An Evening with Sean Sherman, The Sioux Chef
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
University Center Ballroom and
7:30pm
This free community event is the 2026 Brennan Guth Memorial Lecture in Environmental Philosophy and is co-sponsored by the 91次元’s Campus Dining department, Native American Center of Excellence and Davidson Honors College. ASL interpretation will be provided. A Livestream link will be available closer to the event.
A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, Chef Sean Sherman was born and raised on the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His focus is on the revitalization and evolution of
Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. Through his activism and advocacy, Sean
is helping to reclaim and celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Indigenous communities around
the world.
Sean has dedicated his career to supporting and promoting Indigenous food systems and
Native food sovereignty. His goal is to make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many
communities as possible through the non-profit North American Traditional Indigenous Food
Systems () and its Indigenous Food Lab, a professional Indigenous kitchen and training
center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by
re-establishing Native foodways, NATIFS imagines a new North American food system that
generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises.
In 2017, Sean published his first book with author Beth Dooley, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous
Kitchen, which received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook in 2018. He is
also the recipient of the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021,
Sean opened Minnesota’s first full service Indigenous restaurant, Owamni by The Sioux Chef,
which received the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America for 2022. Most
recently, Chef Sean Sherman was honored as
and in 2023 was named recipient of the ninth annual for culinary
activism, innovation.