Where to Try Indigenous Foods in Colorado, From Mesquite Flour to Prickly Pear Popcorn

Native Americans thrived on a diversity of foods, including seeds, nuts, corn, beans, chile, squash, fruits, greens, and — in the Andes — more than 1,000 species of potatoes, long before Europeans arrived in the Americas and massively disrupted the ecosystem. Indigenous people had traditions of hunting, gathering, and farming that colonists severed and oppressed for hundreds of years. Ultimately, United States government rations of flour, lard, and sugar destroyed cultural foodways while contributing to high rates of obesity and diabetes among Native American communities.

Indigenous chef and food activist Narissa Ribera is challenging that colonial legacy one plant at a time. Ribera is a member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. Although she primarily grew up in Denver, time spent with family on reservation land in New Mexico and Arizona gave her a keen appreciation for all that’s been lost. “There are thousands of plants that have been erased from our history and from future generations,” she says.

Long a keen gardener, Ribera grew and sold native plants and operated a cottage food business before opening Ch’il Indigenous Foods in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Ch’il offers indigenous plant foods from heirloom varieties and sources ingredients from other Indigenous producers. Ribera also wild harvests a variety of native plants in Colorado’s San Luis Valley — the ancestral home of more than a dozen tribes — including piñon, tangy sumac, and mild, sweet yucca flowers, which taste like young artichoke leaves. Prickly pear popcorn, hatch chile powders and a soup mix containing high-protein tepary beans are bestsellers, along with blue corn meal that’s nixtamalized with juniper ash, the main source of calcium in the traditional Diné diet.

Now Ch’il is joined by Nááts'íilid Kitchen, which opened in November. Nááts'íilid means “rainbow” in Navajo, and Ribera hopes that the rotating menu of weekly specials will expose the community to the rich diversity and deliciousness of Indigenous foods. Current offerings include sweet and smoky yeast rolls made with mesquite flour, chestnut soup with sweet cushaw squash, and bean- and corn-stuffed poblano peppers with popped amaranth and a cream “cheeze” made from sunflower seeds.

“A lot of native food is vegan,” Ribera says. “We did not have milk or dairy, but when you try to ‘Google’ a lot of Native American recipes, they suggest to use milk, but a big percentage of Native Americans are lactose intolerant! My grandmother would make piñon milk. People think nut milk is a white thing, but it is based in Indigenous practices.”

Nááts'íilid Kitchen is currently only open on Fridays, but Ribera does frequent pop-ups and catering, and hopes to expand service soon. In the meantime, she continues to offer cooking and gardening classes for adults and children. “It’s activism through food,” she says. “People created stories and songs and whole rituals and creation stories around our food. There are so many and it's plentiful and it's beautiful, but that culture is being lost. And we can change that.”

You can order the products online, from Navajo Blue Corn & Juniper Ash Flour Mix to Prickly Pear Indigenous Popcorn, at chil-indigenousfoods.com. Ribera sources ingredients from Indigenous, organic, non-GMO farms.