WEBVTT - Indigenous Foodways: The Decolonized Diet 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.840 The revival of our languages was a model for the 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.400 revival of our foods. How possible it is to have 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.760 aspects of our culture that were experienced by our living 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.360 elders and by our elders who are recorded, but then 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:14.440 being able to bring them out of that memory and 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.239 making them lived experiences. Our foods are very similar. This 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:21.800 is all done because of love, love that we share 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.720 both for one another and for our cultures, for our families. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:31.360 It's all part of that momentum. Welcome back to Point 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:40.760 of Origin Episode twenty, Indigenous food Ways. It is impossible 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:45.440 to have a podcast, or a magazine, or even really 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.760 a point of view at all on food origins without 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:55.760 first centering Native communities. Today's guest represent a cross section 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.400 of the indigenous food communities of North America, from the 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.920 kitchen to the media. We begin with Seawan Sherman, who 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.039 goes by the moniker of Sue Chef, which is also 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.880 the name of his award winning cookbook of the same title. 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.360 Sean is unquestionably the most visible Native American chef of 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.759 the United States. He was raised on the Pine Ridge 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.360 Reservation in South Dakota, and after becoming a chef in 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.520 his twenties, he quickly came to the realization that he 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.319 wanted to cook the food of his own ancestors and 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.840 shifted his cuisine from European cooking to that of his 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:36.959 Lakota ancestry. Now, with the creation of the Indigenous Food 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:41.440 Lab in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sherman is leading the development of 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:45.640 a restaurant, educational and training center that will further his 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:50.280 mission of reintegrating native foods into tribal communities and diets 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:56.480 throughout North America. Here, Sean, I grew up on Pine 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.880 Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, so I'm actually enrolled with 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.800 Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe there. UM So I spent most 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.200 of my youth on Pine Ridge Reservation, and I did 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.720 high school and college in Spearfish, South Dakota, which is 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.880 in the Black Hills, and then I moved to Minneapolis, 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.800 which is where I currently am today. And what was 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:20.520 your experience like growing up on a reservation? Oh, you 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.360 know the Pineers Reservation. I think it's the third largest 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.160 reservation in the US. UM it's a lot of land space, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.440 so it takes up a huge chunk of southern South Dakota. UM. 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.920 The landscape is kind of rolling hills, kind of sparse grasses, 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.400 so though. UM. And we're also really close to the 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:38.080 Black Hills too, which is you know, kind of the 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.600 spiritual center for Lakota. You know. Pine Ridge is also 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.000 has been the poorest area of the United States ever 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.720 since its inception, pretty much, so you know, sevent of 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.200 the population living in poverty or so making less than 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.360 six thousand dollars for the entire household. UM. And we 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.079 saw a lot of issues for those of us who 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.239 are unfamiliar. What would you want people to know about 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.920 the Oglala Lakota UM. You know, the Oglala and the 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.600 and the Lakota UM, all the groups UM in general, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.240 it's a pretty large group. There's quite a few different 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.960 Lakota tribes across South Dakota UM in that region. UM 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.440 and here in Minnesota, you know, are our relatives, the 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.360 Duck Kota live out this way. A lot of the 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.880 work that we do is really just raising awareness to 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.480 some of the histories of these places, because you know, 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.600 I wasn't really I wasn't researching ancient history. This was 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.560 just my great grandfather's era when all of this harsh 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.800 change was happening to my family. And you know, it's 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.080 very there's very similar stories out there from many different 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.600 tribes and many different families all across the US. And 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.280 I got my first executive chef position in Minneapolis when 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.360 I was pretty young. I was only like twenty barely 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.600 twenty seven or something like that. And as a chef 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:53.840 in the city, I had access to all sorts of 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:55.680 great food and there's a lot of great culture around, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.200 so I learned a lot of different styles of cuisines 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.320 um and then I one day just realized, you know 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.360 that I knew very little about my own ancestry and 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.200 my own heritage food. Could you know, name hundreds of 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.480 European recipes and only a handful of Lakota recipes that 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.120 I felt, you know, weren't tarnished or didn't have the 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:21.160 influence of European colonizers in the recipes. So it really 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.559 and plus, you know, just looking around like there was nothing, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:25.520 like there was no you can find food from all 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.040 over the world, but no restaurants that represented the land 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:32.719 that we're standing on. And that's kind of the status 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.600 quote today. You know, you have giant cities like Manhattan, Chicago, 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.360 l a zero Native American restaurants you know, in those 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.960 in those metropolis and it's like that across the way. 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.400 So it shot me on a path to really understand 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.600 like what were my Lakota ancestors eating, and how are 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.120 they preserving and storing foods and what kind of herbs 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:58.080 and plants were they collecting. You know, today we really 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.080 focus on North America, so we look at North American 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.320 traditional food systems and really try to understand the diversity 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.800 that sits out there and all these beautiful lessons that 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.840 we can learn from Indigenous knowledge of how to live 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.800 sustainably in our regions and how they live sustainably in 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.920 their regions utilizing primarily plant knowledge. When it came down 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.320 to it, it's an immense amount of stuff to study 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.760 and to learn and bring back and help strengthen them 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.120 through their own traditional foods. There's just so much health there. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.200 Hearing you talk about your your path to becoming u 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.160 S chef, it's a story that is very reminiscent of 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:40.279 chefs that we hear from marginalized groups, from people of color, 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.479 and from other members of Native communities. And it's a 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.279 really beautiful moment that we're in and I and I 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.119 often do refer to this momentum in our work because 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.760 it comes up so frequently when you are thinking about 0:05:55.920 --> 0:06:01.000 or talking about decolonizing your food, presenting cuisine that is 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.640 really a pre colonial cuisine. Why is that such a 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.800 central part of the narrative for you? And why is 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.320 that such an important part of of what you're bringing 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.520 forth in your work? You know, I mean there's a 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.720 lot to that question, of course, UM, And a lot 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.400 of our work was just discovering what happened in history, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.680 like how did we lose so much knowledge? You know, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.159 because I look at you know, my life one years 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.600 prior to my birth, UM in eighteen seventy four, all 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.600 of my Lakodd ancestors still had a hundred percent of 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:36.040 their indigenous knowledge and education intact. So like, why why 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.719 did we lose so much in such a short amount 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.720 of time? UM? Was kind of the question I started 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.920 asking and really researching that, UM and seeing the beauty 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.360 and the diversity of it, because you know, even though 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.720 our sites are set on understanding North American cuisines and 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:55.159 food systems from Mexico through Alaska, really the work resonates 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.479 on a global scale because you know, Indigenous families from 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.800 everywhere from South America, from Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.880 New Zealand, Hawaii, you know, went through a very similar 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.880 history of being colonized and the loss and the damage 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.120 of their indigenous knowledge. That dismantling of these cultures, you know, 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.080 as is harsh. Having that history of surviving, you know 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.760 so well and in these different diverse regions, utilizing what's 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.679 around them, and how we can apply that in today's world. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.040 One of the things that we did was to you know, 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.680 remove colonial ingredients and try to really focus on regional flavors. 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.240 So cutting out things like dairy and wheat flour and 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.000 cane sugar and beef, pork and chicken because those ingredients 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:39.920 didn't exist in some of our and most of our 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.440 regions not that long ago. We chose to only cook 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.480 with this healthy indigenous food based. We only make healthy food, 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.840 you know. You know, so cutting out fried bread, for example, 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:51.600 was just kind of a statement of saying, you know 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.320 that peace has been integrated into our indigenous communities and 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:56.840 it's something that we love, but it's also not very 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.360 good for us. And there's so much more to explore, 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:01.920 so much diversity that we should be exploring and not 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.280 allowing this one piece to identify us when in reality 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.720 it has very little to do with us. Historically, you 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:13.760 mentioned something that is astonishing and I think bears repeating, 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.800 which is that in major metropolitan cities in the US, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.440 like Chicago, like New York, Uh, there are no Native 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:26.400 American restaurants. Tell me about your restaurant, how it came 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:31.400 to fruition, and what your hopes are for it. Well, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.319 this very first restaurant that we're preparing to open this 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.679 year is called Indigenous Food Lab, and it's a part 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.280 of our nonprofit we created a few years ago. So 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.839 we started a nonprofit called Natives dot org, which is 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:47.360 an acronym for North American Traditional Indigenous food Systems, and 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.760 through that UM we created this brand, Indigenous Food Lab. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.160 So Indigenous Food Lab is a five O one C 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.480 three restaurant concept where the public will be able to 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.040 come in and try a lot of creative indigenous foods 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.760 that will be able to offer UM. But really it 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.000 was about creating a space where we can have a 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.880 classroom and be able to teach UM. The just have 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.600 the offer create an you know, accessible indigenous education. So 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.040 we want to be able to teach about Native American 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.080 agriculture and seat saving and farming and wild food and 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:24.560 ethnobotany and plant identification, medicinals, culinary applications, food preservation, language arts, 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.239 history crafting, and just create a really safe and accessible 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:33.480 space for that Indigenous focused education and UM utilizing this 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.280 education and training center UM to work directly with tribal 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.800 communities in our vicinity and help them to develop their 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.040 own healthy indigenous kitchen that's particular to their tribe and 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.880 their community and their history and their land and region 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.200 UM and being a support system for them. Knowing how 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.920 hard food service operations can be, but creating that food 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.720 access in these much needed communities where sometimes these small 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.040 communities can have upwards to sixty type two diabetes because 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.880 of their food access situation and surviving off a commodity 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.440 food program and things like that. And our hopes and 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.320 goals are to replicate this entire process and open up 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.440 indigenous food labs and urban areas all around the entire 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.120 nation to help UM and work with tribal communities and 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:21.839 its vicinity and help strengthen those communities through food. Why 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.360 do you think it is that we have not seen 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.640 more Native American restaurants open in this country. It's just 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.880 the history of how indigenous people have been treated. Of course, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.760 so you look at um. You know, if you read 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.560 a book like An Indigenous People's History the United States 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.440 by Rock sand dunbar Or, it's you know, she um 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.240 walks through those histories really carefully and thoroughly, and it 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.840 talks about how much damage was done throughout the entire 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:50.880 eighteen hundreds. You know, you look at the start of 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.680 the eighteen hundreds where what the United States was was 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.160 a very young government and country. But we see this 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.080 massive push through the eighteen hundreds and this massive of 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.840 loss of indigenous land and culture, and we see a 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:06.440 huge and horrible atrocities happening. In genocide is happening. You know, 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.600 there's bounty systems on indigenous people's you know, California has 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.480 got an extremely ugly history, Minnesota's got an ugly history. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.920 But it's kind of like that across the board. And 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.880 then we see the nineteen hundreds, after the reservation systems 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:22.160 are set and assimilation and dismantling of indigenous cultures of 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.680 all across our nation. We weren't even American citizens until 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.840 the nineteen twenties. UM, we couldn't celebrate our own religion 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:31.720 until the nineteen seventies. We weren't able to vote until 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.920 the nineteen sixties, right, and just so much poverty was 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.480 created through these reservation systems. So we just crawled out 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.560 of that of the nineteen hundreds um and into the 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.400 two thousands, where we're seeing a lot more Indigenous youth 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:49.080 being empowered and becoming highly educated, and becoming highly skilled 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.760 and being able to raise awareness to these stories. And 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.880 you know, we're going to see a lot more Indigenous 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.840 presence um and a lot more understanding of our history 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:07.000 as times forward is kind of what we see. You know, 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.920 if there's five seventy six tribes in the US six 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.280 Center in twenty two in Canada, I think, and you 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:18.400 know of Mexico identifies as indigenous, and there's just a 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:23.560 lot of indigenous cultures and diversity still alive today. And 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.800 you know, with indigenous diversity, we can really showcase what 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:31.240 true regions are, true North American flavors are. And you 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.360 look at the European diet and it's so limited and 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.720 its plant diversity, and there's so much more that we 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.440 can add to our diets by and really truly understand 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.599 the landscape that we're on in North America by absorbing 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.680 some of these past knowledge bases. So it's really important 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:49.760 that could just continue on this path and we continue 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.200 to grow, and we're hoping as we open up these 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:58.360 indigenous restaurants that we really make a change. We want 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.880 to see a future where Indigenous kids in the future 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.560 will grow up having access to their foods, knowing exactly 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.000 what they are, knowing the names of those foods in 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.040 their language, is how they feel when they eat those 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.920 foods compared to some fast foods. We just feel like 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.520 if you can control your food, you can control your future, 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.839 just like our ancestors used to. And there's going to 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.240 be a lot of strength and empowerment um and being 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:43.720 able to create that food sovereignty out there. Our next 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:48.040 guest are Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, owners of Cafe 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:54.280 Alone in Berkeley, California. Both Louis and Vincent are members 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.360 of the Alona Tribe, the indigenous people who for twenty 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:03.319 thousand years and at California central Coast from San Francisco 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:10.360 to Monterey, from Monterey through the Salinas Valley, Lewis in 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.679 Vincent's work centers on the revival of a lonely food 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:18.520 traditions and using their cafe as an archival project to 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:26.560 keep tradition alive and accessible. Porsche Tuki macom So, good 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.160 day to you all. Ka. Vincent Medina, So, my name 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.320 is Vincent Medina and I'm a member of the Makoma 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:37.560 Alonei tribe. My family is indigenous to the East Spay 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.200 So the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay, the area 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.960 that today encompasses Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward, Castra Valley three months 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.200 down to about San Jose. Our family has lived in 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.040 this area consistently. We've never left and we never will. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:57.080 Knowing that we where we come from, and knowing that 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.360 our community has been able to stay put in this place. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.080 It's a testament to the strength of our elders and 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:08.000 our ancestors who also experienced a lot of pain during colonization. 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.200 Colonization that's still unfolding today in front of us, just 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.520 in different ways. I'm the co founder of Cafe Aloni 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.480 and makom Hum which my partner Lewis Trivino, He's also 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.920 the co founder of this and we grew up here 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.720 in this area where of our identity, aware that we 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.440 come from this place, that we're indigenous to this place, 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.000 and that this land also shapes our culture as well. 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.640 Because of how hard colonization hit us here in the 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:38.000 East Bay and throughout Metro California, it meant that much 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.360 of our culture couldn't be carried on the organic way 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.280 it was meant to. That wasn't because our elders or 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.400 those before us didn't care about our culture. That's not 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.640 true at all, but it was because there was systematic 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.800 roadblocks that try to stop us from practicing our culture outright. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.560 And also in spite of that, there was resistance that 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.960 happened in our communities to the theft of our coal 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.120 sure into the suppression of our culture as well. Our 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.360 ancestors are elders, are great grandparents, all of those before 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.480 us have consistently been working to keep alive the things 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.040 that matter, keep our culture going, and in some cases 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.520 when things couldn't be carried on, there's thousands of pages 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.320 of information on the form of archives in our collective 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:24.240 communities that allow us to revive practices with our elders. 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.120 With my partner Lewis Trivino, we started an organization called 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.160 macom Home first, macom Hom entreprennial language, which is the 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.240 indigenous language of the East Bay. It means our food 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:39.120 and the entire focus of this work is to revive 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.160 our food traditions along with every other aspect of our 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.720 traditional culture that as that was suppressed but also documented 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.200 to be brought back. We started this organization because we 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.440 wanted to see these foods become commonplace in our families again, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.480 on the dinner tables in our community again. And then 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.840 in September of two thou eighteen, we opened Cafe Alone, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.119 which is the first Aloni restaurant in modern times, and 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.679 it's over in Berkeley and it's a way for us 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.240 to teach the public about our story, but more importantly 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.520 to provide a space for our community in Kutel macom 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:20.000 cut up to Louis Travino it my cochland Takachiste p today. 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.639 Hello everyone. My name is Louis Travino and i'm room Similoni. 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.919 My family comes from the Carmel Valley and the Monterey area. 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.160 And this work we started by the guidance of our elders, 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.280 both those who were recorded and those who are still 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.720 with us, to revitalize our traditional Aloni foods as part 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.280 of a broader revitalization of culture that our communities have 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.080 gone through for the past few decades um and part 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.040 of the efforts that our families have had since colonization began. 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.200 I think what makes in your work notable in this 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:56.280 larger movement of moving towards or indigenous or native food 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.600 ways is that Cafe ALONEI is that really the very 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:05.000 first modern alone restaurant? As you say, do you all 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.959 feel because European cuisine and because of the infrastructure of 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:15.480 formal restaurants in dining, has been so far away from 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:23.080 spotlighting in native cuisine and ingredients an additional burden for 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.840 you all in doing this kind of reclamation work given 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:31.720 how absent indigenous cuisine has been in this country. That's 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.719 a that's a good question because growing up, when we 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:39.959 would talk about our culture, people would have complete unfamiliarity 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.439 with with us as as a people. And so if 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:44.440 they didn't know who we are as a people, they, 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.199 by the nature that aren't going to know about our 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.520 foods or any other aspect of our culture. The thing 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:55.000 that this this concept of being indigenous to this place 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.399 is that these foods even if people didn't know that 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:00.960 they were a lonely ingredients, they were often still many 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.160 of them are still in use, things like hazel nuts, 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.800 things like watercress, things like these decadent mushrooms. But when 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.240 people would often think about these ingredients, they're often thought 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.960 about as being these hugely luxury ingredients that often there's 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.600 no cultural context to understanding that these are indigenous foods. 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:24.840 By reinforcing and by teaching people at Cafe Alone that 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.440 our community has never left our homeland, that our culture 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.320 is beautiful, and that these foods that are indigenous to 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.720 the East Bay into Carmel or Lewis's families from that 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.280 these foods are also delicious as well. Many of them 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.680 are our foods that people have eaten in their lifetime. 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.600 But by showing the way that we eat as ALONEI people, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.840 the way that our ancestors traditionally have eaten, we are 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.479 able to dispel a lot of negative stereotypes just by 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.639 the nature of how our food is served, how it tastes, 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.640 the ingredients that it are being prepared, and also how 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.679 it looks. The food that we make. It's seasonal food, um, 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.439 it's it's food that much of which we gather. We 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.680 gather much of it in the old village areas here 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.280 in the East Bay that our family has always lived in. 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:17.680 An example of this is just earlier this week on Monday, 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.320 we went to gather the yar baboina, which is a 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.399 native mint that's familiar to our ancestors, which we call 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:27.080 chatty shmen. And also when we went to gather bay 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.600 and nuts, and we went to look for some mushrooms. 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.000 And as we were out there, we were in an 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.720 old area where our family has always lived. But it's 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.840 also an old area that our family has lived before colonization. Now, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.119 when we gather these foods in this place and we 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.800 prepare them in the way that we know our ancestors 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.080 made them, which is having multiple different dishes together served 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.240 where you get these flavors of what's growing at the time, 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:57.000 what's seasonal, but also you get these different flavors of bitter, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:01.040 of sweets, of salty, of savory, all these different tastes 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.520 going together at the same time. When people eat our food, 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.560 they'll often ask is this indigenous? Is this the way 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.160 that it's always been prepared? And for our most traditional 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.040 foods will say yes, this is the way it's always 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.240 been prepared. But then for our contemporary foods, we teach 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.200 people this is what contemporary Aloney foods look like in 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.720 the twenty one century, and by people learning about these 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.399 ingredients and getting to see Aloney food, and just by 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.120 the nature of us having this restaurant where for everybody 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.680 that's dining with us, except for a lonely people, it's 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.479 their first time generally having food that's been prepared by 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.399 alonely people, and also food that's being prepared in the 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:40.880 in the way that we have it at home. They 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.479 get to see directly the sophistication that we eat with, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:46.800 the beauty that we eat with, the meaning that we 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.399 eat with, and that destroys a lot of negative stereotypes 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.080 that are out there because it lets us steer the 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.639 conversation on our own terms. And also it gets to 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.919 destroy those stereotypes because people get to see sophistication and 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:03.320 elegance and beauty, and that pushes back against what's been 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:09.200 said about our community through negative textbooks, through anthropology, through 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:14.160 university studies of often we were painted as being this minimalistic, 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.879 simple people that kind of just barely got by, you know, 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:20.720 hunter and gatherers. They called us. And the truth is 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.080 that our ancestors didn't just barely get by, but they 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.880 lived in a world full of abundance and they ate well. 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.520 There's been reasons for over two hundred and forty years 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.080 that our family has been consistently trying to get back 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.480 to that old way, and it was because our elders 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:39.000 and us as results of that, know the value of it, 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.439 know how you know how meaningful it is, and know 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.040 that it's worthy of being protected and fought forth. Now, 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.040 even though many of these ingredients aren't common, and even 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:51.760 though and some of them are, but for many of 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:55.720 these ingredients like acorn, like veniceon, like our quail that 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:58.639 we serve, you know these often these ingredients and the 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.240 way that they're prepared unfamiliar to people, but once they 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.159 taste it, we hear are so often these foods are delicious. 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.800 Often people will say that they're eating something that feels clean, 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:14.159 that feels rooted. And by being able to teach people 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:17.639 about this again on our own terms, we can steer 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.440 this conversation to let them know that these ingredients are indigenous, 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:22.680 that these are ingredients that have been loved for generations 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:25.040 by our people, and that we loved in the future 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.240 as well, and then they think about these foods in 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:29.720 a different way and associate them more with us in 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:34.280 our community, which is what we want. I want to 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:38.840 ask you about land because it isn't possible to have 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:44.560 intellectually honest conversations about native people or cuisine without talking 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:50.400 about land. How do you source for the restaurant um 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:54.840 and how do you all think about uh land and 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.160