This White Mountain Apache chef’s new memoir tackles food sovereignty, sobriety

Food sovereignty isn’t a fad or trend.

It’s teaching tribes to reclaim healthier and more sustainable food systems. And a new memoir penned by one of Arizona’s most popular Indigenous chefs is giving direction to the movement gaining steam and mainstream recognition.

Nephi Craig is in charge of Café Gozhóó — a northeastern Arizona eatery sitting on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Whiteriver. The restaurant celebrating Western Apache culinary flavors has been around since 2021.

Now, its executive chef is also the author behind “Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef.” Published by Penguin Random House, his hardcover is anything but a cookbook.

“A cookbook seemed like the obvious route early on, and I decided not to. I’ve been approached three or four times,” said Craig. “I’m 46 years old and 15 years into my sobriety, and I wanted to write a story that is a tool for others.”

His modern, scratch kitchen inside a renovated gas station employs fellow Apaches recovering from addiction or substance abuse through a vocational training program run by the tribe’s Rainbow Treatment Center.

“Sobriety is such an important topic in Native America that gets relegated to the shadows sometimes,” added Craig. “But we have all the tools that we need to heal — and we don’t necessarily need a Western stamp of validation.”

He’s also a firm believer in making “health and healing an everyday practice.”

“This is our legacy,” Craig continued. “Bringing back ceremonies, planting songs, cooking recipes, hunting, language — all of that great stuff. That way, it doesn’t matter if you’re in New York or on the rez.”