Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day with Kids!

Celebrating National Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Food Traditions, Food Sovereignty, and Cookbooks to Explore Together

• One finger cannot lift a pebble. – Hopi
• Our first teacher is our own heart. – Cheyenne
• Before eating, always take time to thank the food. – Arapaho

Indigenous Peoples' Day (the second Monday in October) is an opportunity to acknowledge the atrocities and injustices committed against our country’s original inhabitants. It's also a chance to teach children about Native cultures today and their traditions and contributions. Food is a perfect entry point since each tribal nation has its own traditional ingredients, cooking methods, and stories.

What Did Indigenous Communities Traditionally Eat?

Traditional Native American cuisine is exceptionally diverse, partly due to geographic differences. Indigenous people prepared and cooked meals composed mainly of plants, meats, and fish, and shellfish that were locally available to them. Therefore, the Anasazi (Southwest) diet included corn, pine nuts, and rabbit, whereas the Wampanoags (Northeast) cuisine involved berries, cod, and lobster, among others. Over thousands of years, each tribal nation cultivated unique traditions supporting its members’ physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. 

This all changed in the 1800s, when European settlers and U.S. policy began a large-scale displacement of the indigenous people, disrupting traditional Native American foodways with devastating consequences. Today, Native American tribes are working to restore food sovereignty, choosing for themselves the foods they will cultivate and consume, often returning to traditional foods and food practices. 

How Can My Family Honor Indigenous Food Traditions Respectfully?

How about checking out an indigenous cookbook from your local library? When you cook the recipes, talk with your kids about whose land you’re on now and which Native nations’ ingredients you’re using.

This year, I’m consulting two cookbooks for new takes on Native traditions:

• The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman, owner of the renowned Owamni restaurant in Minneapolis, MN.
• The Mitsitam Café Cookbook by Richard Hetzler, executive chef at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) cafe in Washington, DC.

I plan to make dishes using sage, piñons, and blue cornmeal (all native to my home state Colorado!), and learn the history and culture behind each one. I’ll source ingredients from Tocabe Indigenous Marketplace, where every purchase supports local and indigenous farmers across the U.S. (Plus, for every two items purchased, Tocabe donates one item to Native and Indigenous community-based organizations! A classic win-win!)

Goodbye for now! (that's Tókša akhé in Lakota or Donadagohvi in Cherokee!)

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