(gentle music) - Funding for "Working Capital" is provided by the friends of KTWU, the Raven C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation, and Go Topeka.

It's a new season.

It's a new year.

It's time for new beginnings.

So stick around.

You're watching "Working Capital."

(upbeat music) Welcome to season 10 of "Working Capital."

And we have the pleasure today of having Melissa Garrett with us today from Wadulisi's and we'll find out all about that.

But to get to where she is with Wadulisi's, she had to go back to kind of beginning.

So as we start here, Melissa, I just wanna get off the bat 'cause when I first met you, you were on for "Inspire" and you were cooking some of these great foods and we'll talk about those more later.

But I think it started with the Three Sisters and kind of a creation story almost in a way of why these were given to the indigenous people.

So let's just start there first and then we'll get into where this kind of wraps into your business.

- Okay, so in the North America specifically, we have over 573 tribes, and almost every single tribe utilizes the Three Sisters.

We have lots of different legends, but the one that I'm most familiar with is the story of that there was a mother and she had three daughters and they were constantly fighting with each other.

And they really struggled with getting along, so she sent them out to plant these Three Sisters and teach them and have them learn how they help each other as they grow.

So the squash covers the ground and protects it from the bugs and rodents and things that would come and pick off the other things.

The cornstalk grows up tall and strong and acts as a support beam for the beans to grow up so that they don't have to have any sticks or supports or anything in there.

So they always plant those three together.

And so, in over 500 tribes, we utilize a lot of our Three Sisters across the board for a lot of our dishes.

So I was actually trained the Three Sisters soup by my grandma, and I tweaked it a little by adding some of my Aunt Terry's like traditional dishes.

And she is Kickapoo and a couple of other tribes.

And I can't remember all that she's exactly enrolled into, but I know she's enrolled Kickapoo.

- That's fantastic.

Yeah, I was reading a little bit of the history.

So I think there's been remnants of seeing the agriculture, the Three Sisters together since the year 1000.

I mean, 500 years before any Europeans came over.

And like you say, every nation here used the same basis for that.

So I think it's a pretty cool traditional story.

So talk about, going back to the beginning, you started out with Carefree Creations.

- [Melissa] Yes.

- Right?

So tell us a little bit about that and then we'll get into how you kind of morphed back into a more traditional fair.

- Okay, so Carefree Creations started as a way for me to kind of support my family and do things 'cause I had actually had an emergency spine surgery back in 2017 and couldn't work a regular job.

So I decided to use my baking and things like that that I know how to do and I'm a certified event planner.

And so I would do like weddings and different things like that.

And I got a call from the Heart of American Indian Center to see if I knew how to fix indigenous meals.

Well, I was raised with my grandmother and that was like 90% of what she cooked were indigenous-based foods.

And so I was like, "Yeah, I can do that."

And so as we started doing that, I just really felt like that was where my heart was.

And then we lost several family members from 2019 to 2021, but the ones that were dearest to me was my sister, my dad in 2020.

And when he passed away in 2020, he asked that we not lose our culture.

And then when we lost my uncle and my grandmother, who was our fluent Cherokee speaker and the holder of our language and the one who named all of our kids and everything, we really felt that loss.

And so it was just a huge push for me to not allow our family to lose anymore because I had kind of come to the realization that a lot of 'em didn't know.

And we had to find a way to preserve it.

- Let's talk a little bit about the culture first, 'cause America's called a melting pot.

But there's certain little pieces that are thrown in that then they want to just push to the side.

So speak a little bit about how the indigenous cultures were kind of trying to be molded into something they weren't and then to where they can't cherish their traditions, whereas, you know, Italian Americans, German Americans, they have all their traditions, they wanna pass 'em down, but it was thought taboo to keep passing these on for a while.

So how does your family deal with this?

- Well, my grandfather was a survivor of the Carlisle boarding schools.

And my grandmother was a survivor of several mission schools.

And in that process, we lost a lot of our language because they didn't want us to have any kind of accent.

But she did teach us the foods and the traditions and what we call the native way.

And we have our seven sacred teachings and we also have what we call the red road.

And so my grandmother was really big on teaching those things and honor and trust and truthfulness and things like that.

So there were a lot of things that she made sure that we didn't lose.

And one of the biggest things that she talked about was being humble, and you know, you're never too big for your britches kind of thing.

Another thing that she talked about was that when we carry these foods and stuff that we need to remember that we're not just born from great trauma and great loss and great suffering, but we also come from great resiliency.

So we have foods like our fry bread, which is born out of resiliency.

So the United States government, one of the ways that they tried to have us, I guess, assimilate and control us was through our food systems.

So they gave us rancid lard and flour with weevils in it and things like that.

And we chose to make fry bread out of it because we could cook out the things that were in it.

And that has been born out of resiliency.

- Resiliency, and you survived.

- And we survived.

Now our Three Sisters on the trail, a lot of my tribe, which is the Cherokee tribe, the Senecas, the Cayugas, and the Quapaws, our ribbon skirts here, we would sew seeds in the edges of our skirts and things.

And so then we could preserve those seeds for when we got to where we were going because we would know that that would be needed in order to feed our families.

- Were they not supposed to take seeds with them?

- No.

- Because it was part of their culture, so that's why they were basically sneaking them.

- Yeah.

So, well they had also just didn't have a lot of time.

And you would have to have basically all that you could carry.

So when they went on the trail, they didn't have ways to take all of these things.

So we would utilize every bit of what we had.

So one of those things would be used to sow those seeds into the linings of your skirt.

So then you would know that you wouldn't lose it and it wouldn't be something that they could necessarily like take your bag away or any of that kind of stuff.

So it was a way that you knew you would be able to feed your family when you got to where you had to go and preserve those ways of life in a sense 'cause it was so important to so many different ways of things that we do.

I mean, corn not only offers food but offers like the corn husks and things that can be used for multiple things including dolls.

And you can make corn silk, which is a way that you can make clothes and different things.

And so the native people knew that this was something that would not only be needed for nourishment of your body, but for other things as well.

- That's some amazing background history.

When we get back, we're gonna a little bit more about this journey to Wadulisi's, so stick around.

(upbeat music) To watch more episodes of "Working Capital" or any of your other favorite KTWU shows.

type in www.watch.ktwu.org or scan the QR code.

(upbeat music) Welcome back.

Okay, Melissa, you're on this journey.

You had Carefree Creations, you're going down the road, your business is growing, you're kind of switching gears away from just an everything to this really great niche of wonderful traditional foods.

So tell me the steps you're doing now to grow this business.

What are you finding you've had to do to expand?

- Well, we just got our LLC back in September of this last year.

And we are getting out on Google, we're on all of the social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram.

- But are you on TikTok?

- I am.

- Just making sure, just making sure.

- I think I only have one video on there.

- That's all right.

That's the important one, apparently.

- Apparently, yes.

And so we also are getting our online store open.

So we're gonna be doing baked goods.

One of the things that we like to do at our business is we really take traditional ingredients and we make them a little bit blended with more modern taste.

So we try not to lose the traditional dishes.

So we still have several traditional dishes that we make a certain way.

Now we might add some like different seasonings and things that may not have been pre-colonial.

But we really are trying to show how versatile our traditional ingredients are.

So like I have black beans for black bean brownies that are on the website.

And I have cinnamon candied pecans that are on the website and I have corn cookies and I have a butternut maple squash cookie as well.

And so these are kind of like a different way that you may not have thought of these ingredients being indigenous, but they are.

And I also like to put a little history on my website so it'll tell you like how they came and how, you know, we blend them today, but this is the origin story of them.

So also this summer, we'll be releasing a black bean burger because we also try to make things gluten-free and vegan-free.

We have other options, you know, but we always like to offer those inclusive ingredients so that we can help people that are struggling with those dietary restrictions.

- Well, and probably coming from catering a lot, you saw people who they kind of have to sit out at the side 'cause there's not a lot.

- Well, and there's such a stigmatism with vegan food.

- [Jay] Oh yes, it has to be, it's terrible tasting.

- It's terrible tasting is what I always hear.

And so I actually did an experiment where the only thing that I did was change the stock and it actually didn't really change the flavor of the Three Sisters soup to see how many people would go for the chicken stock versus the traditional corn like vegetable stock.

And just because it had chicken stock in it, they were like, oh well this isn't vegan so it's made with chicken.

And I'm like, well it's not made with chicken, it just has a chicken stock.

But it's funny how people just think that because it's vegan, it tastes terrible.

So when we're able to present these indigenous dishes this way, it's also fighting that the food, like, I think stigma that we've had for a long time in our, I don't know if stigma's the right word, but struggle I think is what I'm trying to say.

The food struggle that we've had in our communities with combating certain health issues and that if I can offer a healthier version of something, because I think sometimes we have to find like a middle ground.

We have a lot of really, really, really healthy options.

And then we have like a lot of really poor decisions if you wanna make it that way.

So the way that I like to think about the black bean brownie is it has a lot of really healthy nutrients and stuff in it, but because you add cocoa in it and chocolate chips, it is a little more palatable for people.

So that is kind of what we're trying to focus towards is trying to show you that these traditional foods and blends and these healthy ways of life can still be very palatable for you.

- So as you're marketing this, and you know, you're adding spices from other regions and all, are you calling this a fusion?

What are you calling this?

- I would say it's more like contemporary indigenous foods.

Because we use a lot of traditional ingredients and things and we still make a lot of more traditional-based dishes.

So like my buffalo hash really isn't changed a whole lot from the recipe.

The only thing that might be a little different is I might add a little garlic and some different seasoning and stuff.

So, but that is where we really want to make sure that we don't say just traditional foods.

At the bottom we say indigenous foods instead of traditional.

- You might find someone who takes offense and then when they do try, they're like, "I never had garlic in my grandmother's like this.

This is not indigenous.

What are you doing?"

- Yes.

And we have to be also careful that there's certain dishes that we use that are for like ceremony.

So there are certain dishes that we would consider not appropriate for the public.

- So I try to be careful also of staying away from too many tribe-based dishes and try to use ones that we use more across all tribes.

So like if it's something that we see in several different tribes, that'll be something that I more highlight in my business rather than something that is just specific for this tribe because I wouldn't want to offend, or you know, take away from that.

- Have any of these tribes actually had you come cater for them?

- Not the tribes, but I do go for several organizations here in Kansas City.

Now I have talked to and visited a lot with my tribe in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, the Quapaw tribe.

I actually work very closely with the O-Gah-Pah Coffee there.

And we kind of partnered together.

So they send a lot of coffee with me here in Kansas City to use for my events and they were just highlighted in USA Today for the work that they're doing.

- Is this a pretty big growing segment now with reclaiming their heritage and the businesses coming up and showing us the goodness of what was actually there that- - Yes.

- you know, we tried to close the book on a long time ago.

- Yes.

- What's a couple of your other favorite tribal businesses that are popping up?

Are there any others that you can think of?

- Oh yes.

One of the things that I think that is really great is the indigenous food labs that Sean Sherman is working with up north.

I'm sorry I can't exactly think of exactly where he's located right now.

But the indigenous foods labs is showcasing all of these different businesses and different chefs and things and really showing how many of us there are and how many different styles of food that we do from taco trucks to pre-colonial, you know, foods.

So I think it's really great that he's giving us a space and a platform where we can really talk and do things.

Also, there are several places that you can find indigenous distributors of foods.

So we are actually working with Haskell Indian Nations University right now to gather up a list so we can have these more accessible for people and so that they can find where all of these indigenous ingredients and things are.

I know that there is, I think Red Lake Nation who does a lot of their wild rice and stuff and I think you can even find them on Amazon and things like that.

So Natives are becoming more- - Culturally acceptable?

- Culturally acceptable, yes, in a lot of other places.

And I think that it's really important.

We have a lot of people also really open to hearing about the traditional foods and the blends of foods.

Not only pre-colonial, but you know, those of us who are kind of like doing all across the keyboard in a sense.

And I really love the work that they are doing.

Some of the ones who are able to do the pre-colonial stuff, I was not taught all of the genomes and all of that kind of stuff when it comes to plants.

So I don't feel comfortable in working in that realm.

But I love the work that they're doing.

I actually have a friend, his name is Anthony Warrior Palate and he does a lot of preservation work to help us not only preserve the seeds that we have now, but he's also trying to get some of the seeds that we lost.

And so that's so important to us because we have so many strands of different, like our squash that you see is not normally our commercial squash, like your yellow and your green squash, it has more different colors, it's more bumpy, it's just, it's not as pretty in a sense, but it has more flavor.

But we don't have as much access to those all across the United States, especially here in the urban courts, which we are going to be working this next year through trying to put out some segments where we show some food preservation things, especially for lower income families, 'cause it's a passion of mine having grown up in a lower income area.

I want to show families how you can go into like the farmers' markets and things like that and preserve meals for a longer, preserve meals that you have that will stretch a lot farther but be healthy so that you're not putting as much preservatives and stuff into your diet because that's really where we're really struggling as a nation, I feel.

- When we come back with this third segment, we're gonna talk a little bit more about educating and also where you might be able to learn and get a few tastes of Wadulisi's.

So stick around, you're watching "Working Capital."

(gentle music) Welcome back.

Let's get into a little bit more of the education of this 'cause I'm just curious, when we talk colonial versus pre-colonial and spices, I know a lot of the spices that came in with Spanish and French and English, but what spices were here or what were used, you know, what did you use in place of that beforehand?

What were some of the indigenous spices here in the Americas?

- Well, we have always had salt, 'cause we were big on trading.

So like the West coast and East coast tribes would kind of collect that and then they would trade throughout.

So we have had salt for a really long time.

One of the other things that we would use is ash.

We would use ash for a lot of different things and different ash depending on the recipe.

- The flavors.

- Yeah.

However, ash can change the color of what you're cooking with.

So one of the things I've been trying to do is I really love the flavor of juniper ash.

So I've been working with trying to burn the berries a little bit and then take some of the ash from that and incorporate it into the salt so that we still have that juniper berry flavor without changing the color of our food.

So that's one of the things that we're kind of doing to help bring that and highlight that tradition again.

- That's fantastic.

So there's a lot of people out here now that are getting very hungry at this.

Tell us about some of the events you do and I know a couple of our producers are able to make it out to one of your events.

Tell us about that event and then we'll talk about how they can maybe learn how to cook some of this on their own also.

- Okay.

So I work a lot with the Kansas City Museum and I normally host about two events a year, at least that's what we've done previously, depending on how they are able to work their schedule.

And I have taught how to make Indian tacos.

I have taught how to make Three Sisters soup.

I have taught how to make venison chili.

I've taught how to make buffalo hash.

I also make a Three Sisters dip through my business that is made with blue corn chips.

And so we've highlighted several of those dishes through the Kansas City Museum.

I also will have, I go into different school districts and stuff and so school districts can send me an email through my website and put in a request.

I do a monthly giveaway for at least one school, maybe two schools that will get free education where I go in and I talk about dispelling stereotypes and how Native Americans look different today than they did in movies or back in the past.

So I think a lot of kids still ask some questions that are like, do we live in teepees?

How did we eat and do we- - We're very uneducated with that 'cause as we talked about in the first segment, it's been kind of covered up and pushed away.

- Well, and we still sound like we're in the past.

So like when we talk about Black History Month, we will talk about famous inventors of today.

That is not necessarily the same thing when we're talking about Native American History Month.

So it is very important that we show Natives in a different way.

I actually kind of was considering if I should put my hair in braids or wear my hair natural curly like it is because I am half.

I'm Seneca, Cayuga, Quapaw, and Cherokee.

But my mom is white and she has very, very curly hair.

And so there are a lot of us who don't necessarily look like your plain's typical Indian with, you know, straight black hair, so I think it's important for kids to know also that there are a lot of indigenous actors who are in TV and stuff today that you may not know who are indigenous.

So like we talk about Jason Momoa being indigenous and we talk about who the voice of Pocahontas is and what she looks like and how she's played in other movies that you may not have seen.

And so I go into these schools and I talk about the basics basically.

And we talk about, you know, food and we talk about culture and like we'll talk about things like elderberry syrup or cedar tea, which is something they may not have heard about that is like a medicinal thing that we can cook to help us with our colds and stuff.

And so just kind of depending on the season is what we talk about.

- The education part's still huge to me 'cause as you spoke on just a few minutes ago, I think a lot of people don't think of these tribes, 'cause you know, as they've been portrayed, whether it's ultra-violent or whatnot, almost tribe on tribe, we've never been shown that they had their own economies and set up trade routes and everything else.

So it's just, it's sad the way it was all lost.

So it's great when we have people who are still coming back and pulling that out of the shadows.

So what are the next events you have coming up or where can people get a taste for this, besides your website, and we will have the website up here for you guys to take a look at.

What's the easiest way to get a taste of this delicious food?

- So the social medias will have all of my events coming up.

Also, we are working on getting a upcoming events page on the website so they'll be able to see all of our upcoming events.

I will be partnering a lot with the Shawnee Indian Mission this year.

They've asked me to come in and help them create a more indigenous presence there.

And this month alone we had, my sister wrote a children's story called "The Fry Bread Man."

And so we had a children's book reading there where we invited kids to come out.

It was all free.

We gave samples of fry bread.

They got to do a craft.

And then we'll be doing that once a month there for the rest of this year.

So we will have somebody either telling an oral story or reading an indigenous story to help highlight that education piece that we are talking about.

And then I will be doing other food events there, one of which is in February 8th.

If you pre-order by February 3rd, you can get either grass-fed chili, vegan chili, or venison chili with honeyed cornbread.

And you will get a taste of that seasoning that I was telling you about, the juniper ash.

- Oh wow.

- Berry salt.

And so then we will also have a Valentine's Day drive-through pickup where you can pick up chocolate-covered strawberries, black bean brownies, and candied pecans.

- I love black beans.

You keep saying these black bean brownies, so I know that's gonna be something I have to try, 'cause my favorite so far, which what I've tried of your, it's all been great, but I am a bread fiend, so that fry bread is just, I can't stop thinking about it.

I know you didn't say you sell on the website 'cause I'm sure it'd be cold by the time you got there, but- - Yes.

- Is there any plans to like sell the ingredients to where you're selling a prepackaged so someone could make their fry bread at home?

I know they could pull ingredients and all, but is that something down the road maybe?

- Maybe something down the road.

I know that we do have a couple of pop-ups coming up for some fry bread tents, one of which we will be doing the fall festival again this year at the Shawnee Indian Mission.

I know that I also do soup, a pop-up of it as well that will be coming up here soon.

- Thank you, Melissa, for joining us today.

It's been great hearing your story, hearing the past, and also where you're gonna take these great traditions into the future and how you're helping educate a new generation of children on this and who knows what we'll have down the road.

So look forward to seeing where you go with this and to try some of these amazing other dishes that I have not had a chance to try yet.

So I hope you're getting hungry out there too.

So check out our website, check out wherever you can find her to teach you anything from Indian taco to these fry breads.

You and especially your family will not be disappointed.

Thanks for watching "Working Capital."

(cheerful music) Funding for "Working Capital" is provided by the friends of KTWU, the Raven C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation, and Go Topeka.