- [Lidia] I meet Sean in downtown Minneapolis at Owamni, an upscale restaurant showcasing the fruits of Sean's labor.

(gentle music) - This is a white sweet potato, grilled and seared, topped with our maple chili crisp oil and fresh scallions.

- So we have things like this true wild rice that comes from Minnesota.

We have a wonderful hominy and bison stew.

And we've got some tepary bean dip.

We've got fresh made tostadas that we make ourselves from native corns.

We've got some roasted bison.

And just a whole bunch of ingredients, everything from crickets, to puffed rice, to sauces, to wild foods that are right outside the window.

- So nutritionally, this is really balanced here.

- Absolutely.

Becoming a chef, I learned Italian cuisine, I learned Spanish, I learned French, I learned all these things.

But I realized at a certain point that these are all colonial food bases.

And I really knew nothing about my own heritage food, because our foods was taken from us in the colonial history.

So I wanted to try and showcase that there's so much beautiful bounty here in North America to talk about, that's not European influenced.

- Food is culture, food is who we are.

- Absolutely.

- And food tells a story from the way back.

- Why don't we just put together a couple of these tacos, 'cause this might look like what you might call Mexican food, But Mexican cuisine, it's way more indigenous than it is European influenced.

Because we have things like the nixtamalized corn tortillas, and we have things like chilies, and beans, and squash.

And then I'm just gonna build a couple of little tacos for us.

So this is a chili and maple sauce.

- Chili and maple sauce?

- Yep.

- And what are you putting on now?

- [Sean] This is some braised bison that's cooked with cedar.

- [Lidia] Wow, that's a lot of bison.

- And then this is just a little bit of fresh cedar too.

So I like to, just to put a little tiny bit.

- So you, like us Italians, we use a lot of fresh herbs, and bay leaves, and rosemary, the little bushes.

You're using the cedar in the same fashion.

- [Sean] Yeah.

Just take a quick taste of this.

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

(gentle music) - Delicious.

- Um hm.

- A nice spice.

There's some nice acidity.

- Some crunch.

- Um hm.

- We're not trying to cook like the past.

We're not trying to cook like it's 1491.

We're not a museum piece, you know.

We're trying to showcase what's possible for the future, what's possible for now moving forward.

And so we want to get this food directly out to the indigenous communities to help curb a lot of the health epidemics that are out there with high rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes.

And some of our communities have upwards to 60% type two diabetes because of the poor nutrition that's out there.

And the restaurant's just a place to help move this food, to create jobs and skills for people to develop, to create more restaurants and more workers in the industry.

And to just, you know, try to figure out how do we create more food distribution, more education around this food.

- [Lidia] What should I taste next?

- [Sean] This is a tepary bean spread.

And really cool bean because it's drought resistant, and it grows wild.

- That's a tepary?

- Tepary.

As we're going through a lot of water crisis in North America, this could be a crop that could be really important to us.

(gentle music) - Delicious.

The sensibility, you know, as a chef, you like it mellow, you like it acidic, you like it sweet, you like it, the texture, crunchy.

- We're creating something new.

You know, we're creating something that should already be here.

But we're doing it for the intention of this next generation.

So when this next generation grows up, they're gonna see it being normal to see Native American restaurants out there, to see Native American food products.

And being able to have access to eat them, and knowing what their body feels like when you're eating this healthy, beautiful food.

And we're trying to do something to really set the stage for making massive change that's gonna be good for all of us as we move forward.