The Mill City Times Interview: Dana Thompson, Co-Owner/COO, The Sioux Chef and Executive Director, NATIFS

Article by Becky Fillinger

Dana ThompsonIt’s November and you're probably starting to think about Thanksgiving meals. Do you like to eat corn, beans, squash, turkey, wild rice, cranberries and blueberries? Who doesn’t like these Indigenous foods?

We sat down with Dana Thompson, Co-Owner/COO of The Sioux Chef and Executive Director of NATIFS, to learn more about traditional Indigenous foods, where we may enjoy them and the new Mississippi riverfront park project, Water Works.

Q:  Please tell us about NATIFS and the Indigenous Food Lab.

A:  NATIFS, or North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in 2017. Our mission is to promote Indigenous foodways education and facilitate Indigenous food access. We spread Indigenous food knowledge, train and develop Indigenous food producers, create Indigenous food access in tribal communities, and provide Indigenous education focused on Indigenous food systems. I co-founded this nonprofit with my partner Sean Sherman, with whom I also own the company The Sioux Chef.

We are launching a culinary training center called the Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis. The Indigenous Food Lab will offer different kinds of classes on all aspects of Indigenous-focused food service, including Native American agriculture, farming techniques, seed saving, wild foods, ethnobotany, Indigenous medicines, cooking techniques, regional diversity, nutrition, language, history, health, and healing. Through distance learning, a robust archive of instructional videos, live Zoom classes, and in-person classes as possible, we will give instruction on how to process and work with these foods.

The goal for this training center is to help tribal communities in our region develop, implement, and maintain Indigenous food entities for their communities, which could be as small as developing a product for market or designing a small catering operation utilizing products grown by Native farmers, or as large as a full-scale restaurant, depending on the means and resources of the individuals and the community. Once open, these satellite tribal entities will help directly influence community members by giving them access to healthy Indigenous foods that are designed to represent their tribe, in their language, using their regional flavors, and giving them the resources to grow community gardens, create permaculture landscapes, process and preserve foods, and create more Indigenous food leaders and food processors to plug into our growing network.

Dana and Sean

Q:  Can you tell us about the genesis of the Water Works project? What groups came together to make it happen?

A:  My partner, Sean and I were approached by an employee of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) back in 2015 as we were at the Owamni Falling Water Festival with the Tatanka Truck, our former food truck. They told us a little bit about the RiverFirst initiative and the project slated to take place across the river. Of course we were excited by the idea in any capacity, just the thought of another parks restaurant was incredible, and on the Mississippi...wow! They then told us that they would be putting out a public request for proposals for the food operator. We kept our eyes open for this opportunity, and when the time came, we put together a beautiful presentation and were ultimately selected! 

Once we got through the process, we were invited by the MPRB and the Minneapolis Parks Foundation to work with the architects at HGA to advise on the design of the building to make sure it was thought through with an Indigenous lens. Then as we moved closer to the build-out we were introduced to Damon Farber Landscape Architects. We had all agreed that it would add more educational opportunities to the site if we used native plantings in the landscape. We worked with our team to research all the uses of plants that we had chosen and broke them into columns - Food, Medicine and Ceremony. After that we helped to deliver the Dakota names for each of these plants so signs could be created to help people on walking tours begin to understand the long history of these sacred relatives.

Q:  I walk by the Water Works construction almost daily - what's the status/timeline for completing the facility?

A:  The construction team estimates that Water Works will be completed by early Spring of 2021. We plan to start doing at least take-out and delivery by then. Depending on the state of the pandemic, it's hard to say when we will be able to allow indoor seating, but there is plenty of outdoor seating, so we think it's going to be incredible no matter what happens.

The Owamni by The Sioux Chef restaurant will feature a wall of windows looking out on the Mississippi River, and ample outdoor seating.

Q:  What is your vision of how the new park facility will be used?

A:  There are so many resources onsite. Inside of the building there is a big lobby that will open eventually, and a community room that can be reserved using a calendar that the Park Board will have ready for the community. We plan to use that room for Indigenous education and also for the occasional coursed dinner that people would be able to purchase tickets to well in advance. There is a playground and so much space to run around. We hope that people of all ages will be able to enjoy it! The park designed everything they could think of to be ADA compliant, so all people will be able to spend time inside, enjoying the views from the patio, and wander around the grounds fairly easily.

One of Sean's 10 essential Native American recipes: Three Sisters Bowl with hominy, beans and squashQ:  I was inspired after reading of the partnership with Second Harvest Heartland. How is that project progressing?

A:  We have been producing 300-500 meals per day for the at-risk community here in the Twin Cities since June. We have other funding partners now which is going to increase our production to closer to 800/day through the end of the year. We are bringing in new staff almost weekly to help us meet the demand, and many of them are Indigenous. We hope that some of these staff members will be interested in working at Water Works too, eventually. It's great to have some of our restaurant community being able to participate in something with such meaning, and to give back to the community that is experiencing food insecurity right now.

Q:  How may our readers stay current with your projects?

A:  We encourage people to sign up for the mailing list on our websites, or follow us on social media to stay attuned to our goings-ons. We are running at full speed right now so it's hard to stay in communication with everyone, so social media is fun for that purpose.  

NATIFS Twitter  The Sioux Chef Twitter  Facebook: NATIFS The Souix Chef. Here is our most current Kickstarter update as well. 

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

About Becky Fillinger

I’ve been a resident of the Mill District only since July 2019, but have visited the Guthrie, the Farmers Market, restaurants and friends in the area for many years prior to making the leap to Minneapolis. I’ve lived in many places (and climates) in the US and can testify that our cultural events, bicycle and hiking trails, parks and green spaces, museums, diverse neighborhoods and wonderful restaurants put Minnesota and Minneapolis high on my best places list. I’m a member of the Mill City Singers and look forward to our choir practices and performances.

One of my main interests is community - a very broad concept. For me it means bringing people together with common interests to form meaningful relationships. I look forward to reporting on businesses and individuals in our neighborhoods. Feel free to drop me an email at becky_fillinger@hotmail.com with your thoughts and ideas for stories.