Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America

Turtle Island is a beautiful exploration of the delicious foods that have for millennia linked the environments, traditions, history, and cultures of the Native communities of the North American continent, with ancestral and modern Indigenous recipes from three-time James Beard Award winner Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota, founder of The Sioux Chef.

Growing up on Pine Ridge Reservation, Sean Sherman always knew that the food of the Oglala Lakota tribe was rich in flavor and deeply connected to the natural environment. But as a chef, it took a mid-career revelation to recognize the absence of Native American cuisine in the modern culinary scene. Since then, he’s been on a mission to understand and highlight these beautiful and diverse foods and traditions that have continued to thrive through the centuries.

Now a leading figure in the Indigenous food movement, he guides readers through the unique and varied Native foods of North America—sharing both traditional and modern recipes inspired by dishes that have nourished Native peoples physically, spiritually, and culturally for generations. Organized by region, this book delves into the bountiful culinary landscapes of Turtle Island—as the continent is called by multiple Indigenous cultures—that are as diverse as the many terrains from which they arise.

Alongside delicious recipes like Smoked Bison Ribeye, Wild-Rice Crusted Walleye Cakes, Sunflower Seed “Risotto,” and Corn-Four-Ways Tacos (and so much more), Turtle Island features expansive narrative histories and spotlights the people and communities producing, gathering, and cooking these foods, including remarkable stories of ingenuity and adaptation that capture the resilience of tribal communities.

About the Author

Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota, born on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, is a chef and leader who has been cooking across the United States and the world for the past thirty years. His main culinary focus has been to raise awareness of and revitalize Native food systems in a modern culinary context. In 2014, he founded The Sioux Chef, a food education and catering project, in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. His first book, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, was published in 2017 and won a James Beard award for American Cooking. His restaurant Owamni opened in Minneapolis in 2021 and was honored on many best new restaurant lists, winning the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. In 2023, Sean was named to Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people.

Author Residence: Minneapolis, MN

Author Hometown: Pine Ridge, SD