Original Local
Original Local: Indigenous Foods, Stories, and Recipes from the Upper Midwest
Indigenous cookbooks provide opportunities to share information about traditional culture and food knowledge. Indigenous-led cookbooks promote the resurgence of decolonization of food guides and protect Tribal knowledge surrounding traditional foods; they are documents of identity and resilience. Increasing the consumption of Indigenous foods — becoming more familiar with local ingredients and cooking methods — can greatly benefit the health of oneself and community. The cookbooks in this section feature a combination of modern and traditional recipes that oppose the dominant and westernized worldview of food and nutrition. While there are hundreds of astounding Indigenous cookbooks, the College of Menominee Nation staff are most familiar with the following three books and often offer these cookbooks as gifts to Menominee community members attending food sovereignty events. Heid E. Erdrich’s cookbook, Original Local: Indigenous Foods, Stories, and Recipes from the Upper Midwest (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013), shares essays and recipes to highlight the Upper Midwest region’s Indigenous food her itage — such as wild rice (manoomin), game, foraged plants, nuts, and berries. Erdrich also includes native ingredients from across North America. Original Local’s chapters are structured by food groups, with sections on vegetables and beans, herbs and tea, and maple and berries and offers insight from a broad representation of regional Tribes, including Ho- Chunk, Menominee, Potawatomi, and Mandan. Recipes include the following: manoomin lasagna with roasted squash and garlic, decolonized green bean casserole, and blue corn mush with smut and quail eggs. Many of the recipes are vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free. Erdrich also offers resources, advice, history,
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