What better way to celebrate National Native American Heritage Month than by going out and learning about the cultures and trying indigenous foods.
Before Colorado was a state, almost 50 indigenous tribes called the region home. Today, the western part of the state is where the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe have jurisdictions and in Denver, there are more than 200 Tribal Nations represented within the American Indian/Alaska Native communities.
November is a great time to enjoy Native cuisine and experience Native culture. On November 23 we celebrate indigenous foods with EEATS, a fundraiser for the American Indian College Fund at Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Expect lots of bites, a bit of show, and tons of information on local and national Native cultures. Until then, read on for more information on where you can try these ancient foods.
Native American Cuisine In Denver
Currently Tocabe: An American Indian Eatery is Denver’s only Native owned and operated restaurant. Ben Jacobs, a tribal member of the Osage Nation and the restaurant’s co-owner, sources all of the restaurant’s ingredients from Native producers. Much of the food is also cooked by Native staff at the restaurant.
Located in North Denver at 3536 W.44th Ave., the menu features items like fry bread stuffed with shredded bison, beans, cheese, and sauces. Also find bison ribs and customized posu bowls made with quinoa and redberry.
Jacobs also operates Tocabe Indigenous Marketplace out of the restaurant’s former Greenwood Village location. Here the company supplies its online sales hub and commissary. The marketplace sells some of the same ingredients found in the restaurant. For example, Red Lake Nation Foods Minnesota Cultivated Wild Rice, also called manoomin. The blue corn meal comes from the Ute peoples’ farms in Colorado, and there’s a balsamic vinegar made by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in Brooks, California, and combined with a local vinegar company based in Thornton. Also look for Ramona Farms Brown Tepary Beans, or s-oam bavi.
For those wanting to stock up on prepared Native eats, Jacobs and his team created Tocabe’s Harvest Meals, a frozen food component of the company that gets shipped all over the country. Tocabe also makes direct-to-tribe meals for the nonprofit, Seed to Soul, which brings nourishing food made with indigenous ingredients directly to tribal members in Denver and to the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota.
The EATSS Event and Fundraiser
Aside from his work feeding indigenous communities, Jacobs participates in events like the American Indian College Fund’s upcoming fundraiser Denver EATSS on Saturday, November 23 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Piggybacking on a similar event held in the Twin Cities, the Denver EATSS aims to immerse guests in Native culture, with food, art, and discussion.
“Part of our work at the College Fund is to also increase visibility of our students and Native people generally, as well as cultures and their languages, their art forms and their ways of life,” said NancyJo Houk, the American Indian College Fund’s chief marketing and development officer. “When we were trying to think about how we could share more indigenous and native culture with a broader population, food has become such an interesting and obsessive hobby for a lot of people.”
The Denver event will feature food created by Jacobs, Andean chef Andrea Condes (Murdoch), who is behind local catering company Four Directions. Beyond Colorado, the event is also joined by chef Bradley Dry from Tulsa and chef Paul Natrall, a member of the Squamish First Nations tribe from Vancouver.
“It’s something that we all share and we thought food would be a great way to introduce people to Native culture,” said Dry, who has cooked for the production Reservation Dogs. “We have so many Native chefs in the United States that are doing great work creating a Native food wave and access to healthy foods for tribal communities and we wanted to showcase that.”
In addition to food, the event will feature art from students at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and music from Native musicians. Plus, there’s a performance by local musician and international star, Nathaniel Rateliff.
“It’s just really amazing to see how big these events have become and how many more people we’ve been able to reach since we started doing this seven years ago,” said Dry.
More Local Native American Culture
The American Indian College Fund’s purpose is to provide funding and scholarships to students attending Tribal Colleges.
“We were created in 1989 to help promote and support tribally or culturally-oriented Native American education and students,” said Houk. “We are trying to engage people in allyship and support of Native ways, people, and communities.”
To get more exposure to Native American culture in Denver, Jacobs suggests starting at the Denver Art Museum to explore the Indigenous Arts of North America Galleries. The Denver March Powwow is another event that has taken place at the Denver Coliseum since the 1980s. The annual fete features singing, music, storytelling, dancing, food, and art. Jacobs also suggests people tune in to American Indian bands such as Lindy Vision, Cherokee Social, and Whisperhawk. He also enjoys attending art openings like the Colorado Indian Market and Southwest Art Fest.
“We want people to come out and experience what we have to share, to experience our culture and our cuisine in a way that we’re all on the same level,” said Jacobs. “You’re getting it from storytellers of people that represent different people and different communities.”
