Magazine

Sean Sherman is a man on a mission. The Oglala Lakota chef behind the internationally renowned Minneapolis restaurant Owamni has dedicated the past decade to revitalizing Native American foodways and wisdom. His initial inspiration was to learn more about his own tribe’s food systems and to help address the health issues — disproportionate rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease — that plague Indigenous communities. But the impacts of Sherman’s efforts reach far beyond Indian Country, earning him well-deserved accolades like TIME 100 honors, the Julia Child Award, and several James Beard Foundation Awards.

After growing up on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation­ — which has some of the highest poverty rates in the nation and lowest life expectancies in the world — Sherman pursued a career in the restaurant world. He made his way to the Twin Cities, where he became a pro at cooking Spanish, French, and other European cuisines while working at top eateries. This made him wonder: Why didn’t he know more about his own people’s food?

That query led him on a yearslong journey to discover as much as he could about Indigenous foodways from elders, ethnobotanists, historians, and other knowledge keepers. Although he is always learning about the rich, diverse Indigenous communities worldwide, he now spends any time away from the kitchen educating others about the importance of Indigenous wisdom and the atrocities that Native peoples have faced due to colonialism. St. Olaf students got a taste of Sherman’s teachings — and his fare — this spring when he visited campus as part of the Institute for Freedom and Community’s Food Policy and Food Politics speaker series.

More than 250 students, faculty, staff, and community members packed into Tomson Hall in early March eager to listen to the Indigenous thought leader. The event kicked off with a touching introduction from his sister, theologian and St. Olaf faculty member Kelly Sherman-Conroy.

“Sean’s story is a testament to the power of education, to the power and strength of cultural identity, and to the importance of sustainability — all the values that St. Olaf holds dear, and what we teach and what we live,” she said. “Sean’s work is a living and breathing example of a commitment to learning, of service and respect.”

Sherman then took to the stage and regaled the captive audience with an informative yet approachable speech, not unlike his popular 2020 TEDx Talk. He began with a recap of his culinary odyssey sparked by the “invisibility of Native cuisine” and a description of his decolonized food philosophy: sans standard Eurocentric ingredients such as beef, pork, chicken, dairy, wheat flour, and cane sugar. 

But to understand the importance of decolonizing food, it’s vital to recognize how colonialism all but destroyed Native lifeways. Luckily, Sherman’s affable nature makes what could otherwise be challenging topics like colonialism, genocide, and forced assimilation more digestible.

“The easiest way to understand colonialism,” he said, “is just to Google it.” As the crowd laughed at his jest, he went on to explain that this dehumanizing, exploitative act for political gain is still happening in places across the globe such as Ukraine, the Middle East, and East Congo. And it’s the reason why Owamni — one of the country’s first full-service Native-focused restaurants — seems so unique on a continent that was once filled with thriving Indigenous societies.

“No matter where we are in North America, we’re standing on Indigenous land spaces, but there’s barely any representation of Indigenous communities out there,” Sherman said in describing the destructive origin story of the United States. His accompanying presentation showcased how the land space once stewarded by Native peoples has shrunk over time to only about 2 percent of the country. That loss was accompanied by a massive decimation of biodiversity and the attempted annihilation of important food sources like bison.

Sherman went on to detail the many traumas Native peoples have experienced, including disconnection, displacement, and dispossession. He explained how boarding schools’ violent acts of forced assimilation aimed to wipe out Indigenous knowledge and supplant it with Western teachings. But despite these efforts to eradicate Native peoples, Indigenous knowledge about the power of food lives on in the hundreds of tribal communities across North America.

“No matter where we are in North America, we’re standing on Indigenous land spaces, but there’s barely any representation of Indigenous communities out there.”

Sean Sherman

If you know what to look for, Sherman attests, there’s food everywhere. “You don’t have to go to the grocery store [for all your food],” he said. “You can stand in one spot in Minnesota and see all these ingredients around you, like rabbit, white cedar, wild rice, cranberries, and maple. That’s how we should be thinking about food — seeing the world completely differently and realizing what it has to offer.”

To that end, his Minneapolis nonprofit, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), is all about giving people access to Native knowledge. The Indigenous Food Lab Market located at Midtown Global Market serves as a professional incubator kitchen and training center as well as a marketplace where curious home cooks can purchase ingredients from Native purveyors, such as bison, heritage corn, wild rice, handmade tortillas, and more. (There’s also a handy online store.)

Sherman went on to illustrate how his work is inextricably intertwined with a larger movement to return to greater interconnectedness. “When did we lose sight of our humanity?” he asked. “We need to be better humans. We need to understand people who are different from us. We need to help feed people who need food. Food has so much power, and we need to take that power back.”

Although his impact is undeniable, Sherman realizes that the massive change he hopes to see might not happen in his lifetime — which is why he uses his platform to encourage younger generations to take action.

“It’s so important that we wake people up about these issues,” he said in an interview. “We need to realize it’s up to us all to steward Indigenous knowledge while also calling out colonialism in action when we see it. There are real ramifications to inaction, and we can easily slip backward. Just because so much of this happened in the past doesn’t mean it can’t also be the future.”

Sophia Stout ’23 (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe) attended Sherman’s talk. Before graduating last spring, she started the Indigenous Peoples Organization at St. Olaf to help bring greater awareness to Native issues. She was glad to see her alma mater amplifying a voice like Sherman’s.

“St. Olaf is a primarily white institution, so it’s important for Native students to see someone like Sean Sherman and witness his amazing success,” she says. “St. Olaf students, staff, and faculty should be educating themselves about issues surrounding BIPOC peoples.”

That’s precisely why Professor of Political Science Chris Chapp, who is also director of the Institute for Freedom and Community, invited Sherman to speak at St. Olaf.

“Not only is Sean Sherman a truly revolutionary voice in food, he also articulates his case forcefully with a degree of moral clarity that is quite rare,” he contends. “We learn the most when we step outside our comfort zones. Sherman’s work certainly does this, challenging us to think differently about history, identity, and food.”

“We learn the most when we step outside our comfort zones. Sherman’s work certainly does this, challenging us to think differently about history, identity, and food.”

Institute for Freedom and Community Director Chris Chapp

The institute also sponsored a trip for 20 students to visit the Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis.

Theater faculty member Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate/German) attended both Sherman’s talk and the Indigenous Food Lab field trip. She is deeply engaged in the thriving Twin Cities Native community, including serving on the Guthrie Theater’s Native Advisory Council.

“As someone who already has familiarity with chef Sherman’s work, what thrilled me most was watching the non-Native students’ excitement and knowledge grow and seeing the small cohort of Native students feel connected, affirmed, and celebrated,” she says. “Sean’s rise over the past few years has been an exciting part of growth and reclamation for Native folks and an important part of educating our non-Native relatives, too. At the heart of that is a sense of kindness for our bodies, our knowledges, our communities, and our non-human relatives that we need so badly right now — which I think is exactly why we’re experiencing an Indigenous renaissance.”

Martin Olague ’04, director of the Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion, understands the importance of creating space for these perspectives. “We have always started our story with Norwegian immigrants and have ignored important Native American voices for far too long,” he says. “You can’t fully have diversity and inclusion until all voices are included, and this talk helped bring that voice forward. St. Olaf is not the only institution to struggle with creating spaces for its Native community, but that doesn’t mean we should continue doing things how we always have.”

A changemaker in her own right, Stout is planning to plant a garden of exclusively endemic produce as a result of hearing Sherman’s talk. “The conversation about decolonizing food really stuck with me,” she says. “One part of colonization has been bringing food from other places here that is not natural and that has affected the ecosystem. This has inspired me to do some research about growing my own garden with only Native foods — hopefully it goes well.”

This seemingly small yet incredibly significant action perfectly reflects Sherman’s key takeaway: If we can control our food, we can control our destiny.