First Nations Food Taster

Northern Michigan University is celebrating Native American Heritage Month in November.

And as part of NMU’s month-long series of events, people brought their hunger tonight to an event where taste buds were the target.

It was the twelfth annual First Nations Food Taster, which blends traditional and contemporary native American dishes.

NMU assistant professor of native American studies Martin Reinhardt says most of the several hundred diners would not normally have the cuisine available to them — dishes like bison/venison meatloaf, crabapple sauce and pumpkin cornbread.

The menu was a sample of dishes that people in the De–Colonizing Diet Project have eaten since march.

The project is an initiative of NMU’s Center for Native American Studies to see what happens when people eat for a year a diet of food items that native Americans would have eaten prior to European colonization of America.

The Native American Student Association hosts the taster each year with the help of many volunteers.

The event raises money for the “Learning To Walk Together” powwow that the group holds every march.