Since the early 2000s, Indigenous Peoples (American Indian/Alaskan Native/Native Hawaiian communities) have been involved with Slow Food USA and Slow Food International through various levels of participation in national and international meetings, including the first Terra Madre conference in Italy in 2004.

In 2006, Anishinaabeg leader Winona LaDuke helped lead an Indigenous Peoples delegation to Terra Madre that included nearly 60 Indigenous delegates from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii. Indigenous delegates quickly saw the benefits of this global food network and the importance of sharing Indigenous voices with these food communities and gatherings. Many of the participants in the historic 2006 delegation are part of this organizing group.

Many of us have also been involved in the broader Indigenous food movement as farmers, gatherers, advocates, scholars, and chefs but recognize that participation within the Slow Food network has been hindered for Indigenous participants across Turtle Island by a splintered framework. SFTIA has come together to gather and align our Native food work in relation to Slow Food, as we share many core values and goals.

On February 22, 2016, a group of 25 Indigenous leaders gathered at the Taos Food Center to bring our minds together and discuss the formation of this historic association. The founding initiatives were facilitated by Winona LaDuke, Kyra Busch of the Christensen Fund, and Megan Larmer of Slow Food USA, and SFTIA organizers arrived at a consensus.

On April 24 and 25, 2023, an interim steering committee convened at the ancestral lands of the Suquamish People to finalize the governance, organizational structure, mission, values, vision and guidelines by consensus.