Featured Recipes from the 2025 American Indian Foods Luncheon
- Mar 19
- 2 min read
Every year at the Intertribal Agriculture Council’s (IAC) Annual Conference, a special luncheon is hosted featuring a Tribal chef who curates a delicious meal for conference attendees. The menu highlights ingredients sourced from Tribal producers, celebrating the richness of Indian Country agriculture. This event provides a space for friends and relatives from across Tribal nations to connect, share, and build community while honoring the contributions of Tribal producers.
The 2025 luncheon menu was curated by the highly accomplished Chef Nephi Craig, an enrolled member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe who is also half Navajo. Chef Craig has 26 years of culinary experience in the U.S. and abroad in Canada, Mexico, London, Germany, Brazil, and Japan. He is the founder of the Native American Culinary Association, or NACA, an organization/network that is dedicated to the research, refinement, and development of Native American cuisine. Currently, Chef Craig serves as the Nutritional Recovery Program Coordinator & Executive Chef at the Rainbow Treatment Center at Café Gozhóó on the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona.
Before the meal was served, IAC’s American Indian Foods Program Director Latashia Redhouse introduced Chef Craig. While sharing a few laughs with the audience, he spoke about his career and chosen menu, highlighting the importance of sourcing ingredients from Tribal producers. “When we gather like this to celebrate and promote and make these foods accessible, we are actually engaging in a form of reclamation, cultural revitalization, and recovery of our foodways,” he said.
The luncheon menu included Three Sisters Soup, beef from the Choctaw Nation, and a pine-nut dessert. Just look at these photos directly from the luncheon’s tables!
Chef Craig served up a phenomenally tasty meal for attendees and kindly provided the following two recipe cards so you can cook them at home.
Interested in recreating the meal? Use ingredients from the Made/Produced by American Indians trademark directory. This directly supports Tribal producers across Indian Country. To learn more about the trademark, please visit www.indianag.org/trademark.
Chef Nephi Craig's upcoming memoir, titled “Our Knives Will Save Us,” is scheduled for release on July 14, 2026. Check it out to learn more about his career and life story.
