Sokaogon Chippewa Community News

November is Native American Heritage Month

Story and image by the University of Wisconsin-Madison

November is Native American Heritage Month, a time dedicated to celebrating the rich and diverse culture, history, and contributions of Native people. A presidential proclamation in 1990 first designated National Native American Heritage Month (also called Native November).

Each year, the UW–Madison campus cultivates a diverse portfolio of events in recognition of this important heritage month. This year’s theme, Beyond an Acknowledgement, is a call for the campus community to go beyond simply learning and acknowledging Indigenous history. Rather, it urges all of us to genuinely recognize current issues, resoundingly celebrate successes, and unyieldingly commit to a better future. The Indigenous Student Center Coalition (ISCC) has planned a series of events this year to advance that goal.

View and listen to a new oral history project commemorating the 50th anniversary of UW’s American Indian Studies program, which tells a turbulent story of student activism amid national upheaval.

“We’re not cooking like it’s 1491. We’re not a museum piece or something like that. We’re trying to evolve the food into the future, using as much of the knowledge from our ancestors that we can understand and just applying it to the modern world.” ~ Sean Sherman, The Sioux Chef (Oglala Lakota Sioux)

By Sam Briger, Fresh Air, NPR

At the James Beard Award-winning restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis, diners order off a menu that’s been “decolonized.” All dishes are prepared in ways that reflect Native American food cultures, using ingredients indigenous to North America prior to colonization.

“We look at showcasing the amazing diversity and flavor profiles of all the different tribes across North America, all the different regions, and really celebrating that and cutting away colonial ingredients,” Owamni co-founder Sean Sherman says. “We don’t have things on our menu that have dairy, wheat flour, cane sugar, … beef, pork or chicken.”