WINTER BOUNTY


INDIGENOUS CHEFS SUSTAIN COMMUNITIES AMID A PANDEMIC BY AARON LEVIN


F


or chefs Vincent Medina and Lou- is Trevino, late autumn is the time for “yuu,” or acorns, a traditional staple for the Ohlone people of California’s northern coast. “Big,


fat acorns begin to drop in fall, and that begins the start of a long process of gathering, storing, drying, shelling, peeling, winnowing, grind- ing and leaching until the acorn is ready to be served as a creamy, sweet soup or crusty, ge- latinous ball of acorn bread,” they recalled last year in a post on their Cafe Ohlone website.


30 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2020


Cafe Ohlone was not just a business when


Medina (Chochenyo Ohlone) and Trevino (Rumsen Ohlone) opened it in Berkeley, California, in September 2018. It was part of a larger revival of Ohlone culture and lan- guage, shaped by the traditional foods that their elders remembered. Then in March 2020, Cafe Ohlone closed, another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since COVID-19 restrictions have pre-


vented groups of people from gathering, restaurants across the world have closed or


temporarily shuttered,


including National


Museum of the American Indian’s Mitsitam and Mili Kàpi Cafes. Native-owned restau- rants or those serving Native cuisine have been hit hard. In Indigenous communities, this loss comes


with additional price. Some of these restau- rants have been reviving their ancestors’ food traditions and have become a critical source of food for elders and others. “The COVID pan- demic had devastating effects in Indian Coun- try,” says Loretta Oden (Citizen Potawatomi


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