Bring a Bit of Native America to Your Table!
First Nations Development Institute – with the help of some of our great grantees – is offering cookbooks and recipes from Native American tribes and organizations. Preparing some of these dishes is a great way to bring a delicious taste of Native America to your table.
We have posted three cookbooks that were developed under a project aimed at healthier cooking and improving nutrition for recipients of the USDA’s Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, or FDPIR. And we have included various individual Native American recipes.
First Nations’ longtime food effort – the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative – and our newer partnerships in the FDPIR “Nutrition for Native American Communities” project and the “Seeds of Native Health” campaign, led us to think that sharing cookbooks and a few recipes — some of which use traditional Native ingredients or processes, or which can be prepared with food items in the FDPIR program — would be a wonderful way to observe Native American Heritage Month. “There is a major shift occurring in Indian Country as Native people are producing their own traditional foods on their own lands to sustain themselves, their families and their communities. This movement is an act of sovereignty and will contribute to having sustainable sources of foods. We sincerely thank our community partners for providing these cookbooks and recipes this year.
Cookbooks
The new cookbooks include a regional version called Cooking Healthier with FDPIR Foods, and two local versions from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and the STAR School, which serves the Navajo Nation. You can read or download these cookbooks for free at these links:
- Cooking Healthier with FDPIR Foods
- Oneida Traditional & Healthy Foods for Our Community Cookbook
- NIZHÓNÍGO ÍÍNÁ – Cooking with Navajo Traditional Foods
(These cookbooks and other items can also be found in the FDPIR Toolkit )
