Documenting the Indigenous Food Movement Across North America

"The springtime heat was sweltering inside the 300-square-foot community seed bank in Unión Zapata, just outside Oaxaca, Mexico. The open door let in light and the occasional gust of wind on an otherwise still day. But neither Sean Sherman -the Oglala Lakota Sioux chef who's a three-time James Beard Award winner and the owner of the Indigenous-focused Minneapolis restaurant Owamni-nor I minded."

"We were mesmerized by the dozens of heirloom varieties of maize, beans, pumpkins, and quelites (wild greens) sitting in rows of glass jars. Even Sherman, who I assumed had seen it all after working for more than a decade to revitalize Native American foodways, was impressed to see a jar of amber-hued teosinte seeds, an all-important ancient grass thought to be the ancestral wild progenitor of corn."

"Sherman is leading a growing movement of Indigenous chefs, producers, land defenders, and other food-sovereignty warriors on a mission to safeguard Indigenous foodways and share them with the world. Joining him are people like chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache and Diné), who founded the Native American Culinary Association; chef Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo and Sac and Fox), the first Indigenous chef on Food Network's Chopped; and chef and TV personality Tawnya Brant (Haudenosaunee)."

Seed banks in Indigenous communities store dozens of heirloom varieties such as maize, beans, pumpkins, and quelites, preserving genetic diversity including teosinte, the wild progenitor of corn. Indigenous chefs, producers, and land defenders are organizing to reclaim and share ancestral foodways through restaurants, books, and culinary associations. Leaders like Sean Sherman, Nephi Craig, Crystal Wahpepah, and Tawnya Brant combine culinary excellence with cultural stewardship. Colonialism nearly erased many Native food traditions, techniques, and ingredients, prompting renewed efforts in food sovereignty, seed preservation, and public education to revitalize traditional diets and agricultural knowledge.

Read at Conde Nast Traveler