Presentation Title: The (R)evolution of Indigenous Foodways

A member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, Chef Sean Sherman was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His focus is on the revitalization and evolution of Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. Through his activism and advocacy, Sean is helping to reclaim and celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Indigenous communities around the world.

Sean has dedicated his career to supporting and promoting Indigenous food systems and Native food sovereignty. His goal is to make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through the non-profit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) and its Indigenous Food Lab, a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways, NĀTIFS imagines a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises.

In 2017, Sean published his first book with author Beth Dooley, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, which received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook in 2018. He is also the recipient of the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, Sean opened Minnesota’s first full service Indigenous restaurant, Owamni by The Sioux Chef, which received the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America for 2022. More recently, Chef Sean Sherman was honored as TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023 and in 2023 was named recipient of the ninth annual Julia Child Award for culinary activism, innovation.

Generous support for this presentation provided by the Ben and Jeanne Overman Distinguished Speaker Series with coordination from the Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities subcommittee and my office.