“What Wahpepah’s Kitchen is about is to reconnect.”

Crystal Wahpepah, Kickapoo and Sac and Fox, was born and raised in Oakland. Her family arrived in the Bay Area through the federal Relocation Act, part of the larger movement of Native people who carried their communities, foods, and traditions into urban places across the country. Today, her restaurant in Oakland’s Fruitvale district serves bison, blue corn, acorn, and smoked salmon from the Lummi Nation to a vibrant urban Indigenous community.

This story visits Wahpepah’s Kitchen to share how Indigenous cuisine connects people back to home, to the foods they grew up with, to recipes passed down by aunties and grandmothers, and to a community redefining what it means to be Native in the city.