Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Uncover the stories behind the foods that have linked the natural environments, traditions, and histories of Indigenous peoples across North America for millennia through more than 100 ancestral and modern recipes from three-time James Beard Award–winning Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman.
“I’ve been completely seduced by Sean Sherman’s new book. This is so much more than enticing recipes and gorgeous photos.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry
“A collection of the stories that tell deeper truths about our country and the people who have always been here.”—José Andrés, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen
A BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, LIBRARY JOURNAL
Growing up on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman understood that his people’s food was rich in flavor, heritage, and connection to the land. It was in the midst of a successful restaurant career mainly cooking European cuisines that he realized the lack of understanding about Native American foodways—a revelation that sent him on a journey to learn more about how Indigenous communities have preserved and evolved their cuisines through the centuries. Now a leading figure in the Indigenous food movement, he shares in Turtle Island the unique and diverse Native foodways of North America through both traditional and modern recipes made with ingredients that have nourished Indigenous peoples physically, spiritually, and culturally for generations.
Organized by region, this book delves into the rich culinary landscapes of Turtle Island—as many Indigenous cultures call this continent. Learn to eat with the seasons, consume meat and fish nose-to-tail, focus on plant-forward dishes, and discover how to better feed yourself. Alongside delicious recipes like Smoked Bison Ribeye, Wild-Rice Crusted Walleye Cakes, Charred Rainbow Trout with Grilled Ramps, Sweet Potato Soup with Dried Venison and Chile Oil, Sunflower Seed “Risotto,” and Sweet Corn Pudding with Woodland Berry Sauce (and so much more), you’ll see the inspiring Indigenous food scene through Sean’s eyes.
Exemplifying how Native foodways can teach us all to connect with the natural world around us, Turtle Island features rich narrative histories and spotlights the communities producing, gathering, and cooking these foods, including remarkable stories of ingenuity and adaptation that capture the resilience of Indigenous communities.
“I’ve been completely seduced by Sean Sherman’s new book. This is so much more than enticing recipes and gorgeous photos.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry
“A collection of the stories that tell deeper truths about our country and the people who have always been here.”—José Andrés, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen
A BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, LIBRARY JOURNAL
Growing up on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman understood that his people’s food was rich in flavor, heritage, and connection to the land. It was in the midst of a successful restaurant career mainly cooking European cuisines that he realized the lack of understanding about Native American foodways—a revelation that sent him on a journey to learn more about how Indigenous communities have preserved and evolved their cuisines through the centuries. Now a leading figure in the Indigenous food movement, he shares in Turtle Island the unique and diverse Native foodways of North America through both traditional and modern recipes made with ingredients that have nourished Indigenous peoples physically, spiritually, and culturally for generations.
Organized by region, this book delves into the rich culinary landscapes of Turtle Island—as many Indigenous cultures call this continent. Learn to eat with the seasons, consume meat and fish nose-to-tail, focus on plant-forward dishes, and discover how to better feed yourself. Alongside delicious recipes like Smoked Bison Ribeye, Wild-Rice Crusted Walleye Cakes, Charred Rainbow Trout with Grilled Ramps, Sweet Potato Soup with Dried Venison and Chile Oil, Sunflower Seed “Risotto,” and Sweet Corn Pudding with Woodland Berry Sauce (and so much more), you’ll see the inspiring Indigenous food scene through Sean’s eyes.
Exemplifying how Native foodways can teach us all to connect with the natural world around us, Turtle Island features rich narrative histories and spotlights the communities producing, gathering, and cooking these foods, including remarkable stories of ingenuity and adaptation that capture the resilience of Indigenous communities.
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Community Reviews
Turtle Island by Sean Sherman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sean Sherman's Turtle Island is an atlas of Indigenous foodways across an entire continent — from the ice and tundra of the far north all the way down to the Mesoamerican rainforest. 🌎 As someone from the Great Plains and Indian Territory, I naturally gravitated toward those chapters first, and I was not disappointed. The writing is specific and intentional — each section identifies the distinct tribes of the region and how they worked with their local landscape to create food traditions that are both ancient and accessible in today's kitchen.
This is a dream cookbook for naturalists, foragers, and chefs. Wild game like venison, rabbit, turkey, and quail are featured prominently, as are everyday forageable ingredients that are probably growing closer to home than you'd think — dandelion, goldenrod, chokecherries, and sunflowers. I was surprised to discover that devil's claw can be harvested and roasted in early spring. The book doesn't include a method for preparing mesquite flour the way it does Nixtamal Masa, but it does put it to use — the mesquite pod, harvested in late summer and milled into flour, shows up in a recipe for Mesquite Tamales with Tepary Beans and Green Chili.
This is a five-star read for anyone who loves food, history, the natural world, or simply wants to understand this land a little better through the people who have always known it best. 💛
Thank you to Ten Speed Press for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.
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