Friday, May 16, 2025

Acclaimed Indigenous chef Sean Sherman is expanding his nonprofit to Montana. Yellowstone Public Radio’s Ruth Eddy has more about his plans in Bozeman. “So we’ve got ground elk, onions, delicata squash. We just chopped it up real fine. It’s got sumac, cedar, and salt in it “  Chef Rob Kinneen with the nonprofit Indigenous Food Lab is grilling at the kitchen of Fork and Spoon in Bozeman. The social enterprise restaurant run by the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) serves pay what you can meals five nights a week, but also rents out its commercial kitchen. Tonight, the kitchen is being used for a pop-up dinner as a taste of what’s to come in Bozeman, as Sean Sherman’s nonprofit starts using the kitchen regularly sometime in the near future.  “Our goal is to try and get food access to tribal communities all across the state, and that’s what we’re hoping to do right here in this building” Sean Sherman’s restaurant in Minneapolis was named James Beard’s best restaurant in America in 2022. Owamni highlights Indigenous ingredients by removing colonial ingredients like dairy, wheat, flour, cane sugar, beef, pork, and chicken. Tonight’s 7 course pop up does the same. The elk skewer is plated on top of a dark red circle of sauce made from currents, topped with fresh ramps, and drizzled with a pine syrup. Sherman explains.   “We harvested this pine cut it all up and then we’re going to cook it down with some maple syrup and some water and just let it simmer for a long time till the water starts to evaporate but it’ll absorb a lot of this pine flavor” This is the only Bozeman pop-up on the calendar for the time being, but Sherman says he hopes a restaurant in Bozeman isn’t too far away. Sherman says their first step is improving Native food access, and making educational videos.  Megan Vincent was one of 80 guests at the pop up. She is a culinary arts teacher at a high school in Lewistown. She said the food was amazing, and the braised bison and wild rice flan were favorites.  “I want to figure out that dessert. I really want the dessert recipe, to see if I can make that with them. I think the idea of making desert taste that good without using those standard ingredients like sugar and dairy would be an amazing experience.” (Courtesy PBS Kids) The next season of the PBS KIDS show “Molly of Denali” will be the last for the foreseeable future. KTOO’S Jamie Diep reports. The team behind the award-winning children’s TV show will stop working on new content. The show is widely celebrated in Alaska because it features an Alaska Native lead character and showcases Alaska Native culture. This comes as the Trump administration is cracking down on federal funding. But Alaska State Writer Laureate Vera Starbard, who is a writer and story editor for the show, says that’s not the full story. While she and other writers knew the decision was in the works before the presidential election last year, she says they didn’t get the official announcement until recently. And she says she doesn’t think there’s just one reason for the decision. “What I don’t want is for a show this great and this exceptional to be put into this very polarized political lens of ‘it’s x person that did it. It’s this x action that did it.’ It’s actually a lot of sort of typical television reasons. I do think the funding atmosphere that has been tough for a while, political atmospheres, those all for sure, contribute to the much bigger reasons.” This is not the end for the show though – another season will air – but PBS is not commissioning another season of the show. “Molly of Denali” premiered in 2019 and was the first nationally distributed children’s program to feature Indigenous main characters. The show won its first Emmy Award earlier this year for an episode written by Juneau resident X̱’unei Lance Twitchell. He and Starbard were among several Alaska Native writers who contributed to the show during its run.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.