Endangered Eating: Navajo Churro Sheep
Taught by Sarah Lohman
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian and the author of the bestselling books Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods and Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. She focuses on the history of food as a way to access the stories of diverse Americans. Endangered Eating was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon’s Editors, Food & Wine, and Adam Gopnik on the Milk Street podcast. It was a finalist for the Nach Waxman Prize for Food & Drink Scholarship and winner of the Ohioana Library Book Prize for Nonfiction. Lohman’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and NPR. Lohman has lectured across the country, from the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC to The Culinary Historians of Southern California
This lecture series is a semi-secret preview of Sarah Lohman’s upcoming food history book, Endangered Eating: Exploring America’s Vanishing Food! Over the coming months, she’ll lead eight classes, each focused on a single chapter of her book. It’s your chance to get the scoop on Sarah’s work, help her with questions and feedback, and learn a curious story about America’s food past
When Europeans first began settling Northern Mexico, they found the terrain inhospitable for most familiar crops – but ideal as a grazing ground for livestock. Navajo-Churro sheep are descended from a traditional Spanish breed introduced to America in the 16th century and sport up to four corkscrew horns. The sheep became a favorite of the Diné/Navajo, who prized them for meat, milk, and fleece. The decline of the Navajo-Churro sheep began in the 1860s when the Navajo were declared enemies of the US government and Kit Carson was sent in 1863 to round up the Diné people, destroy their livestock, and burn their orchards and crops. The sheep breed has never fully recovered, although the Diné still maintain their deep, spiritual connection the animal.
I traveled to the Navajo Nation, and spent a weekend assisting a Diné cook slaughter, butcher and cook a whole lamb. Then, I spent several days sleeping in my truck on the ranch of a Diné shepherd, before finally heading in to Arizona to eat Churro in a fancy restaurant. It was a hell of a trip, and I’m going to tell you all about it.
