Having cooked in many kitchens around the Twin Cities, Sean Sherman, who is Oglala Lakota, was surprised when the modern culinary and locavore movements didn’t seem to include indigenous foods. He founded The Sioux Chef organization in 2014 and hired partner Dana Thompson to address that gap, and wrote a James Beard Award-winning cookbook with Beth Dooley on the subject. But the plan was always bigger, first by launching an Indigenous Food Lab with Thompson that serves as a learning center, a market for indigenous ingredients, and a test kitchen. In 2021, Sherman and Thompson opened Owamni in Minneapolis, a first-of-its-kind indigenous restaurant. The idea is that it could be replicated in other regions across the country, igniting a movement to discover and appreciate Indigenous cuisine.