his week on Minnesota Native News, we hear about the Native American Church’s lawsuit against the T-S-A and how it resulted in better training for screening sacred items (in Minnesota and elsewhere).
And…. The Sioux Chef, is a finalist for a national culinary award.
Here’s reporter Cole Premo.
NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH’S LAWSUIT
Back in February 2015, Sandor Iron Rope, the former President of the Native American Church of America, was heading back to San Antonio, Texas from a conference. For his carry-on, he had his ceremonial box filled with sacred items.
The incident that resulted in a lawsuit began when his items were being screened by TSA agents. Iron Rope asked agents if he could display the items himself, so the energy wouldn’t be polluted. But agents refused and, according to Iron Rope, roughly handled the items.
He said the incident hindered his spirit and when he simply wanted to talk and address the issue with airport officials, there was no point person, no person willing to hear him out.
I talked with Forrest Tahdooahnippah the attorney of the lawsuit and a member of the Comache Nation in Oklahoma.
Forrest says the Native American Church did not want to bring on a lawsuit, but eventually had to in order to get the TSA to address specific issues with Native American travelers. There were only general guidelines before the lawsuit.
FORREST: 3:24 “Basically our goal and through the settlement now is to kind of put a little more specificity on what it means to accommodate these, you know, native American religions”
After about a year, the lawsuit was settled with no side acknowledging blame, but the TSA did agree to better educate its employees on native american religion at more than a dozen airports nationwide, including Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport.
Now, TSA agents in MSP Airport will receive written training materials explaining how to inspect items in a respectful manner.
FORREST: 5:23 “It kind of has been elevating, um, or kind of a tiered structure, you know, where the of the first line is. Obviously just relying on the x-ray and then if that creates some sort of concern about an item to then have a, um, the, the person traveling, take the item out and manipulated it a himself or herself. And then you know, if some sort of physically handle physical handling is necessary to use gloves, accommodation request to change gloves or to have a, an off icer of a specific gender inspecting specific items.”
In a statement, the TSA said it will abide by the settlement agreement, and advises that travelers with sacred items let TSA agents know before screening.
The fact sheet for TSA agents will be published in the coming months.
THE SIOUX CHEF: JAMES BEARD FINALIST AND BUSH FELLOW
[In other news,] you could say March has been a great month for Sean Sherman, the founder of The Sioux Chef.
Move here: SEAN: 6:16 “It’s amazing.” 7:01: “we were just really hopeful that, you know, the one that, uh, we’re getting noticed and you know, it’s a possibility and we believed in the book. So it was great.”
In March, Sherman learned he is a finalist in the national culinary awards from the James Beard Foundation. It’s for his book, The Sioux Chef: Indigenous Kitchen, and it’s in the American cookbook category.
[scene sound fades in]
I sat down with Sean Sherman at the Uptown restaurant LynHall to hear a bit about the book.
He says the inspiration for it was simple: It filled a need.
SEAN: 7:14 “I always tease that, like when I first started researching this, I couldn’t just go online and order joy of native American cooking, you know, so, um, part of it was just like filling a void because there were some great native American cooking cook books out there, but not in the vein of that we were looking for, which was completely decolonize and thinking really regionally about it and having a lot of that information, um, very, you know, just laid out basically.’
The book, co-authored by local author Beth Dooley, avoids modern stereotypes of Native American food, like Indian tacos or fry bread. Instead, what’s featured is indigenous wild and foraged ingredients, game, fish and fruits and vegetables.
SEAN: 4:39 “We are very much regional, farm to table beyond farm to table event, you know, and utilizing only healthy ingredients. And then our own philosophy is of keeping everything really decolonized and using only indigenous ingredients and cutting out wheat flour and dairy and processed sugar and not even using beef, pork or chicken, but really thinking about regional, indigenous and completely decolonized foods.”
And these recipes are more accessible than most may think.
SEAN: 11:57 “Some of them are really simple, just like as simple as corn mush, you know, some maple or something like that. Or maybe make it for breakfast and make it savory and put some. We had some duck eggs on one I think, um, and you know, the simple wild rice dishes and just utilizing things that are around us. But really we just tried to create the recipes. We kept the recipes as simple as we could.”
Now, that the book is published and out there, the nonprofit is using it to improve native communities, selling the book at wholesale rates to tribes.
SEAN: 13:56 “We look at how colonialism works, you know, and um, the, the biggest way that they do a lot of these indigenous cultures is by removing them from their food. So it’s really a war on food. So if we reclaim our food, what makes us, it gives us a lot of power back and it also gives us a lot of identity back and it gives her a region a lot of identity back also because each region’s unique. “
Aside from the cookbook, Sherman has big plans for the The Sioux Chef, including opening up educational centers inside restaurants around the nation, educating the public about indigenous food ways as well as helping with food access in general.
Meanwhile, Sherman is excited to be considered for the coveted James Beard award. And he doesn’t have long to wait.
SEAN: 15:24 “April 20 seventh, so be in Manhattan, Beth and I will be in Manhattan to see if we win. You know, it’s the best we can do something new. I have a one in three chance. So pretty good chance to take a, you know, even being nominated is a huge honor so that there’s a lot of cookbooks that get released every year and to have the privilege of being a finalist in that realm is, is awesome. (I like this sound bite, it is fun, it lets us in on what is going through with the award. I say keep this one in).
Sherman was also named a 2018 Bush Fellow, which provides financial support for individuals, like Sherman, who are turning great ideas into reality. Sherman plans to use the opportunity to visit more native communities around North America, and to work on learning more language, including his own Lakota language.
I’m Cole Premo.