Minnesota’s first ever Native American Food Truck Festival is arriving on Saturday, July 5, at Harriet Island Regional Park. From 11 a.m.–7 p.m., more than 20 Native-owned and co-owned food trucks—serving up both traditional Native foods and urban Indigenous fair foods—will line the park, along with nearly 30 Native resource vendors, artists, and entrepreneurs.
Organized by Trickster Tacos, Steven D’s, Blue Hummingbird Woman, and Niniijaanis One of Ones, the event also features an all-day live entertainment lineup, spotlighting local artists like Pretendians Band, comedian Deanna StandingCloud, and Ain Dah Yung drummers.
Mariah Grant, co-owner of Trickster Tacos and the event’s founder, initially contemplated the idea of organizing an event like this one last fall as a way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of her business, and to highlight the growing Indigenous food scene in the Twin Cities. After talking more with her husband Dakota Grant, her Trickster Tacos co-owner, and Steven D’s co-owners, who she considers part of her “food truck family,” she decided to go for it.
“I was like ‘I really wanna do this because not a lot of people know that there are so many Native food trucks in the Twin Cities,’” Grant said. “When you think of Native food, a lot of the time you’re thinking of decolonized foods, or people just don’t know what is Native,” Grant said.
When planning the event, accessibility was Grant’s top priority. She chose Harriet Island Regional Park as the venue for its reachability by bus, making it easier for community members unable to drive to attend the event. In addition, festival attendance is free.
“We wanted to focus on our [Native] community, as well as the urban Twin Cities communities,” Grant said. “A lot of them are lower-income, and they want to go to festivals and things like this, but not all of them are free, so that’s why this is a free event, for everyone.”
Grant also emphasized that she wants community members of all backgrounds, Indigenous or not, to show up. From her perspective, the Twin Cities’ strong sense of multiculturalism is reflected in the programming for the event, and it’s something worth celebrating.
“[The festival is] open to the public—we want to share it with everybody,” Grant said. “A lot of the trucks, even, are biracial, and we wanted to help showcase that and help tie it into the Native community, because we like sharing all of the cultures in the Twin Cities. That’s one of the best parts about it.”
Looking ahead to the big day, Grant is optimistic that everyone, both festival attendees and vendors, will get something joyful out of the event.
“My hope is that the community comes out and has a great day, and for food trucks to get more awareness—that they’re Native-owned, they’re Native-co-owned, and a lot of them serve modern Indigenous foods and modern fair foods—and also to support the vendors and musicians,” Grant said. “It’s kind of a spiral effect. From this one event, our hope is that everyone gets another event.”
See the full food truck list here:
- Trickster Tacos
- Steven D’s
- Wanna Wotapi
- Frybread Factory
- Wacky Wing Wagon
- Flores DeMiel
- Pow Wow Grounds
- Aunties & Uncle’s Snack Shack
- The Slush Lab
- Wild Harvest Lemonade
- Indigenous Food Lab
- Unci’s Prairie Sweets
- OG ZaZa Pizza Trailer
- Chicks on Wheels
- The Big Red Wagon
- B-Lo Zero Sno Cones
- SafesideBBQ
- Tater Tot Temptations
- Mercy’s Tacos (Rapid City, SD)
- Malissa’s Frybread (Rapid City, SD)
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