Summary

Part 7 opens with the story of Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef, a pun on the French word sous-chef. Sherman’s promotion of indigenous cuisine is an affirmation of a culture too often marked by loss, Treuer says. “Sean’s food, the whole conception of it, affirms us: All is not lost, it tells us. Much remains—of our cultures, our knowledge, our values. It literally rests at our feet and over our heads; all we need do is reach out and pluck it. This is a profound politics” (416).

Reclaiming health is a form of activism for Indians. “Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer—these are the products of oppression,” Treuer says (419). As the government destroyed the buffalo to starve Native peoples, it supplied them with lard and flour. Chelsey Luger (Ojibwe and Lakota), co-founder of an organization that promotes Indian health online...