NORTH AMERICAN TRADITIONAL INDIGENOUS FOOD SYSTEMS

NATIFS NEWSROOM

Announcements

SEAN SHERMAN’S NONPROFIT ACQUIRES SEWARD CO-OP CREAMERY BUILDING

MINNEAPOLIS — January 8, 2025 — North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), the nonprofit founded by James Beard Award-winning chef Sean Sherman, has acquired the Seward Co-op Creamery Building in Minneapolis. The new facility, named NATIFS Wóyute...

Sean Sherman, Indigenous Food Activist and Award-winning Chef, Named to Inaugural ‘Climate 100 List’ by The Independent

MINNEAPOLIS —SEPTEMBER 23, 2024—The Independent has named Sean Sherman, founder and executive director of non-profit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), award-winning chef of Owamni in Minneapolis and advocate for Indigenous foodways, to its...

NATIFS Presents Indigenous Peoples’ Day and IFL brings the Indigenous Cuisine to The Minnesota State Fair

NATIFS is hosting Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the Minnesota State Fair. You can find us at Dan Patch Park on Sunday, August 25th with programming running from 9-5 pm CT. Alongside Indigenous community organizations, businesses and partners:  Native American Community...

Sean Sherman Speaks at 1st Annual HHS “Food is Medicine” Summit

In January, Sean was invited to the first-ever US Department of Health and Human Services “Food is Medicine” Summit in Washington DC, where stakeholders discussed the intersection between food and health. Sean was invited to present a talk, as well as moderate a...

NATIFS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SEAN SHERMAN BRINGS INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVE TO UNITED NATIONS COP 28 IN DUBAI

MINNEAPOLIS — November 28, 2023 —North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) announces Executive Director Sean Sherman will be traveling to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change...

NORTH AMERICAN TRADITIONAL INDIGENOUS FOOD SYSTEMS (NATIFS) ACQUIRES ACCLAIMED MINNEAPOLIS RESTAURANT OWAMNI

MINNEAPOLIS — North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) announces its acquisition of the James Beard Award-winning Minneapolis restaurant Owamni.Through this acquisition, NATIFS will expand its reach and impact, furthering Chef Sean Sherman's vision...

NATIFS, founder Sean Sherman announce Indigenous Peoples’ Day details at State Fair

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A Minneapolis nonprofit founded by accomplished Indigenous Chef Sean Sherman will be sponsoring and supporting the Minnesota State Fair's Indigenous People's Day.On Thursday, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) announced...

natifs.org WELCOMES LINDA BLACK ELK AS EDUCATION DIRECTOR

MINNEAPOLIS — August 03, 2023 — Minneapolis non-profit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) announces ethnobotanist and food sovereignty activist Linda Black Elk has joined as educational programming and community engagement leader. Black Elk...

CELEBRATED INDIGENOUS CHEF FREDDIE BITSOIE JOINS NATIFS.ORG AS CHEF-IN-RESIDENCE

North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) and its co-founder Chef Sean Sherman are hosting Navajo chef and author Freddie J. Bitsoie as the inaugural chef-in-residence at the Indigenous Food Lab by NATIFS in Minneapolis.

Nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems Launches Flagship Indigenous Food Lab Market Featuring Indigenous Foods And Products

1st IFL Market now open in Minneapolis, MN!NĀTIFS has opened The Indigenous Food Lab in the Midtown Global Market on historic Lake Street in Minneapolis. The Indigenous Food Lab is a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center and market covering all aspects...

In the News

The Elevate Prize Foundation Awards Global Changemakers $6M to Scale Visionary Work

This year’s Elevate Prize winners include Sean Sherman, James Beard-winning Chef and Founder & Executive Director of North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NᾹTIFS), which promotes Indigenous foodways education and facilitates Indigenous food access.

Indigenous A&E: Frybread on the menu, Buffalohead art, tribal dancer honored

A new restaurant/bar, The Frybread Lounge, opened in August 2024, the first and only Indigenous-owned restaurant in upscale Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona. The new restaurant is headed up by Darryl Montana, O’odham, who has worked closely with award-winning Chef Sean Sherman at Owamni in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Montana said he is proud to present an “Indigenized dining experience.”

January 3, 2025 | ICT News

Sean Sherman opening new restaurant in former Seward Co-op Creamery

The historic building will house a commissary kitchen and offices for the chef’s NATIFS nonprofit in addition to a counter-service restaurant.

Lidia Celebrates America: Changemakers

On LIDIA CELEBRATES America Changemakers,” internationally renowned chef, author, and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich throws a national spotlight on progressive chefs, farmers, and entrepreneurs around the U.S. striving to change the future of food. 

December 15, 2024 | KPBS

Finding Your Roots: Who is Featured in 2025?

Celebrity chefs José Andrés (founder of World Central Kitchen) and Sean Sherman follow their family ancestors from small-town Spain to Native American lands in the Dakotas to discover their hidden connections to history and food. Andres hails from Spain and grew up in Catalonia and Sherman is Oglala Lakota Sioux from Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

January 2, 2025 | PBS

The Best Restaurants in the Twin Cities

Owamni has been leading the global conversation about decolonized foods right from the downtown Minneapolis riverfront since it opened in 2021. But do we talk enough about the sensory pleasure of eating Indigenous cuisine?

December 15, 2024 | MSP Magazine

Center's New Program Touts Native Food as Medicine

The American Indian Center’s new Food is Medicine program marks a generational and culinary shift.

December 8, 2024 | The Cicago Tribune

It's Time To Build More Native Restaurants

From venison chops to grape dumpling soup, Indigenous foods are central to the American heartland — if only we had more places to eat them

October 1 2024 | Eater and The Food & Environment Reporting Network

Ready, set, eat: Here are the new foods that'll be at the 2024 Minnesota State Fair

Midtown Global Market’s Indigenous Food Lab, featuring a nixtamal (corn prepared in a traditional method) and wild rice bowl with wóžapi and bison meatballs or sweet potato dumplings, with the option to add cricket and seed mix. All items are gluten-free. Available Aug. 28 to Sept. 2 only.

July 9 2024 | MPR News

New Vendors are Changing the Minnesota State Fair's Food Scene

The State Fair’s yearslong diversification of food vendors is continuing in 2024.

The big picture: This year’s slate of new purveyors includes flavors from as far away as Korea and as close to home as the kitchen of acclaimed Minneapolis-based Indigenous chef Sean Sherman.

July 9 2024 | Axios Twin Cities

Sean Sherman: Reviving Native American Cuisine

Explore chef Sean Sherman’s journey, an Oglala Lakota tribe member who champions pre-colonial Native American cuisine in Minnesota. Rising from dishwasher at 13 to executive chef, he uses traditional ingredients and techniques, supporting more than 30 Indigenous purveyors to tackle health and economic disparities. With international attention on his mission, Sherman’s work addresses global health issues linked to unhealthy diets. Find out more about his culinary philosophy and vision for a healthier future as Sean Sherman talks to Al Jazeera.

June 30 2024 | Al Jazeera

With bison herds and ancestral seeds, Indigenous communities embrace food sovereignty

The Bozeman-based nonprofit HRDC built a new $29 million building with a state-of-the-art kitchen that will house the country’s second Indigenous Food Lab. It will open next year and expand the ongoing work creating recipes, holding cooking workshops, and preparing cooking videos.

December 9, 2023  |  NPR 

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