Learn about Indigenous Cuisine and Foods from Native Chefs
This collection of documentaries and programs explores stories of Native chefs and communities uplifting their Indigenous cultures through traditional cuisine and foodways. You can also find recipes you can try at home and discussions of why food sovereignty is key to carrying on Indigenous cultures.
We share these stories because food can be a celebration of changing season, a salve for a hurting heart, and a whole family's history in one bite. Enjoy.
Native American Food Sovereignty, Explained
Today, many Native Americans live in food apartheid and insecurity. But it wasn't always this way.
What is an Indigenous Kitchen?
Uncover the resilient bond between Indigenous food sovereignty and Native foodways in this episode of Sovereign Innovations. Join Cheyenne Bearfoot and Chef Crystal Wahpepah as they explore ancestral wisdom, sustainable practices, and the revival of traditional recipes. Dive deep into the heart of Indigenous resilience and cultural preservation.
The Sioux Chef
Sean Sherman is an Oglala Lakota Sioux chef, cookbook author, forager, and promoter of indigenous cuisine. Sherman founded the indigenous food education business and caterer The Sioux Chef, as well as the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems. From KSPS PBS' Northwest Profiles.
Add to Your WatchListLearn about the Magic Eight
Santa Fe Native food historian and chef Lois Ellen Frank talk about eight special ingredients indigenous to the American continent: corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, and cacao. The "magic eight" were used in Indigenous foods long before contact with Europeans and were later introduced to the rest of the world.
Learn more in this episode of Colores from New Mexico PBS.
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Indigenous Foods
Explore various native foods and plants and learn how the Kumeyaay used them for meal preparation and medicinal purposes in their culture. From KPBS' Savor San Diego
Decolonizing Dinner
Decolonizing Dinner explores how reconnecting with traditional Indigenous foodways preserves heritage and identity, and counters the historical and contemporary erasure of Indigenous cultures. Featuring Cocinera Sujhey Beisser of Five Senses Palate, Chef Elena Terry of Wild Bearies, and Chef Anthony Gallarday of Tavo’s Signature Cuisine.
Add to Your WatchListHow This Indigenous Farmer Is Solving Food Insecurity
As climate chaos increases around the world, Michelle Week, a farmer outside of Portland Oregon is drawing on her Sinixt indigenous knowledge to adapt her farm to the changing seasons. By practicing techniques like seed saving and dry farming, Michelle is combating the increasing food security crisis while continuing to provide fresh food to her local community.
Add to Your WatchListAlter-NATIVE: Kitchen
From Independent Lens, check out a series that shows how cooking connects three Native chefs to their own histories, as they teach others with mouth-watering delicacies.
Add to Your WatchListIndigenous Food Activism
Since colonization, Native American rates of diabetes, blood pressure and heart disease have skyrocketed. We’ll discuss the benefits of returning to a simpler pre-colonization Native American diet, including herbs and plants that have been a source of medicine and nourishment for thousands of years.
Stream the conversation from Roots, Race, and Culture
Add to Your WatchListExplore recipes from Native America on PBS Food
Native America is a Native-directed series that features the experiences and stories of contemporary Indigenous people. Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on the the PBS App and you can explore the many digital exclusives and interactive features on the Native America website.
Explore these recipes and more on PBS Food.
Make Sassquash with chef Elena Terry
“SassSquash” is a dish conceptualized by chef Elena Terry, of the Ho-Chunk Nation, as a celebration of indigenous foodways and Wisc. ingredients. Terry learned from the matriarchs in her life, who shared lessons on foraging and processing wild game. Terry is the Executive Chef and Founder of Wild Bearies and the Food & Culinary Program Coordinator for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance.
From PBS Wisconsin's Wisconsin Life.
What is the Green Corn Ceremony?
Go inside the revival of an ancient Indigenous ritual with Ritual host Tarriona "Tank" Ball. Rooted in themes of renewal, gratitude, purification, and communal solidarity, the Green Corn Ceremony unites community members for spiritual cleansing, storytelling, dances, and songs. As participants partake in the preparation and consumption of freshly harvested corn, they express appreciation for the Earth’s abundance.
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