Indigenous Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s New Cookbook Combines Memoir, Tribal History and Native Recipes

Some chefs write cookbooks that read like technical manuals and have about as much personality as the “print version” of a one-pot meal you found online. But then, there's Crystal Wahpepah, who managed to combine her tribe’s history, her autobiography, her family’s rich history of activism, the concept of food sovereignty, oral tradition, Indigenous recipes and the story of her Oakland, California, restaurant into one delightful cookbook, A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes From an Indigenous Food Warrior.

A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes From an Indigenous Food Warrior is a delightful read that includes ways that Native communities have used food as medicine, legends that tell the origin of the foods in Indigenous cuisine and how the food we eat is directly connected to the land we live on.

“For me, Indigenous food has never just been about cooking. It’s about culture, memory, land and community,” Crystal said. “All of those things live together in the kitchen, so it felt natural to tell the story that way.”

Everything about her cooking and her recipes honors those concepts through the idea of “food sovereignty,” which Crystal defines as “our right as Indigenous people to reclaim and define our own food systems — the seeds we grow, the foods we harvest, how we cook and how we feed our communities.”

Crystal is part of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and grew up in Oakland, California, in a multi-tribal, Native community. She learned to cook with her grandmother and developed a passion for food sovereignty — a concept that was largely erased for Indigenous communities due to forced relocation, colonization and erosion of Indigenous culture. “Indigenous food isn’t a trend. It’s a continuation of thousands of years of knowledge and culture,” she explained.

Crystal’s heritage is also one of activism and resistance. Her uncle, Bill Wahpepah (center), was a leader in the American Indian Movement in the 1970s. Crystal writes in the intro of the book, “He led 30,000 people on a walk from Alcatraz to Washington, DC, to protest anti-Indian bills working their way through Congress that would further diminish treaty rights.” A family value of activism and pride in her Indigenous identity was just part of life for Crystal. “Indigenous food is not just history, it’s living, evolving and part of the future,” she said.

Foraging — which is the act of looking for edible plants available in nature — is a large part of Indigenous food, and Crystal forages as part of her practice of food sovereignty, just as her ancestors did for thousands of years prior to colonization. There’s an entire chapter in A Feather and a Fork dedicated to cooking with foraged foods, with recipes like Native Blackberry Pudding, Berry Sorbet and Wild Onion Soup.

In A Feather and a Fork, Crystal explains the Kickapoo legend of the three sisters, which is the origin story for three staple foods in Indigenous cuisine: beans, corn and squash. Crystal often finds herself cooking with tepary beans grown in Arizona, and the book includes an index of Indigenous farmers and suppliers she uses to source ingredients.

Crystal acknowledges in her book that it’s way easier to just buy tortillas from the store, but she lays out step-by-step instructions to go from dried corn kernels to beautiful blue corn tortillas. In the photo, she is rolling tortillas with her daughter. “She has been part of my journey with the community and the restaurant. Moments like that are about sharing knowledge and keeping traditions alive,” Crystal said.

Crystal’s Oakland restaurant, Wahpepah’s Kitchen, serves Indigenous dishes with ingredients sourced from Indigenous farmers as part of practicing food sovereignty. Wahpepah’s Kitchen also has an Indigenous food pantry that Crystal writes about in A Feather and Fork. “I want our guests to make the connection between what is on their plates and the bounty of our nation’s original foods represented on these shelves,” she said.

Kickapoo Chili is made with bison meat and features a spicy broth that Crystal says most captures her heritage. Crystal’s other beloved recipes in the book include Blue Corn Mush With Berries, seasonal Berry Sauces and other bison recipes. “They really reflect both tradition and the seasonal foods we work with,” she said.