Minnesota’s first Native American Food Truck Festival to debut in St. Paul

On Saturday, more than 20 Native-owned food trucks will line Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul for Minnesota’s first Native American food truck festival — a full-day celebration of culture, community, and cuisine.

From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., visitors can sample both traditional and contemporary Indigenous dishes while exploring dozens of Native art and resource vendors.

The free event, founded by Mariah Grant, co-owner of Trickster Tacos, was born out of a question she posed to a friend last year: How many Native-owned food trucks are there in Minnesota?

She was pregnant at the time — days from giving birth — but the idea stuck.

“I said, ‘It’d be cool. Let me know when,’” recalled Kim Reid, a Cherokee co-owner of Steven D’s food truck and longtime friend of Grant’s. “And here we are.”

For Grant, the festival is about more than food.

“The way people see Natives, we want them to understand that we’re still here,” she said. “We’re not gone, like a lot of your history books and your mainstream teachings make it seem like.”

She’s spent the past few months organizing the event with help from Native community members, hoping to build a welcoming space.

“We made sure all aspects are covered — and that everybody feels a sense of home,” she said.

Reid put it simply: “We want to feed the stomach and the soul.”

For vendors like Candace Chase, a Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe entrepreneur and owner of The Slush Lab, the festival is also a rare business opportunity — a way to connect with audiences outside Native communities.

“We get to be a part of a bigger audience,” she said. “It’s cool to be a part of that, and be seen, and just give the urban community a chance to try all these foods.”

That was the goal from the start, Reid said: bringing Native makers into the urban fold.

“Maybe we can have the community that can’t travel to pow wows because they don’t drive,” she said. “Give them something here that they can go to, that they can be proud of.”

Accessibility — not just for Native communities in the Twin Cities but for anyone curious, open, and hungry — was at the heart of Grant’s planning.

“We want to reach our Native community in the inner city, but also all people in the inner city that want to learn more, want to see it, want to experience it,” she said. “There’s a lot of allies that will come and embrace it fully, and they love it.”

Interest has already surged beyond expectations: more than 17,000 people marked “interested” on the event’s Facebook page, Reid said — a number that amazed even seasoned vendors.

Among them is Michelle Rousseau, owner of Unci’s Prairie Sweets, a Lakota and Dakota cottage bakery known for intricate sugar cookies inspired by Native imagery. Rousseau’s designs incorporate symbols that reflect her heritage, from bison on the Lakota side to bears and pine trees from her Dakota roots.

She hopes the exposure from the festival will help grow her business so she can one day move into a commercial kitchen.

“A lot of Native families want something that’s a bit more specific to them,” she said. “Not just Spider-Man, Minecraft, Hello Kitty, or Mickey Mouse. They are looking for something that’s going to be designed by somebody who will understand what they want.”

Festivalgoers can expect fry bread tacos, herbal slushes, decorated cookies, prairie dogs, burgers, and more — with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous fare on the menu. If the festival is a hit, Grant hopes to make it an annual tradition.

“We’re all relatives,” Reid said. “People here in the cities that don’t go to the pow wows, don’t explore their culture — come on out. Come join us. Eat some food, hit up the resources, enjoy the performers and talk to people. We’re all one people.”

Find more information and vendor details on the event Facebook page.