Sherry Pocknett

Pocknett is a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and grew up practicing Indigenous ways to hunt, fish and forage for food. Now she is the owner of Sly Fox Den Too, a restaurant in Rhode Island that specializes in Indigenous cuisine.

The menu features the food her family grew up with, using seasonal ingredients and local fish and game.

“It’s all about the bounty of the season and what we can do with it and how we treat it and how it’s gonna treat us,” she said.

Pocknett’s father was a fisherman and would often bring back blue fish and mackerel for her mother to cook for dinner. Despite having six children to feed, her mother would always cook extra.

“She said somebody might stop by so you always want to have a little extra on hand so you can offer someone food if they happen to drop in,” Pocknett said. “That’s a native thing feeding people.”

If there were any leftovers in the fridge, her mother would cook them into fish hash the next morning paired with poached eggs on top — one of Pocknett’s favorite meals to this day.