The Joy of Indigenous Food Sovereignty at NATIFS

For Linda Black Elk, food represents many memories of her late Korean-Mongolian mother.

“She was like a conservationist before anyone was a conservationist, and when you grow up having very little access to clean water or food, you really learn how to take care of your world,” she says. Linda speaks from her home in Dakota Makoce, or Minneapolis (as it is now called).

Part Korean and Mongolian, Linda inherited her love for foraging, hunting and cooking with Indigenous food sources from both of her parents. A culinary heritage she continues today in her work with North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), as Director of Education Programming and Community Outreach.

NATIFS is a nonprofit organisation founded by three-time James Beard Award-winning Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman, AKA The Sioux Chef. The organisation is dedicated to addressing the societal crises affecting Native communities with the vision of restoring and supporting Indigenous food practices and sovereignty. NATIFS collaborates with national organisations, such as the Seed Savers Exchange, and other Indigenous-owned food businesses, and creates recipes, training, and educational resources. Its regional hub, the Indigenous Food Lab (IFL), located in Minneapolis, produces grab-and-go, made-to-order Indigenous food and provides training in professional Indigenous cooking.

Joining the conversation is Rob Kinneen, a Tlingit Chef, who thrives in his work as the director of outreach while learning and experimenting with Indigenous foods at NATIFS. “I find it really fascinating how much of the indigenous knowledge is harmonious with the environment you’re in,” says Rob Kinneen, as he speaks from his home in Mebane, North Carolina. An Alaskan native and culinary professional with 20 years of experience, Rob serves as the Community Outreach Director and continually explores ways to advance Indigenous food practices.

For Indigenous people across the US, NATIFS is a place where they not only reconnect with their traditional roots but also learn about the future potential that Indigenous cultures hold.

A Culinary Heritage

Linda tells me that my facial features remind her of her mother’s.  And we effortlessly start bonding over the love for our mothers and their similar idiosyncrasies. She shares how she is processing the grief of her mother’s passing. For Linda, the love and care she puts into her Indigenous cuisines are directly inspired by her mother’s passion for cooking.

“Because my mom was so frugal and grew up very connected to the land, I didn't grow up with anything pre-made like those little containers at H Mart and stuff,” she says. For those who are unfamiliar, H Mart is a Korean grocery store chain operating in the United States. For anyone from the Korean diaspora (or with a love for Korean cuisine), H Mart is a haven filled with instant mood-lifting foods, albeit some of which are heavily processed

“My mom made all of those foods from scratch. She would say, ‘It (the store-bought food) doesn't taste as good, and it's too expensive.’ Too full of chemicals, she would say,” Linda’s laughter is warm and infectious as she looks back to those precious moments. You can tell she misses her mother’s quirks and resilient ways of living. “She had to leave Korea carrying the trauma of colonisation and genocide,” Linda shares, which explains the resourcefulness and unwavering positivity she possesses through her mother’s teaching.

Linda found NATIFS at just the right time. “I had been teaching at tribal universities for almost 25 years,” she shares. “And I just got exhausted. Maybe burnt out a bit for teaching at such a formal setting for so long.” Foraging and cooking were her passions, and she loved teaching these crafts. However, she was ready for a more creative outlet.

So Linda took a leap of faith with her long-term friend Sean Sherman, an internationally renowned Indigenous chef and author, who, according to Linda, also loves a good acronym. “I’m so grateful that my work is what I love. I love to teach, I love plants, and I get to teach about plants!” Linda beams with absolute joy.

While being a gifted educator, public speaker, and cook at NATIFS, she describes herself as a proud mother first.

“At times, I overhear my children sharing things like, ‘Oh, those are stinging nettles, and they’re anti-inflammatory!’ Or ‘Oh, I’ll give you my dad’s pesto recipe!’ My 9-year-old is on some of my (TikTok) videos because he loves talking about plants!”

Bringing Creativity into the Kitchen

“I've been working in restaurants since I was 14,” Rob Kinneen explains. “And I've probably learned more in the past three years doing this work (at NATIFS) because you're going to these extremely intense, traditional microclimates.”

Growing up mostly in Petersburg, Alaska, as a member of the Tlingit tribe, Rob never felt that his identity was well-represented in the small town of 3,000. The catalyst for change came when Rob met Jim Murphy, a skateboarding activist of Lenape descent, who utilises his skating brand, Nibwaakaawin, to move the Indigenous culture forward positively.

“Fortunately, I gained a lot of confidence in the kitchen. I may not drum or dance traditionally, but when there’s a disaster in the community, what do we do? We come together around food–chefs gather together and do a food benefit,” he says. Rob realised that the way he could honour and advance his Indigenous culture was through cooking.

“A lot of Indigenous values run through what I do professionally as a person.”

Growing up with the family’s traditional ways of preparing food, Rob has always been keenly aware of and fascinated by the abundance of raw food materials that Alaska has to offer. “My uncle made venison. My dad was a fisherman. Also, we were always bartering food. That sort of thing left a big impact on me,” Rob reminisces. “We've got a lot of beautiful proteins, forageable items and farm fresh produce here in Alaska,” he says with excitement.

In the culinary world, however, Rob witnessed another food perspective, one where trends can often dominate. “People brag about expensive cheese, selective meats. I thought to myself, ‘We have all those top ingredients right here in Alaska.’”

Rob crossed paths with NATIFS when he was working for the Western Governors’ Association, where he had to reimagine the Indigenous cuisines from Alaska, Montana, California and Arizona. He had reached out to the founder, Sean, to gain some insights into the compelling work that the organisation was doing. “I reached out to NATIFS, knowing this is the sort of thing that they do – researching Indigenous foods and reimagining them, and it sort of evolved into a job interview.” It turns out that Sean was already a fan of Rob’s creative Indigenous cooking videos.

NATIFS became the perfect place for Rob to imagine events, cuisines, and ways to move the culture forward. He loves the challenge of working with ingredients limited to those available locally. “It sounds limiting at first, but it becomes freeing and exciting, and you get really innovative food at the end.”

Cooking for a Community

Founded in 2017, NATIFS encompasses the Indigenous Food Lab, Indigenous Food Lab Market, and Owamni, Sean Sherman’s award-winning restaurant. During COVID, NATIFS focused on those who were struggling with a hunger relief programme, providing Indigenous meals to the unhoused and Native Elders living on tribal reservations.

“We have what we call a food kit program where we make these beautiful Indigenous food boxes, and we put recipes with them. ​​It's kind of like an Indigenous HelloFresh,” Linda explains. The ingredients come from Indigenous producers, and each box includes educational materials alongside the recipes, creating a holistic food experience. “As a result of colonisation, a lot of people have had the knowledge of cooking stolen from their lines, from their families,” she says. NATIFS food kits also include food preservation and preparation methods, nutritional facts, and even historical knowledge of ingredients, from cultivation to harvesting.

They also create cooking videos, “Like the Food Network,” Linda says. These videos include instructional videos on foraging, tea blends, and traditional medicine. Curious about how to break down a duck? Or perhaps cook a delicious wild rice porridge? Each video highlights regional species, local ingredients, and recipes. The Indigenous Food Lab is a professional kitchen and even teaches how to start and run a culinary business while hosting direct cooking classes and international workshops. Young people, Linda explains, are especially hungry for their cultural knowledge and excited to adopt environmentally friendly and healthy practices.

However, as the United States faces possible threats to their national parks and forested areas, concern floods many communities about the long-term effects on both the climate and food security.“I don't know what we're going to do because where those of us who harvest wild foods, where are we going to get our food if there are no wild spaces, you know?” Linda says.

But what’s good for one is good for all. Healthier, locally grown ingredients native to the region are not only more nutritious, they’re also better for the environment. “If everyone was working on growing their own food and if we were working on restoring green spaces, we would have way more plants for clean air,” Linda says.

“We're depleting our soil so quickly and so completely that we have to basically rebuild the soil every year just to grow a crop.”

However, relying on traditional forms of farming could hold the secret to better agricultural outcomes in general. She talks about the work of a Hopi farmer in the Southwestern United States who employs ‘dry land farming’ to grow the most beautiful 12-foot-tall corn without using any water.

And if we can reduce our water usage, then that’s one more incredible solution to climate change.

Embracing the Traditional, Promoting the Sustainable

Linda and Rob both agree that practising Indigenous food sovereignty is the most environmentally friendly and healthiest approach.

“Foods that are native to here don't require the herbicides and the pesticides and the fungicides and the fertilisers that these non-native crops like soybeans, for example, do,” Linda asserts. “When you have a healthier population, you have a population that cares more, right? People who are sick don't have time to worry about their consumption. Healthy people have more time and energy to care for the land.”

“Americans want their Caprese salads in January. Where do you get the tomatoes? And the cheese? So much of the food sources that come from different continents will lose their nutritional value by the time they get to our tables,” Rob explains. His words remind us that the most nutritious ingredients come from our direct surroundings.

To Linda and Rob, their work of rebuilding Indigenous food sovereignty is more than just work. It is the way of life that gives them deep fulfilment and joy.

Rob thrives on the mission-driven life he can lead at NATIF. “My mission and my work are to bring positivity to the native identity through cooking and moving the cultural markers forward. Also, I love the fact that I’m always on my toes, learning something new. I get to show people in a positive way that you can be an Indigenous chef.”

As an ethnobotanist, Linda understands the unique gifts that each living plant brings to Earth. “I try not to put myself up here and plants down here, right? Like dominion over all things. I don't believe in that stuff,” she says.

“Instead, I want to be in a relationship with plants.”