The Sioux Chef: Reclaiming Indigenous Food Systems and Promoting Food Sovereignty

“Where are all the Native American restaurants?” It’s a question Sean Sherman addressed during a viral TEDx Talk. Despite a diverse national food scene, it is not common to see the cuisine of the people whose land we are currently on. Ultimately, however, the conversation on the prevalence of Native American restaurants becomes more profound—it’s about reclaiming culture, connecting with land, promoting health equity, and supporting tribal sovereignty.

A 2023 Time 100 Most Influential Person, 2023 Julia Child Award winner, and three-time James Beard Award–winning Oglala Lakota chef, Sean Sherman is internationally known for his cooking style based on pre-colonial Indigenous food systems, using only ingredients that are native to North America. His cookbooks Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America and The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen have been praised by Robin Wall Kimmerer, José Andrés, LeVar Burton, and Jacques Pépin, to name a few.

Along with co-founding a restaurant in Minneapolis, Owamni, that focuses on Indigenous foods, Chef Sherman responded to the need for infrastructure to support Indigenous foodways across the United States, North America, and the globe. His nonprofit, NĀTIFS, and its Indigenous Food Lab, a professional Indigenous Kitchen and Training Center, are working to build and support an Indigenous infrastructure, create a center for Indigenous Education, and promote the creation and maintenance of healthy food access throughout Indigenous communities.

Moderating the conversation is Michael Shaikh, who has worked for nearly two decades as a human rights investigator, spending extensive time in conflict zones in Asia and the Middle East. He is the author of The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found, where he explores how the loss of culinary traditions can lead to the erasure of culture and identity.