North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS)

From its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the organization conducts cooking classes and workshops, operates a retail outlet for indigenous food products and provides vital financial support for Native American farmers and foragers. By expanding knowledge of traditional foods and culinary techniques while stimulating economic self-sufficiency, NĀTIFS promotes a way of life that is spiritually enriching and self-sustaining for tribal communities.

Unearthing the Roots of Indigenous Cuisines

A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe – a subgroup of the Sioux nation – Sherman spent his early years on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He began hunting at the age of seven, shooting pheasant and other game to supplement the food subsidies his family received from the federal government. As a young teen he moved with his mother to Spearfish, where he began working in restaurant kitchens to help support the household. After completing his education he moved to Minneapolis, where he eventually became executive chef at a tapas bar.

Exposure to fine European cuisine sparked Sherman’s curiosity about the culinary heritage of his ancestors. By conducting research and traveling across the country to meet with tribal elders, he learned that traditional Native American cuisine had been systematically suppressed by European colonization of the continent – to such an extent that knowledge of time-honored recipes and ingredients had become lost to modern generations. 

Sherman contrasted these traditions with contemporary eating habits on Native American reservations, where unhealthy diets have resulted in a high prevalence of diabetes and heart disease. In the course of his research, he also discovered that indigenous families were 400% more likely to experience food insecurity than the average American household.

Launching a Nationwide Movement

Sherman’s exploration into indigenous food systems inspired him to launch the Sioux Chef, a Native American food business. Founded with his partner Dana Thompson in 2014, the Sioux Chef operates a food truck and catering services, while also organizing educational outreach programs within tribal communities. These experiences led Sherman to publish a cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen (2017), which earned him a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award. The Sioux Chef eventually became the basis of NĀTIFS.

Through speaking engagements and conferences, Sherman is laying the groundwork for a national network dedicated to reviving Native American food practices, whose core ingredients include bison, whitefish, grains, wild mushrooms and the “three sisters” of indigenous cuisine: beans, squash and corn. At the same time, NĀTIFS intends to revive historic trade routes that once enabled tribes to acquire meat and produce from other regions, with the goal of establishing a nationwide supply chain exclusively for Native American foods.

In 2023, NĀTIFS launched the first Indigenous Food Lab (IFL), a kitchen, food packaging and educational center. Based in Minneapolis, the IFL includes a retail market stocked with products from local Native American farmers and food purveyors, as well as a cooking classroom where instructors teach courses on food preparation, farming, land preservation, traditional medicines and Native American history. A satellite IFL program, the Buffalo Nations Indigenous Foods Lab, launched in Bozeman, Montana, in 2024.

By building a network to preserve and promote Native American cuisine, Sherman and NĀTIFS aim to create a sustainable and resilient food ecosystem, while promoting economic autonomy within indigenous communities throughout North America. More than anything, Sherman hopes to rewrite the skewed narrative around Native American health outcomes. “Poor health statistics are not because our people are inherently unhealthy,” Sherman told Victor A. Lopez-Carmen in 2023. “It's largely because colonization targeted our food sovereignty. The more our food sovereignty is restored, the healthier we will be.”

Contributor: Stephen Meyer