File:Prominent Native American chefs gathered at USDA to prepare Indigenous cuisine for the White House Tribal Nations Summit on 5 December 2023 - 21.jpg

English: This week, prominent Native American chefs gathered at USDA to prepare Indigenous cuisine for the White House Tribal Nations Summit (Dec. 6-7) and related events. This year’s White House Summit highlights Native American foods, and USDA is empowering Indigenous foodways and food sovereignty through new programs and resources. The chefs are joined by students and faculty from the Southwestern Polytechnical Institute (SIPI) Tribal College Culinary Program. Together, they prepared meals that center Indigenous ingredients and foodways, including smoked salmon with a foraged vinaigrette of cedar, spruce, rose, labrador tea; bison tepary bean chili; smoked fish, squash, and cranberry soup; and turkey roulade with wild rice. All dishes feature tribally produced ingredients.

The chefs included: Rob Kinneen Tlingit (Alaska), Lead Chef, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS); Crystal Wapepah (Kickapoo and Sac & Fox Tribes), Joe Robbins, Penobscot, (Maine); Fransisco Algeria, Menominee, (Wisconsin), and Leah Husby, Menominee, (Wisconsin).

They were joined by students and faculty from the culinary program at Southwestern Polytechnical Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque N.M.: Leonard Bailey, Chef instructor, Rebecca Lee (Yupik Athabaskan/White Mountain Apache), Educator Technician Tutor; Bilhiigibaa “Billy” Vigil (Navajo/Acoma Pueblo/Oglala Sioux) Aysa Norberto (Navajo); Summer Hornbek (Kickapoo/Navajo); Lynette Pradt (Laguna Pueblo/Winnebago); and Benjamin Romero (Taos Pueblo) (USDA photo by Tom Witham)