Getting the next generation to change its mindset is one of the reasons Michael Roberts, president and CEO of First Nations Development Institute, helps organize a Native Food Summit in Green Bay, Wisconsin, each year where Sherman has been included as a chef.

“Sean is fascinated by food,” Roberts said. “When you look at the cuisine Americans have sampled, it used to be only Italian and Chinese were as far as we went, but now there’s every ethnicity. America’s looking for new flavors and ideas. The timing might be just right.”

More seriously, he added, is Sherman’s mission to educate people.

“There’s a real awareness of the poor health on Indian reservations,” Roberts said. “There used to be no recorded incidents of diabetes on reservations, even up to the 1930s. There must have been something wonderful in Native diets." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native adults over the age of 20 were obese in 2011 and 2012. That number rises to almost 70 percent when counting how many Native adults over the age of 20 are overweight, including obesity. The CDC has also reported that cancer is the No. 1 killer of Natives, with heart disease and diabetes ranking second and fourth.

Christine Werner, 23, works as Sherman’s event coordinator and catering organizer and sees him as part of a bigger movement in the U.S. “He made me rethink the word ‘original,’” she said. “It’s literally about origins.”

But opening a restaurant is a cutthroat business, and Sherman’s establishment could be a tough sell at first. “It’s the faux pas that it might be too healthy and not taste good,” she said. “The No. 1 barrier is getting someone in the door. It’s an awesome way to teach that lesson. Healthy food can taste good. Why eat food from all over the world when the food right under our feet is delicious?”