A Feather and a Fork

From an acclaimed Indigenous chef comes an extraordinary cookbook that weaves powerful storytelling with 125 intertribal recipes to heal our bodies and restore our foodways—featuring a foreword by bestselling novelist and fellow Oaklandian Tommy Orange.

Chef Crystal Wahpepah has used her growing platform to tell the little-known history of Oakland’s tight-knit Native American communities, which were relocated from reservations across the country to the San Francisco Bay area in the 1950s. Crystal’s powerful message to reconnect to our foodways and transform generational trauma into strength as well as her healing dishes have been seen on Food Network’s Chopped and Beating Bobby Flay.

The rise of corporate agriculture around the world relies on singular and often genetically modified monocultures plus lots of chemicals and soil additives to produce massive crop yields. And while this approach may economically make sense on paper to feed multitudes at the lowest price point possible, it has harmed our physical health, emotional well-being, and the very creation that supports life. This truth applies not just to Indigenous people, who have been harmed by the federal commodified foods program, but to all of us who have come to rely on cheap and easy processed foods to feed our families. We no longer get the nutrients we need from our food and spend lots of money on supplementing our diets. We develop chronic diseases that can be avoided and even cured through eating habits.

Eat with the seasons, cure your disconnection with the land, and cook colorful, delicious food rooted in the oldest traditions including:

• Three Sisters Veggie Bowls
• Sweet Blue Cornbread with Huckleberry Compote
• Indigenous Popcorn Balls with Edible Flowers
• Strawberry-Sumac Salad with Maple-Sage Vinaigrette
• Bison Roast with Chokeberry Rub
• Smoked Salmon Dip with Red Chilies and Chips
• Acorn Muffins, and much more

A Feather and a Fork includes 125 recipes developed in collaboration with ethnobotanist and food sovereignty advocate Linda Black Elk to explore the environmental, spiritual, physical, and social benefits of each dish as well as raise awareness of and support for indigenous food producers who are preserving heirloom foods and traditions.