Sioux Chef Sean Sherman traces ancestry on PBS show ‘Finding Your Roots’
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One of Minnesota’s most celebrated chefs, Sean Sherman, will feature in the hit public television show “Finding Your Roots” on Tuesday night.
Hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., the program does deep genealogical research into two celebrity guests each week.
The James Beard Award and Julia Child Award winner was born and raised on the Pine Ridge South Dakota reservation and had oral histories passed down to him on his mother’s side, but didn’t know much about his father’s ancestral past. Sherman, also known as the Sioux Chef, joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer to talk about his experience finding his familial roots.
Had you heard of “Finding Your Roots” before getting the call?
“I had heard of it, but I’d never watched it, because I just don’t really watch that much TV. But my partner Mecca [Bos], when she saw that, she’s like, ‘Oh my God, you have to go on that show.’”
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Did they experience difficulty in trying to uncover Native history, because there’s not a really large repository in terms of written history?
“Yeah, and I was really curious about how they were going to track that, you know. And they look for factual pieces like documents and slips and with names and stuff like that, to like, pinpoint exact dates.
“But of course, they went through a lot of oral history, because they talked to some… people in my family who have done a lot of research on the family tree already. And so they learned a lot of those stories through them and were able to trace down some of those pieces. But… I didn't really know how they were going to tackle that, because Black and Indigenous histories in America are difficult to trace, obviously, for many reasons.”
What role did your ancestors play in American history?
“I have a lot of direct ancestry to some pretty well-known Native American figures in history, especially from Lakota. I’m definitely, like all American mix, because I have, you know, a lot of Native white and Black American in my genealogy, and there’s just so much story that comes through all of that.
“I love history. It’s a big part of the work that I do. I’m just trying to reintroduce Indigenous foods to North America. And a lot of that delves deep into American history, especially in the 1800s. And I feel like Dr. Gates and I both kind of share that passion for history a little bit.”
At the end of the show, the guest’s family tree is unfurled on a big scroll, and it’s usually pretty emotional. How did you feel?
“I think it’s really important to understand history number one. But I think it’s really important to understand, like, where we come from, particularly personally, looking through a family tree, and it’s such interesting storytelling.
“And I think it's such an amazing documentary style of TV because it becomes really personal. I think people really connect with that because everybody has family histories. A lot of people have family histories they don’t really know that much about. And I just think it’s really amazing to be able to kind of dig into that and learn about these stories, and it just gives you, you know, a stronger sense of self.”
What did you think of Gates?
“He was amazing. He’s such a personality. He was so easy to talk to, and so easy to get along with, and again, like I felt I had a nice connection with him, just understanding American history, also, because he is an amazing historian and just a wonderful person.”
“Finding Your Roots” airs at 7 p.m. CST on Twin Cities Public Television and streaming online at pbs.org.