Image for Honoring Indigenous Food and Culture: Native American Heritage Month

Honoring Indigenous Foodways

This fall, we invite you to honor Indigenous food and culture.

For many Native American communities, fall is a ceremonial season of communal harvest feasts. It is a time to celebrate foods like squash, corn, beans, root vegetables, wild rice, berries, wild game, and smoked fish. For the Dakota and Ojibwe, these feasts highlight the flavors and traditions of the land. Other tribes celebrate with locally grown and foraged foods.

As you gather with loved ones, take a moment to show gratitude for the food on your table, the hands that prepared it, and the land that provided it. Reflect on the resources, time, and care that went into each ingredient. This tribute celebrates the power of food to connect us all.

We acknowledge that our three store locations in Imni Ża Ska in Mni Sota Makoce (now known as Saint Paul, Minnesota) are on the traditional territory of the Dakota people, who have been deeply connected to the land within and beyond the boundaries of our state for centuries.

The Dakota

The Dakota language is found throughout the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs, from Mendota to Anoka. In fact, “Minnesota” is derived from the Dakota phrase “Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds.” Imni Ża Ska refers to the white bluffs along the Mississippi River.

According to the Bdote Memory Map website:

This is a place where Dakota people started. We were here to greet the explorers and traders who arrived in the 1500s. We were here to greet the soldiers who arrived in the 1800s.

We were here to greet the pioneers who arrived when our land was taken in a series of treaties with the United States. In the 1860s, we survived imprisonment in concentration camps and forced removal, and continue to know this place as our own. Today, we share our home with people from throughout the world.

As stated in Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgement, “Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people’s history and culture and toward inviting and honoring the truth.”

Native American Heritage Month in November and Indigenous People’s Day in October aim to celebrate the contributions and culture of Indigenous people; recognize the deep traumas faced by their community; reshape the narrative surrounding Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas; begin to repair relationships with Native communities and with the land, and serve as a reminder that colonization is an ongoing process, with Native lands still occupied due to deceptive and broken treaties.

Native American Heritage Month at Your Co-op

Cooking Indigenous Dishes

Try this Three Sisters Soup recipe from Dream of Wild Health.

Three Sisters Soup refers to the corn, beans, and squash. Together, they form a culturally significant nutrient-dense meal. This soup has fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamin C, potassium, and more.

Dream of Wild Health is the Positive Change recipient for November 2025. One of the oldest Native-led nonprofits in the Twin Cities, this organization promotes health and wellness through culturally grounded opportunities for youth leadership, employment, and entrepreneurship. They increase access to Indigenous foods through farm production, sales, and distribution. Dream of Wild Health also provides education that supports the reclamation of cultural traditions, Indigenous cooking, and nutrition.

This month when you shop at the co-op, round up at the register to support Dream of Wild Health in expanding and developing farmland and food production to better support and meet the needs of our most vulnerable community members.

Shop Indigenous

Mississippi Market is proud to carry products from Red Lake Nation Foods and Red Lake Nation Fishery.

Red Lake Nation Foods: provides us with local, hand-harvested wild rice.
Red Lake Nation Fishery: offers Red Lake Walleye, bringing traditional flavors and quality to our shelves.

By purchasing these items, you directly support independent, Indigenous, community-led food systems.

Support NĀTIFS (North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems)

From November 5 through December 2, for every Field Day product you purchase at the co-op, $0.05 will be donated to NĀTIFS, a nonprofit revitalizing Indigenous food systems and promoting cultural preservation. Founded by Lakota Chef Sean Sherman, NĀTIFS empowers Indigenous communities through initiatives like the Indigenous Food Lab, which offers educational workshops, entrepreneurial support, and access to Indigenous foodways. To learn more, visit natifs.org, follow NĀTIFS on social media, or make your own donation.