only a direct connection to the past, but a symbol of resistance
to the destruction of our cultures. This recipe showcases the simplicity
of these flavors. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
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Credit...Marcus
Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
|
10.
Crawfish and Shrimp Pot With Spiced Sweet Potatoes
Plentiful throughout the Gulf Coast, crawfish and shrimp are Choctaw
staples and traditional seasonings like filé, the spice ground
from dried sassafras bark, and spicy chiles are a perfect accompaniment.
Here, the crustaceans rest on a bed of spicy sweet potatoes, in
a dish that calls back to traditional feasts and community gatherings.
The sassafras adds a grassy, slightly sour note, and the berries
bring more color and tang. You can vary the shellfish depending
on the season and your locale in this festive dish, which is easily
doubled to serve a crowd. (View
this recipe in NYT Cooking.)
Beth Dooley assisted in developing the recipes for this feature.
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