Part 7: Moving Forward
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1.The Sioux Chef (Dakota Cuisine in
Minneapolis)
Culture
& Dinner Time
The winner of the 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook,
went, for the first time, to a cookbook that was, finally, truly
America.
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The cookbook was also named one of the best cookbooks of the year by
NPR, The Village Voice, Smithsonian Magazine, UPROXX, New York
Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Mpls/St. Paul Magazine and others.
Sean began hosting pop-up dinners around his adopted hometown of
Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2012, using foraged ingredients like
sunflowers, milkweed and sage. After finessing his craft – and writing
a successful cookbook – he finally decided to up the ante, opening
Owamni, a modern Indigenous restaurant.
Sean Sherman, grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota and
his restaurant is an extension of his philosophy of decolonizing
cuisine, which involves learning how to cook the food of his Lakota
ancestors. Recipes reflect his heritage as well as the natural
history of our continent.
His main culinary focus has been on the revitalization and awareness of
indigenous foods systems in a modern culinary context. Sean has
studied on his own extensively to determine the foundations of these
food systems which include the knowledge of Native American farming
techniques, wild food usage and harvesting, land stewardship, salt and
sugar making, hunting and fishing, food preservation, Native American
migrational histories, elemental cooking techniques, and Native culture
and history in general to gain a full understanding of bringing back a
sense of Native American cuisine to today’s world.
Not you average Cookbook, or your average Restaurant.
His establishment, which opened in July 2021 and won the James Beard
award for best new restaurant the following year, is a rich education
and delectable introduction to modern indigenous cuisine of the Dakota
and Minnesota territories, His a vision and approach to food that
travels well beyond those borders. It decolonizes cuisine.
The 80-seat establishment, , offers anew version of fine
dining.constitutes upscale fare. One won’t find ribeye steaks or
deconstructed crème brûlées and other staples of “Americam Cuisine.”
That has been replaced with selections such as wild game tartare topped
with duck egg aioli and pickled carrots, maple baked beans and chewy
wild rice dotted with foraged currants and rosehip.
The food served at Owamni – the traditional Indigenous name for the
site where the restaurant is located – is made without flour, dairy,
cane sugar, pork or any other ingredients that were introduced to the
North American continent after Europeans showed up in the 16th century.
It has been an unqualified success, and is part of an important trend.
According to the US Census Bureau, there were an estimated 24,433
Native American- and Alaska Native-owned businesses in 2018.
The Sioux Chef team works to make indigenous foods more accessible to
as many communities as possible. To open opportunities for more people
to learn about Native cuisine and develop food enterprises in their
tribal communities, we founded the nonprofit North American Traditional
Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) and are working to launch the first
Indigenous Food Lab restaurant and training center in Minneapolis.
Sources
The Sioux Chef’s Owamni restaurant wows critics –
The Guardian - Isabel Stone
Sean Sherman, founding chef and co-owner of Owamni restaurant.
Photograph: Nate Ryan/The Guardian
2. Seeds of Knowledge
Excerpts
from and article by Jay Whetter THE NARWHAL
Eugene
Ross harvests sage at Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. His
grandmothers would spend summer and fall gathering food in preparation
for winter.
MIKAELA
MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Eugene Ross is an elder at Wipazoka Wakpa Oyate, literally “Saskatoon
river people,” the Dakota name for Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.
The lower level of his home is filled with wicker basket of roots,
stacks and layers of Dakota artifacts: framed photographs, clothing and
beadwork. It’s a veritable Museum. A particular focus of Eugenes’s is
food. The food that Dakota people have been gathering from the land for
centuries. Not just the nature of the sustenance but, where to find it,
and the knowledge of each items special properties.
Seneca root he decribes as “Our Tylenol back in the day,” His extensive
collection includes, wild turnips, peppermint, sage, sweetgrass, dried
wild plums, rat root, elk medicine flower, wild onion and numerous
examples of starches and fruit, vitamins and antioxidants, all from the
grasslands. Many of us who, like myself grew up on a farm. Have walked
by these plants without knowing what they were.
After half an hour in the basement, Ross puts on a straw hat encircled
with a wide band of maple leaves and leads me outside. He grabs a
gardening fork, takes 10 steps and stops. He sticks his fork in the
ground and digs up a few tiny plants nestled in the grass. The
15-centimetre plants have thin stems, white flowers and
jelly-bean-sized bulbs. I don’t know the plant. “Wild onion,” Ross
says. I give it a sniff.
It smells like … onion.
I had bought pipe tobacco from a store in Brandon, and though I didn’t
tell Ross I had it, he must have noticed the pouch poking out of my
shirt pocket.
“You can put some tobacco here,” he tells me, pointing to the hole left
after removing the onion. I take a pinch and sprinkle it on the ground.
I’m not sure I’m doing it right, but Ross doesn’t correct me. It feels
like I’ve climbed a step on the mountain, paying respect for what the
land provides. I am learning.
Ross knows the plants of the Prairies. He knows the history. He tells
me his grandmothers, the “keepers of the lodge,” spent all summer and
fall gathering food in preparation for winter. “They had their own
system that never failed them,” he says. He is now the lodge keeper.
The people living near him “don’t have any Indian things in their
houses,” he says. When they want wild sage, they ask him to pick it
instead of learning how to do it themselves. It’s been a challenge, he
admits.
Sarah Carter, in her book Lost Harvests, writes about the useful
knowledge that First Nations people had: “Their highly specialized
empirical knowledge of nature approached a science. They were aware of
the vegetation in their environment, and they knew when and how to
harvest it. They were much better informed on rainfall and frost
patterns, on the availability of water, and on soil varieties than
settlers from the East and overseas who were to follow.”
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Eugene
Ross’s basement is a trove of Dakota treasures and artifacts.
MIKAELA
MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Ross
unties a willow basket full of braided wild turnips in his basement.
MIKAELA
MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
LEAH
HENNEL / THE NARWHAL
Eugene
Ross’s grandmother, Margaret Williams, taught him everything he knows
about traditional teachings and practices.
Jay Whetter is a Canadian farm journalist with 25 years of experience.
Jay grew up on a farm near Dand, Man., and lives in Kenora. Jay is on
the board of Science Writers and Communicators of Canada and is a
member of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, which he says are rich
and rewarding communities of communicators.
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There are many aspects to reconciliation. It begins with understanding
and acknowledging history, understanding colonialism, and working
together to overcome issues stemming from the past.
On another level, reconciliation must involve changes in governance,
responsibility for public policy, and movement on Land Claims.
Historically, First Nations in Canada have been subject to the Indian
Act and policies of the Department of Indian Affairs, which has led to
detrimental impacts and interference with the progress of First Nation
communities.
Two Canadian Dakota Nations have made history recently.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation - Self Government
The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, as a result of the passage of Bill
C-16, followed by passing a similar statute by the Province of
Manitoba, became self-governing on July 1, 2014. This will
provide Sioux Valley with the opportunity to remove itself from the
constraints of the Indian Act by beginning to pass laws, and
be a recognized government by Canada and Manitoba.
By creating its own governance based on Dakota traditions, SVDN will be
recognized through agreements negotiated with Canada and Manitoba as a
government pursuant to the SVDN Constitution of the People. These
agreements were negotiated over 21 years with the contributions of many
Elders, members and leaders. The agreements were initialed by the
negotiators on June 28, 2011 to end the negotiation process, and on
October 4, 2012, a majority of eligible voters from SVDN voted in favor
of accepting the SVDN Governance Agreements.
This approval established SVDN as the only recognized First Nation
government east of British Columbia and west of Quebec.
Furthermore, SVDN is the only Dakota Nation Government, the only First
Nation Government with a Tripartite Agreement with a province in
Canada, and one of only three single First Nation governments with
recognized law making jurisdiction.
This will provide Sioux Valley with the opportunity to remove itself
from the constraints of the Indian Act by beginning to pass
laws, and be a recognized government by Canada and Manitoba.
Adapted from the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation website:
https://svdngovernance.com/governance/a-self-governing-dakota-nation/
Whitecap Dakota First Nation - Treaty People
On May 3, 2023 CBC News reported that Whitecap Dakota First Nation
signed an historic treaty with Canada. Dakota members were formally
(and finally) recognized as Indigenous peoples in Canada.
This comes after a decade of negotiations and centuries of being
unrecognized as Indigenous people of this country. The First Nation in
Saskatchewan says it's the first Dakota nation to sign a treaty in
Canada.
"It's just a step at a time, but this is a very positive day for our
ancestors, our people and our future generations," said Whitecap Dakota
Chief Darcy Bear in an interview, minutes after he signed the document
in Ottawa.
The agreement not only acknowledges and describes the First Nation's
inherent right to self governance, but also formally recognizes the
community as Indigenous people of Canada under the constitution.
When treaties were signed in the 1800s in Saskatchewan, Whitecap's
chief was there, but wasn't invited to sign. The First Nation has been
unceded until Tuesday.
"When you're not being recognized in a country you helped create
… it was totally wrong. We should have never been denied that
right," he said.
"To us, it is reconciliation."
The agreement makes Whitecap Dakota the first and only
self-governing First Nation in Saskatchewan. The First Nation
has been negotiating with Ottawa for self-governance since
2009.
It already has autonomy in areas such as land management and
membership, but this agreement now allows the community to move
away from the Indian Act as much as it wants.
Source:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/whitecap-dakota-first-nation-self-governing-saskatchewan-1.6829736
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