Indigenous Museum Cafes Embrace Tradition and Innovation

As a We Wai Kai First Nation member, I know that food connects Indigenous people to our history, traditions, and stories. There are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes; approximately 400 seek federal recognition. Yet some people are unfamiliar with what even makes up Indigenous food because of the historical erasure of Indigenous culinary traditions, the limited availability of Native ingredients, and the lack of widespread Indigenous representation in mainstream dining.

However, at museums across the United States, Indigenous restaurants and cafes engage directly with visitors and diners via wild rice bowls, buffalo tacos, and fry bread. Fry bread — a dish deeply tied to Indigenous culinary history — carries a complicated legacy. While it embodies resilience and survival, born out of government rations during forced relocations, not all Native people view it as a cherished tradition. For some, it serves as a poignant reminder of hardship, yet for others, it remains a comforting, nostalgic food and an accessible entry point to Indigenous cuisine. Fry bread and other Indigenous dishes can offer a powerful contrast to a whitewashed national history, and the museum cafes where they’re served often act as living classrooms of culture, history, and resilience. Through thoughtful collaborations and menus steeped in Indigenous traditions, these cafes honor the past while embracing innovation. In every bite, they remind us that Native foods are not relics but vibrant expressions of identity, sustainability, and survival, deeply connected to the land and the people who steward it.

Thirty Nine Restaurant at the First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City

Guided by trailblazing 82-year-old chef Loretta Barrett Oden — a Citizen Potawatomi Nation member and Emmy Award-winning chef who recently cooked for over 3,000 guests at the museum’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day event — the Thirty Nine Restaurant remains rooted in Indigenous food traditions.

“My garden is where it all starts,” Oden explains. She uses its produce in recipes like her silken, flower-adorned butternut squash soup. “It’s about growing the ingredients, understanding the cycles of nature, and cooking with what the land provides.”

The restaurant is located within Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum and pays culinary homage to the state’s 39 distinct First American Nations. These tribes, originally from regions across North America, were relocated to Oklahoma through policies like the Indian Removal Act of 1830, making Oklahoma home to numerous tribal nations with unique cultural practices, languages, and histories.

Thirty Nine Restaurant opened in 2021, closed for reconceptualization in 2023, and is slated to reopen in early 2025. It features an outdoor kitchen and expanded garden tended by Native youth that includes corn, beans, squash, and edible flowers. Supported by the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, this green space embodies sustainable Indigenous practices. It allows children and the public to learn about planting, harvesting, and traditional foods, fostering a sense of cultural pride and connection to the earth.

Thirty Nine’s menu highlights high-protein and precolonial ingredients. It avoids pork and dairy in favor of foods like bison, turkey, and wild greens, and aims to educate and nourish guests. The playful Prickerita, a prickly pear margarita, adds some humor to the menu, and Oden’s “kick-ass buffalo chili” is a bold and spicy bison stew. A Thanksgiving-inspired plate of sauteed turkey breast with cornbread dressing and cranberry au jus has been particularly popular with customers.

Oden’s culinary advocacy reaches far beyond the walls of the museum restaurant. In 2023, she published a cookbook, Corn Dance: Inspired First American Cuisine, featuring approachable dishes like spicy sage popcorn and braised bison short ribs. A founding member of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, Oden champions food sovereignty and cultural preservation, viewing food as a bridge between heritage and modernity. Her Three Sisters saute — a symbiotic blend of corn, beans, and squash — and her pineapple, jicama, and avocado salad also honor her heritage, blending the wisdom of her two grandmothers: one who taught her to grow and cook Indigenous foods and another who instilled modern etiquette. With Thirty Nine, she aims to transcend stereotypes of Native American food: “I have a puffy, fried bready-like thing, almost like a pita, that I do in a Lincoln Impinger oven, forced-air conveyor belt oven that is air-baked, and it puffs and has the same feel of fry bread. I call it my healthy, unfried bread. Fry bread was born out of hardship,” she explains, “but we want to move forward by reclaiming the foods that truly sustained us.”

Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.

“Mitsitam,” meaning “Let’s Eat!” in the Delaware and Piscataway languages, welcomes guests to savor the rich traditions of Indigenous cuisine at the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, a 20-year-old institution within the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Led by the first all-female chef team at a Smithsonian museum cafe, Mitsitam is helmed by chef Alexandra Strong, who has Taíno heritage from Puerto Rico, and sous chef Toshiba Veney. The duo showcases Indigenous foodways across the Americas, blending culinary authenticity with cultural education.

Courtesy of Marielba Alvarez / Smithsonian Institution

In the 300-person cafeteria with serene waterfall views, guests pick up bright yellow trays and explore stations inspired by various regions of the Americas. Buffalo chili, manoomin (wild rice) cakes with smoked candied salmon, and Southwest lamb stew get seasonal refreshes by Strong — who sometimes features venison instead of buffalo or pairs the wild rice cakes with plank salmon and fennel. She draws on her Taíno roots alongside West African and European ancestry to create dishes celebrating a rich tapestry of cultural influences. Her lamb stew honors Indigenous culinary traditions of slow-cooking meats, a technique embraced by tribes like the Navajo and Lakota, while incorporating the rich, seasoned broths of Puerto Rican stews like asopao. Her Indian corn pudding is a visually rich dish made from cornmeal, milk, spices, and molasses; the signature bison chili incorporates New Mexican spices such as guajillo and ancho chiles, which are dried on-site to create a flavorful, aromatic base.

Courtesy of Marielba Alvarez / Smithsonian Institution

The menu tells a story of connection, innovation, and respect for legacy and Indigenous culinary traditions. Each dish reflects a commitment to preserving and reimagining historical recipes, blending contemporary techniques with cultural significance to create a unique dining experience. The manoomin cakes were first introduced by the cafe’s inaugural chef, Richard Hetzler, who led the culinary team from 2004 to 2016 and authored the cafe’s cookbook. Strong’s predecessor was Navajo chef Freddie Bitsoie, who led the kitchen for five years and expanded the menu with culturally significant dishes such as Northern Atlantic clam soup with sunchokes and leeks (an ancestral version of New England clam chowder), Pacific Northwest-inspired roasted beets with seaweed, and a Mesoamerican bean soup with green chiles; Bitsoie authored the New Native Kitchen: Celebrating Modern Recipes of the American Indian cookbook.

For many guests, fry bread is the main attraction, and Strong ensures it stands out with a light, pillowy texture. For her sweet fry bread preparation, she adds freshly prepared layers of nutrient-rich mulberries — a treasured Indigenous staple — and a touch of chocolate, while her savory take serves as the foundation for flavorful Indian tacos.

Courtesy of Marielba Alvarez / Smithsonian Institution

But other dishes have inspired fans to journey across states just for a taste. “I had this one couple,” Strong recalled, who drove from Athens, Georgia, “just to taste the wild rice salad, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Baby, this better be the best wild rice salad you ever had in your life.’”

Off the Rez Cafe at the Burke Museum, Seattle

The University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, renowned for its rich natural history, anthropology, and cultural heritage collections, opened Seattle’s first Native-owned food truck-turned-cafe, Off the Rez, in 2019. Founded by Mark McConnell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, and his partner Cecilia Rikard, the cafe serves pre-Columbian Indigenous cuisine of the Americas using tribal ingredients. Fry bread tacos are filled with braised bison and barbecue pulled pork. Dessert fry bread is sweetly satisfying with cinnamon sugar, honey, or lemon curd, evoking the warmth of family gatherings and traditional celebrations. The design blends cherry wood and Indigenous artwork with seating for 30 with a pivoting window wall designed by Tom Kundig that invites natural light and enhances the earthy, welcoming ambiance.

McConnell, whose family ties to the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana influenced his love for traditional foods, initially brought his family recipes to the food truck in 2011 with Rikard and chef Donovan MacInnis, a childhood friend. McConnell has sourced bison from Montana and salmon from Seattle’s nearby Muckleshoot tribe, reflecting Off the Rez’s commitment to Indigenous foodways and local partnerships. For McConnell, this cafe is more than just a restaurant; it’s a platform for introducing and celebrating Native foods like wild rice bowls and sweet potato salads in a region where such offerings were previously rare.

Courtesy of Off the Rez

Off the Rez makes cedar tea by steeping white cedar or red cedar tree tips in hot water, which releases its natural oils and creates a soothing, aromatic beverage known for its distinctive woodsy flavor and subtle hints of citrus. Rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, cedar tea is used by various Indigenous communities as a refreshing drink that boosts immunity and supports respiratory health; this version is blended with blackberry leaves for a cedar blackberry tea latte. There’s also a maple latte made with Off the Rez’s house espresso blend, Naato, which Rikard says is named after Mark’s Blackfeet name, Naato Óóhkotok (“Holy Rock”).

Valerie Segrest, a member of the Muckeshoot Indian Tribe, consulted with the Burke Museum on its food programming. While not directly involved in running Off the Rez, her work laid the groundwork for its alignment with the museum’s mission to serve Native ingredients.“Every ingredient tells a story about our connection to the land,” Segrest says.