By Lee Egerstrom
Native food groups and their culinary experts are making Native and non-Native Minnesotans more aware of the healthy and environmental benefits of utilizing Indigenous foods while making them more presentable and delectable.
The effort to reconnect with Indigenous, or Native foods, has been underway since the opening of fresh markets in the spring for locally grown and historical foods. It is scheduled to continue through the Minnesota State Fair at the end of August and well past the fall harvests and foraging seasons.
Evidence of growing consumer interest in Indigenous foods was visible July 11 when the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) held a rescheduled open house celebration at its Four Sisters Farmers Market at 1414 E. Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis.
About 700 people gathered in NACDI’s parking lot for the Pow Wow Grounds coffee shop and All My Relations Gallery. It was a makeup celebration after a May rainout, said Destiny Jones (Ho-Chuck Nation), the Four Sisters Farmers Market manager.
The market runs every Thursday until Oct. 31. “This season has been great so far for market attendance,” she added. Attendance has been about double the numbers that gathered in past years at the mid-morning to mid-afternoon farmers market.
Historically, European colonizers learned about Indigenous foods that the Iroquois and other tribes called “the three sisters” – corn, beans and squash. The Minneapolis food market went with Four Sisters by saluting sunflowers in the mix, Jones aid. The Four Sisters’ new logo also includes wild rice “as it is often confused with a ‘sister.’ It is also such an important cultural touchstone for our tribes in Mni Sota,” she said. “We thought it deserved mention.”
Frequent vendors at the farmers market include Indigenous farmers and groups such as Dream of Wild Health, Growing Blue Flowers, Edible Arts MN, Wiishkoban, Gatherings Café, Rusty Patch Farm, Ninijaanis One of Ones and Botanical Atelier.
Wiishkoban (“it is sweet” in Ojibwe) is a Minneapolis-based honey, bees wax and sweetgrass vendor for Anna Cardon.
Efforts to raise awareness of Indigenous foods bring together several important players serving the Native populations in the Twin Cities metro area. Among them are:
• Pow Wow Grounds and Frybread Factory Food Truck
Robert (Bob) Rice, proprietor of the Pow Wow Grounds, has added something new to his outreach in purveying Indigenous foods. In May this year he added the Frybread Factory, a food truck that takes similar fare from Pow Wow Grounds out on the road.
This vehicle approach is new but his restaurant has been catering for groups and special events over the years.
Since he was a child, Rice and his White Earth Nation family members have harvested their own wild rice in annual treks “up north.” This supplies the wild rice he uses at the Pow Wow Grounds that he founded in 2011 and now at his food truck.
“This will be my 50th year (ricing),” he told The Circle.
He needs a good supply. The Pow Wow Grounds makes his own recipe of chicken wild rice soup all year around and now for road customers as well.
Wild rice is also important for other Pow Wow Grounds and Frybread Factory menu items. It is included in Rice’s “Prairie Dog” hotdogs wrapped in frybread, and is used in bratwurst and other ‘dog’ products.
Frybread Factory shows up at various events around the Twin Cities metro area. Rice was finalizing a schedule to attend several powwows around the state at the time of this writing.
• Indigenous Food Lab Market and Owamni
Another hot spot for Indigenous foods is inside the Midtown Global Market, 920 E. Lake Street in Minneapolis. The Indigenous Food Lab Market is open Monday through Saturday. The food lab is a professional kitchen and training center that aims to integrate Indigenous foods and education within North American tribal communities. It has classes on Native agriculture, farming techniques, seed saving, wild foods, ethnobotany, Indigenous medicines, and related health and cultural subjects.
This is another creation of highly recognized and awarded “Sioux Chef” Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota), who also founded the North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) nonprofit organization in Minneapolis and the Owamni Restaurant, 420 1st St. S., Minneapolis.
Owamni was opened in 2021 and used by Native chefs working with Indigenous foods and as a training site as well. NATIFS acquired it in September last year. That is explained as “paving the way for more hands-on training opportunities, guest chefs, Indigenous food R&D, and producer spotlights.” It likes to source is Indigenous food items from local Native producers.
While founded here, NATIFS also seeks to spread the word beyond the state. NATIFS explains it this way: “Reclamation of ancestral education is a critical part of reversing the damage of colonialism and forced assimilation, and food is at the heart of this reclamation. NĀTIFS will drive sustainable economic empowerment and prosperity into tribal areas through a reimagined North American food system that also addresses the health impacts of injustice.”
NATIFS works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a program seeking to improve health on Minnesota’s reservations through a food distribution program. Also, the Indigenous Food Lab unit is expanding out of state and is establishing similar labs in South Dakota, Montana and Alaska.
Sherman spreads his messages on Indigenous food sovereignty and health to receptive audiences around the country. He was a speaker and panel moderator in January at a first U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Food is Medicine” Summit in Washington, D.C.
