Joshua Hoyt

Joshua Hoyt is a Native chef, educator, and writer and joins TCC as the new Foodways Manager in 2023. Prior to joining The Cultural Conservancy, he was one of the chefs who helped open Wahpepah’s Kitchen, the first Native American restaurant in the Bay Area, he previously worked as the Preparing Oakland Native Youth Program Coordinator for American Indian Child Resource Center (AICRC), and helped establish the Indigenous Teaching Garden at Berkeley. 

Joshua got his start in cooking while fishing in Alaska, when he was surprised to learn that he would be cooking and baking bread as part of his duties in community. After a rocky start, he discovered a passion for cooking and spent the next several years in kitchens around Seattle, WA and Palo Alto, CA. Wanting to do more community-oriented work, he returned to Stanford University to complete an English degree, with the goal of using his skills to work with Native youth. He has continued to combine his passions for Native communities, cooking, plants, storytelling, and working with youth.

To that end, he has worked for the Stanford Storytelling Project as a radio producer and story editor, helped facilitate Digital Storytelling workshops for the Stanford Native Community, and spent many years teaching Indigenous Cooking classes for young adults and Native community across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Joshua was born in Montana and raised in Seattle. He belongs to the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa, and is Dakota, Metis, Italian, and German.

Contact: joshua@nativeland.org