An article from this week's Chicago Tribune.


Returning to the old ways

American Indians find more healthful choices among traditional foodstuffs

By Nancy Maes

For centuries before European settlers arrived in what they called the New World and celebrated their first fall harvest feast, the native people had been living off the bounty of the land.
"Native Americans had the perfect diet that kept them healthy and lean prior to contact with the Europeans," said Jim De Nomie of Milwaukee, a citizen of the Bad River Band of the Chippewa/Ojibwe Indians. De Nomie is chairman of Milwaukee's Holiday Folk Fair, to be held Nov. 16-18 (visit folkfair.org for information) where visitors can sample a variety of international cuisines; the Indian showcase will include native foods such as blue and yellow corn chips, fry bread, Indian pumpkin soup, buffalo burgers and Potawatomi Red Deer venison.

The diet of American Indians changed drastically in the 1800s, when they were forced to live on barren reservations where meals often consisted of canned meats, lard and packaged processed foods provided by the federal government.

But now many American Indian communities are encouraging their people to reclaim the nutritionally rich, natural foods of their ancestors. They also want to make their culinary traditions known to non-natives and to inspire contemporary interpretations of centuries-old dishes.

Preserving the harvest

Because eating with the seasons is being promoted on a national scale, the push for Indians to reclaim their culinary heritage is timelier than ever.

Their ancestors' diet not only followed the seasons but also was dependent upon preservation techniques so foods could be consumed during winter and leaner times.

The indigenous people of the Midwest and the Plains were once
hunter-gatherers who also planted crops. They ate many types of fresh-picked berries, said Chicagoan Mariel Blacksmith, a member of the Lakota tribe, who cooks meals for homeless Native Americans at the Anawim Center, a spiritual and cultural center in Uptown. The fruit, she said, also was made into a foodstuff called wojapi: The women pounded the berries into a pulp that they shaped into patties and dried, which enabled them to enjoy the fruit through the winter.

The Anishinabe also harvested wild rice in the autumn. "To the Indian people the food is sacred," said De Nomie, who produced and hosted a pilot program, "Native American Cooking from the Fancy Dance Cafe," around Thanksgiving last year. The show aired on Milwaukee public television and he is currently seeking funding to create a regular series of shows under the same title.

He pointed out that while Europeans called the food "wild rice," it is, in fact a grass whose seeds are rich in protein and high in fiber.

De Nomie likes to update wild rice by combining it with sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, onions and smoked turkey or chicken seasoned with red wine vinegar and olive oil. This fusion of past with present is not unusual, he said.

"We like to combine may way zha -- something from very long ago -- with oshki aya -- new things for contemporary urban menus," he explained.

That concept is put into practice at the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe (the name means "Let's eat"), part of the Smithsonian Institution' s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. There executive chef Richard Hetzler serves a wild rice and watercress salad flecked with dried cranberries, spiced pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and carrots dressed with apple
cider vinegar. It's one of the most popular dishes on the menu, he said.

"It was difficult to find original native recipes that we could duplicate, so we use native indigenous ingredients that change with the seasons and [we] prepare them in ways that suit today's palate," Hetzler said.

Other crops cultivated by American Indians include corn, beans and squash. A soup made with these three ingredients, called the Three Sisters, provided a nutritionally well-balanced, easy-to-digest meal.

Where meat is concerned, the buffalo provided enormous sustenance.

"The buffalo is very sacred and we honor his spirit," Blacksmith said. "[Buffalo] provided clothing and tools, and before the Lakota had pots, they used the stomach of the buffalo to cook soup. They heated rocks and put them inside the stomach with meat, wild turnips and water."

Cynthia Starr-Fox is coordinator of the senior programs at the American Indian Center of Chicago, which is hosting its annual powwow later this month at the University of Illinois-Chicago. She prepares a traditional buffalo roast with carrots, celery and onions for many catered Native American dinners.

"My mom taught me to cook in the olden ways using just vegetables," said Starr-Fox, who is half Omaha and half Ottawa. "We didn't use herbs and spices and salt and sugar for seasonings."

At the Mitsitam Cafe, buffalo is seasoned and prepared in a variety of ways tailored to contemporary tastes. Dishes include buffalo chili, a pulled buffalo sandwich with chayote-squash slaw and a buffalo shank braised in red wine and root vegetables. The meat is purchased from the Intertribal Bison Cooperative in Rapid City, S.D.

"The free-range buffalo are raised by natives on native land and they graze on medicinal plants so when you eat them you get the benefit of the plants," Hetzler said.

Traditional native ingredients also are finding their way into fine dining restaurants. Alex Cheswick, chef-owner of May Street Market, creates menus inspired by local seasonal ingredients. He has created a potato and leek soup ladled over a buffalo sausage flan. He also offers a buffalo rib-eye steak with a European-style butter flavored with herbs, capers, Cognac and
peppercorns or prepared with a red wine jus.

Looking ahead

The First Nations Development Institute based in Longmont, Colo., is trying to revitalize healthful American Indian food traditions by encouraging tribes on reservations to plant the crops grown by their ancestors, helping them find sources of foods such as bison and wild rice, offering dietary and nutritional education and assisting in finding funding for projects.

As Native Americans return to the nutritious, natural ingredients of their ancestors they have renewed reasons to be grateful for the foods they eat.

"We have the same ritual every time we sit down to eat," De Nomie said. "We thank the Creator for another day, for the meal and the benefits of the foods we eat from the plant people, the animal people, the swimming people and the flying people."
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Chicago powwow offers a taste of history Native American foods will be part of the cultural showcase at The American Indian Center of Chicago's annual powwow, to be held beginning at 5 p.m. Nov. 16 and 10 a.m. Nov. 17 and 18 at UIC Pavilion, 1150 W. Harrison St. The annual three-day event will celebrate indigenous cultures. Admission is $12; students, $10; $6 children 6-12 and
seniors 55 and older. Weekend pass, $20. For more information, 773-275-5871 or aic-chicago. org.

For information on and retail sources for American Indian foods:

Books

*"Where People Feast: An Indigenous People's Cookbook," by Dolly and Annie Watts

*"Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions," by Fernando and Marlene Divina

*"Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations: Traditional and Contemporary Native American Recipes," by Lois Ellen Frank

Where to buy foods

*Al's Meat and Poultry Market, 1165 Wilmette Ave., Wilmette, 847-256-0070:
Buffalo steaks and buffalo sausage can be special ordered.

*Intertribal Bison Cooperative, 605-394-9730, itbcbison.com.

*Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, 2600 Central Park Ave., Evanston, 847-475-1030: Hand-harvested wild rice, popcorn, Tamaya Blue Parched Corn (ready-to-eat snack), Indian Country Pinon Coffee, Red Corn Nature Foods Fry Bread Mix.

*Native Harvest, 888-274-8318, nativeharvest. com: wild rice hand-harvested by Ojibwe tribal members in Northern Minnesota

*Trader Joe's stores: Frozen buffalo patties.

*Whole Foods Markets: New York strip and rib-eye buffalo steaks, ground buffalo and packaged buffalo jerky.