Elena Terry remembers her great-grandmother speaking to turtles as she prepared to eat them. They sat around the fire, taking the time to talk to the turtles, pray with them, and explain what was happening.
Terry was a toddler then, but the care she witnessed stuck with her.
"It was this deep sense of 'this is where I belong.' Being outside at the fireplace ...and feeling the warmth of the fire, smelling the smoke and hearing them speak Ho-Chunk. To this day that is a very peaceful and comforting memory," Terry said. "And it's all centered around our traditional food."
Terry is a proud member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. She spent over a decade in the restaurant industry. But in 2018, she shifted her focus to community-building, when tribal leaders were discussing how to bring members back into tribal society, often after confronting substance abuse issues.
Terry knew exactly how she could contribute to this effort: ancestral food and culinary mentorship. Soon after, she founded the nonprofit Wild Bearies, dedicated to "educational outreach, representation, preservation and advocacy focused around our ancestral foods." The organization offers education to aspiring culinary professionals, catering services and gardening programs.
In short, ancestral food preparation and education is Terry's way of using what she knows to reach people who feel marginalized. For Terry, it is about building on each person's inherent value, and preparing them show it off to the world.
"So how do we treat each other like that, and recognize that you are beautiful with all your imperfections, and if anything, stand alongside me? Because I’m here for you. I see you. You have value to me," she said.
But do not confuse a commitment to tradition with an absence of creativity. For Terry, the two are not mutually exclusive.
"At any given moment I can cook completely decolonized - no beef, no chicken, no eggs, no dairy...or am I not going to limit myself with those parameters, because nobody said I have to. And I'll give you an experience you won't forget," she said.
This blending of tradition and change can come to a head at Thanksgiving. Long celebrated in the United States, the holiday commemorates a factually-debatable story of a harvest feast shared between European Pilgrims and Wampanoag people in 1621. In the modern era, this is typically marked with a predictable array of food, often followed by gift shopping on Black Friday.
Terry says Thanksgiving does not have to follow a prescribed script. It can be an opportunity to gather with the people you love, while also recognizing the stories of the land you are gathering on, how your food is sourced, and how food has been prepared on this land for millennia.
"I’m not saying you have to get into a highly in-depth, politically-charged conversation. But let’s acknowledge that everywhere people live on Native land," she said.
"So who are the people who occupied that land before you, and how can we maybe start making forward steps toward reclaiming what this beautiful space once was?"
