Toasted Sister Podcast

In this special episode I report from the first Southwest Intertribal Food Summit in Taos, New Mexico. It was a two-day event filled with good food and knowledge sharing between Southwest Natives who are working in the food sovereignty movement. Visit ToastedSisterPodcast.com to see photos from this trip.

In the episode: Lilian Hill from Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute, Terrol Dew Johnson from the Tohono O’odham Community Action group, Tiana Suazo with the Taos County Economic Development Corporation, Julio Saqui, owner of Che’il Mayan Products, Taos governor, Gilbert Suazo Sr., Tammy Sandoval with Tiwa Kitchen and Rowen White with the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network.

In this special episode I hand the reins over to my real sister, Alisha Murphy (Diné). She went to the World Indigenous Business Forum in New Zealand and came back with some T-shirts for our parents, some keychains for her friends and some audio for me. Alisha made some new Maori friends and naturally talked about food with them. Hey, it runs in the family.

Towana Yepa (Jemez Pueblo) comes from a family of gardeners. She’s a business woman who owns and operates her own farm called Corn Pollen Trail Farms in Ponderosa, New Mexico. In this episode, she talks about her origins, the challenges of being an Indigenous woman farmer and filling a need for fresh options in her Native community. I also talk with Tina Archuleta (Jemez Pueblo), owner of Itality: Plant Based Wellness (rapper who goes by MagmaDawta), a health food business that also fills a need for fresh food in the same community.

Brit Reed (Choctaw) is a cook, culinary service provider for Tulalip Health Clinic in Washington and a member of the I-Collective. She’s sort of new to the world of Indigenous culinary arts but she’s well on her way to making changes in the Native community. In this program we talk about the role of Choctaw women and how food helps her connect to her culture as an adoptee.

In this episode, I hit the road and talk with some folks at the 6th annual Apache Harvest Festival at the Ndée Bikíyaa farm in Canyon Day, Arizona.

On this show:

Onah Ditzer, farm education coordinator at Ndée Bikíyaa

Rachel Beauty, Apache culture intern for the Yavapai Apache Nation

Shalitha Peaches, distribution manager for Ndée Bikíyaa

Nephi Craig, Café Gozhóó

Andrea Batty

Emery Hoffman, White Mountain Apache Tribe water resources

Dezeray Garcia

The non-Indigenous owners of Aloha Poke Co., a Chicago-based restaurant, trademarked the words “Aloha Poke” and became the new face of cultural and food appropriation. In this episode, Dr. Kalama Niheu (Kanaka Maoli) talks about how a long history of cultural appropriation allows for this to continue to happen to Indigenous people, the problem with paradise and how the popularity of poke took this traditional food to interesting and scary places.

Also:

—Native America Calling Aug. 6 episode about trademarking Indigenous words and images featuring Dr. Niheu and Tasha Kahele.

—A protest is planned for Aug. 15 at the Aloha Poke Co. location in Chicago.

Eric Richards (Navajo) has a business degree and originally had plans to get into the Native jewelry business. But fate took him straight to the kitchen and up the ranks. He’s the executive chef of the Twin Arrows Casino Resort near Flagstaff, Ariz. In this episode, I sit down with chef Richards at Zenith Steakhouse and we talk about the restaurant business at an Indian casino, future plans and Native American Beef.

See photos from this visit at ToastedSisterPodcast.com.

If you talk with Diné chef Josh Nez for any amount of time, he’ll mention his daughters. They’re the reason why he cooks. He’ll also throw in some Navajo language translations for “corn,” “salt” or “grandma.” Nez is a cook at the Pueblo Harvest Café in Albuquerque who got his start as a dishwasher. In this episode, we talk about mutton, the first foods he ever cooked and the best way to prepare prairie dogs.

Also: Utah Dine Bikeyah 4th annual Bears Ears Summer Gathering, July 20-22

Visit ToastedSisterPodcast.com to see pictures from this recording.

Vernon DeFoe (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) doesn’t have a glorious origin story. Like many chefs, his food journey starts at a fast food restaurant. But along the way he made a U-turn straight back to Indigenous food. He’s a chef de cuisine on The Sioux Chef team and the bassist for the crust punk band War//Plague. In this episode, Vernon talks about his great-grandmother’s cooking, what resistance looks like in the kitchen and the music of War//Plague.

Links:

https://warplaguepunx.bandcamp.com/

http://sioux-chef.com/

https://www.facebook.com/warplaguepunx/

It’s Saguaro fruit harvest season and that means members of the Tohono O’odham Nation are out this weekend picking that sweet, sweet fruit from the tops of those iconic Arizona cactuses. In this episode, I talk with Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, Ph.D student in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona and Tohono O’odham history and culture teacher at the Tohono O’odham Community College, about this centuries-old traditional harvest.

Visit ToastedSisterPodcast.com for photos from Jacelle.

Visit the I'oligam Youth Alliance's Facebook page for more info.