Category Archives: Business

‘Indigenous Chef keeps Wampanoag Traditions Alive in Her Kitchen’

Sherry Pocknett, seen here with her daughters Cheyenne and Jade Pocknett-Galvin, is the owner of Sly Fox Den Too and a Wampanoag chef who specializes in cooking indigenous foods. Ryan T. Conaty, The Bostn Globe

“Chef Sherry Pocknett [Wampanoag Nation] owner of Sly Fox Den Too, cooks with sustainably raised, hunted and fished animals at Charlestown restaurant.”

Excerpt:By Jenna Pelletier Globe Correspondent,Updated September 29, 2022

“Chef Sherry Pocknett started cooking locally and seasonally long before the term farm-to-table became buzzy. A member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, she has been foraging, farming and fishing since she was growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s.

Chef Sherry Pocknett, owner of Sly Fox Den Too , remembers helping her mother in the kitchen when she was a little girl. Ryan T. Conaty, The Bostn Globe.

‘Our people have always focused on local food,’ Pocknett says. ‘In the fall, we’d have raccoon and rabbit. In the springtime, it was striped bass with fiddlehead ferns, sunchokes and wild ramps.’

Pocknett now shares her Indigenous culture through the food she serves at her 30-seat Charlestown restaurant, Sly Fox Den Too. She runs it with her daughters, Jade and Cheyenne Pocknett-Galvin. The trio make dishes including quahog chowder, venison skewers, and three-sisters rice with corn cakes.

Roasted rabbit with root vegetables cooked at Sly Fox Den Too Ryan t. Conaty, Boston Globe.

The restaurant is named after Pocknett’s father, Chief Sly Fox, Vernon Pocknett, who died in 1999. ‘He taught us everything,’ she says. ‘He took all of the tribal kids under his wings and taught us how to fend for ourselves in nature,’ she says.

Sly Fox Den Too

The  ‘too’ in the name references the fact that Pocknett’s Charlestown restaurant is actually her Plan B. Shortly before the pandemic began, she started raising funds to renovate a property near her home in Preston, Conn. She is still working on developing the project, called the Sly Fox Den Restaurant, Museum, and Oyster Farm, where she plans to cook as well as offer educational programming on Indigenous culture. But her progress has been slow.”

Category: Business, Culture, Health | Tags: ,

A Native Cafe Helps the Native Chefs Fight Addiction

“Café Gozhóó in Arizona uses the kitchen to teach therapeutic skills to those recovering from substance abuse.” C. Nowell, The Guardian, July 13, 2022

Chef Nephi Craig uses notes in the kitchen to help his staff build their skills and work as a team. Photograph: Ash Ponders/The Guardian

Excerpt: The Indigenous cafe using native cuisine to help its chefs fight addiction. By Cecilia Nowell with photographs by Ash Ponders, The Guardian, July 13, 2022

“Driving along State Route 73 in eastern Arizona, it’s wide open skies and a red rock landscape, dotted with ponderosa pines, juniper bushes, yucca and prickly poppies. Just outside the White Mountain Apache town of Whiteriver, the blue roof of a gas station appears.

David Williams, a chef at Café Gozhóó in Whiteriver, Arizona, works during the lunch rush. The cafe teaches its chefs skills to overcome addiction and to create traditional Indigenous cuisine. Photograph: Ash Ponders/The Guardian

Only, it’s not a gas station anymore. The sign that once listed gas prices now welcomes visitors to Café Gozhóó, a new restaurant celebrating Western Apache cuisine. Inside, executive chef Nephi Craig – who

is White Mountain Apache and Diné, the Navajo word for the Navajo people – slices corn off freshly roasted cobs to make Apache cornbread, a three sisters salad and soup stock…But Café Gozhóó, which opened last October, isn’t just a restaurant. It’s also a vocational training program at the Rainbow Treatment Center, an addiction treatment program operated by the White Mountain Apache tribe since 1976.

Chef Crystal Wahpepah on the power of Indigenous cuisine- ‘Native foods are overlooked’

Craig, who is 10 years sober, is the center’s nutritional recovery program coordinator, and uses the kitchen to teach therapeutic skills – connecting with ancestral foods, stress management, and teamwork – to people recovering from substance abuse… Café Gozhóó is also filling a critical gap in access to care.

Many mainstream recovery programs are located far from Native American communities, and they often lack counselors trained in culturally competent care.

In his own journey to sobriety, Craig said, ‘I would encounter white counselors that would tell me, ‘You’re predisposed to become an alcoholic as a Native.’ But as he got deeper into his own study of recovery he realized, ‘It’s therapy’s dismissal of our legacy of historical trauma.’

The dishes at Café Gozhóó ‘allow people to build a relationship with food’, said chef Nephi Craig. Photograph: Ash Ponders/The Guardian

‘We’re not too far away from that time in history where so many of our food traditions, parenting traditions, ceremonies, agricultural traditions had to be abandoned and almost lost because of so much conflict in the American south-west,’ Craig said.

Café Gozhóó’s mission isn’t only about supporting recovery from substance abuse, but recovery from historical trauma.”

Category: Business, Culture, Education, Healing, Health, History, Native Food | Tags: ,

Diné Businessman Opens Paleta Bar Store in Mesa

“A coconut ice pop fully dipped in milk chocolate, topped with M&Ms and chunks of bananas, or a coffee ice pop dipped with powdered chili and chamoy, topped with Cocoa pebbles and chunks of watermelon. Delicious, right? They’re paletas, or eye-catching Mexican popsicles.” K. Allen, Navajo Times, Jan 21 2022

Courtesy photo | Franklin Yazzie Different flavors of paleta, or Mexican popsicles, are on showcase inside a Paleta Bar. The paletas can be dipped into other flavors and coated with toppings such as M&Ms and Oreos.

Excerpt: A taste of home: Diné entrepreneur set to open Paleta Bar store in Mesa, By Krista Allen, Navajo Times, Jan 21 2022

“And a store where people can buy these popsicles is opening Saturday in Mesa, Arizona (1917 S. Signal Butte Rd.).

At The Paleta Bar, Diné entrepreneur Franklin Yazzie said, it’s the customer’s choice. And there are many choices, each described as gourmet, fresh and made-to-order.

Courtesy photo | Franklin Yazzie Fresh fruits cubed and ready for toppings are seen under a showcase. Different flavors of paleta, or Mexican popsicles, can be dipped into other flavors and topped with chunks of fruits like watermelon and strawberries.

‘The Paleta Bar brand originated out of Albuquerque,’ explained Yazzie, 24, who’s a co-owner. ‘We recently started expanding into other states.’

Yazzie, who’s Bitáá’chii’nii, is originally from Naat’áanii Nééz-Tsé Bit’a’í. He’s a Navajo Prep alumnus.

Yazzie said after graduating from high school in 2015, he enrolled at Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque.

When he decided that he didn’t have academic strength to finish college, he dropped out to take an entrepreneurial route because he knew he could operate a business instead…The Paleta Bar serves all kinds of paletas, said Yazzie. They’re frozen dessert, but visitors on Saturday might be able to warm up these unique paletas.”

 

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During Covid-19, The Navajos Are Planting and Sharing

“As the pandemic has brought home the importance of the global movement for food sovereignty, members are planting and sharing.”  A. Nierenberg, The New York Times

Artie Yazzie grows produce for his community in the Arizona section of the Navajo Nation. Credit- J. Burcham- NYT

Excerpt;  For the Navajo Nation, a Fight for Better Food Gains New Urgency . Amelia Nierenberg, The New York Times

“When Summer Brown lived in Phoenix, she had no problem finding fresh produce. If the Sprouts supermarket near her home didn’t have what she was looking for, she would just drive somewhere else. This winter, Ms. Brown, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, moved back to her childhood home in Cornfields, Ariz., to start a small business as a leatherworker. Now, healthy food is harder to find for her two children, Paisley, 6, and Landon, 7. The entire Nation, which stretches 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, has fewer than 15 grocery stores.

The Teesto Community Garden, which Mr. Yazzie tends, has remained opened through the pandemic.Credit: John Burcham for The New York Times

The small gardens and cornfields rising across the Nation are attempts to correct legacies of historical wrongs. Once, the Diné were prosperous gardeners, hunters and stewards of the land. Then the United States government colonized the land and displaced the Diné in the mid-1800s, during what is now known as the Long Walk, to an internment camp at Fort Sumner, N.M. Livestock were killed off. Fields were trampled. And some orchards were lost forever…Many households do not have running water, at a time when hand washing is critical.

Many multigenerational families live together in compounds, which makes social distancing impossible. And for the Diné and many other Indigenous nations, the public health crises caused by food inequality are generations old… After seeing food shortages during the pandemic, many Diné have started gardens. Normally, they would work communally, but social distancing has required some innovations.

Mr. Earle keeps corn pollen in a pouch for his morning prayers.Credit: John Burcham for The New York Times

Many Diné also receive federal food benefits. ‘You’ve got to stretch those funds, and the cheapest out there is junk food,’ said Artie Yazzie, a community gardener, who grows produce for his neighbors.  ‘People come in here and pick whatever they want,” Mr. Yazzie said. ‘I just leave a sign.’ Some programs are working to get fresh produce to Diné children. The Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment program, a nonprofit health partnership, provides vouchers for families with young children that are good for buying only fruits, vegetables and traditional foods. The amount, depending on family size, can go up to $35 a week…Felix Earle, 43,  has been advising gardeners growing Indigenous seeds. In 2015, he found a handful of white corn kernels in a jar, 35 years after his grandmother hid them for safekeeping…This year, Mr. Earle, a fashion designer, planted his biggest crop ever. Across his property, stalks of corn are rising, almost 1,000 in all. He turned his discovery into a business, Red Earth Gardens, and gives kernels to interested members of the Nation. This year, for the first time, he ran out…It took a deadly virus to make people realize just how important this is, how important it is to grow your own food, he said.’ Some gardens at schools and senior centers have been closed since March.”

Indian Country Today:

Are you a Native student whose college or university has been closed or switched to online classes? Visit this spreadsheet for resources involving technology in Native communities. It is updated by San Juan College’s Native American Center.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basic information.

• Indian Health Service

• National Congress of American Indians

• National Indian Health Board

• COVID-19: Native advisories and event updates

“The Democrats bowed to the realities of the pandemic and canceled the major in-person speeches that were still planned for their convention this month.” By Reid J. Epstein and Katie Glueck, The New York Times

Credit: M. V. Agins/The New York Times

“I’ve wanted to set an example as to how we should respond individually to this crisis,” Mr. Biden said at a fund-raiser on Wednesday. “Science matters.” ~Democratic Presidential Leader Joe Biden~

Category: Business, Culture, Education, Healing, Health, History, Politics | Tags:

Tribe Buys Back Ancestral Land After 250 Years!

“The tribe purchased the 1,200 acre ranch near Big Sur as part of a $4.5m deal and will use it for educational and cultural purposes.”M. Koran, The Guardian

The Esselen Tribe of Monterey county now owns a small piece of their ancestral land along California’s north central coast.. Credit- Doug Steakley:AP

Excerpt: Northern California Esselen tribe regains ancestral land after 250 years,Mario Koran, The Guardian

“Two-hundred and fifty years after they were stripped of their ancestral homeland, the Esselen tribe of northern California is landless no more.

This week, the Esselen tribe finalized the purchase of a 1,200-acre ranch near Big Sur, along California’s north central coast, as part of a $4.5m acquisition that involved the state and an Oregon-based environmental group…Tribal leaders say they’ll use the land for educational and cultural purposes, building a sweat lodge and traditional village in view of Pico Blanco peak, the center of the tribe’s origin story.

The deal by the Esselen tribe will protect the Little Sur River. Photograph- Doug Steakley:AP

‘We’re the original stewards of the land. Now we’re returned,’ Tom Little Bear Nason, chairman of the Esselen tribe of Monterey county, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel… Since the 1950s the property, known as Rancho Aguila, had been owned by Axel Adler, a Swedish immigrant. After his death in 2004, his family put it up for sale for $15m.

After years-long negotiations, the Western Rivers Conservancy, a Portland-based environmental group, etched a deal to purchase the land and hand it over to the US Forest Service.

Working on behalf of the tribe, the conservancy secured a $4.5m grant from the California Natural Resources Agency to cover the land purchase and studies of the area.

Nason said the 214-member Esselen tribe will share it with other groups also native to the area, including the Ohlone, the Amah Mutsun and the Rumsen people – all of whom were devastated by the arrival of white settlers.”

‘This Is About Justice’: Biden Ties Economic Revival to Racial Equity

“In the last of four proposals laying out his vision for economic recovery, Joseph R. Biden Jr. pledged to lift up minority-owned businesses and to award them more federal contracts”. – By T. Kaplan and K. Glueck , The NYT

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. released the fourth piece of his “Build Back Better” proposal in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday.Credit- M. Agins-NYT

 

Resource Sites for the COVID-19:

Indian Country Today:

Are you a Native student whose college or university has been closed or switched to online classes? Visit this spreadsheet for resources involving technology in Native communities. It is updated by San Juan College’s Native American Center.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basic information.

• Indian Health Service

• National Congress of American Indians

• National Indian Health Board

• COVID-19: Native advisories and event updates

Category: Business, Culture, Education, Healing, History

NM Tribe Turns Casino into a Movie Studio!

“A small New Mexico tribe has opened a movie studio in a former casino that it hopes will lure big productions.”  R. Contreras, Indian Country Today

Cheyenne and Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre, talks about Tesuque Pueblo’s new film studio in Santa Fe, N.M.-Photo- AP: Russell Contreras.

 

Excerpt: Tribe transforms old casino into movie studio, Russell Contreras, ICT

“The Tesuque Pueblo recently converted the building near Santa Fe into a movie studio campus called Camel Rock Studios with more than 25,000 square feet of filming space.

The tribe’s lands feature stunning desert and the iconic Camel Rock formation in the red-brown foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and tribal officials said outdoor filming can take place on 27 square miles of the reservation.

The tribe with about 800 members decided to open the studio after scenes from the Universal Pictures western movie ‘News of the World’ starring Tom Hanks were filmed last year in the Camel Rock Casino, which closed in 2018.

Universal’s use of the casino for filming helped convince tribal officials to transform the empty building into studio space, said Timothy Brown, president and CEO of the Pueblo of Tesuque Development Corporation…Cheyenne and Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre, a Santa Fe resident and an advisor to Camel Rock Studio, said the studio’s unique aspect is that its former makeup as a casino provides the site with pre-made infrastructure that can be used for filming different types of movie scenes…Older movies filmed on the Tesuque Pueblo include the 1955 western ‘The Man from Laramie’ starring James Stewart and the 1988 ‘Young Guns’ with Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland…Tribal officials plan to create internships and movie training programs for Tesuque Pueblo members and hope that the studio will foster a new storytelling movement, Eyer said.”

Indian Country Today: Resource Sites for the COVID-19:

Are you a Native student whose college or university has been closed or switched to online classes? Visit this spreadsheet for resources involving technology in Native communities. It is updated by San Juan College’s Native American Center.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basic information.

• Indian Health Service

• National Congress of American Indians

• National Indian Health Board

• COVID-19: Native advisories and event updates

~Democratic Presidential Leader Joe Biden~

“European diplomats and foreign policy experts say that a Joe Biden presidency would restore the United States’ strained alliances with Europe.” Business Insider

STAY STRONG– STAY HEALTHY– STAY SAFE!

Category: Business, Culture, Native Actors, Story Tellers | Tags: ,
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