I remember when this came up a few years ago on Twitter. There are First Nations restaurants, most (white) people just don't go to them and where they are. Yes there are not a lot, it would be much better if there was more. The reason there isn't is because of colonization and genocide.
But we also have to be careful because presenting a minority group as already extinct exists to help continue the perpetuation of the genocide. As Judith Butler describes.
An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived, that is, it has never counted as a life at all'
There is a surviving first nations food culture that doesn't care whether Patrick Blumenthal has eaten it or not.
Also First Nations food has been heavily assimilated to into many cultures food. Mexican Food, Peruvian Food, etc When people eat these foods they don't think of it's relationship to First Nations, but there's a connection.
Finally stuff like corn, tomatoes, potatoes all of this food that is widespread everywhere is from North and South America and only hits Europe and Asia in the early modern period. What is and isn't a certain cultures food is not static but subject to forces of history.
There was a comedian who had a routine that went something like “my sister’s husband is German. Whenever he visits the US, he says that you just can’t get good bagels in Germany. I said, “and whose fault is that?” “
This got me in a rabbit hole and I got curious about what indigenous/Native American cuisine would be like because I genuinely didn't know and came across a good list of indigenous owned restaurants as well as a bunch of new recipes to try, in case anyone else is curious.
https://www.afar.com/magazine/native-american-restaurants-in-the-us
https://www.tastingtable.com/1297689/native-american-foods-should-try-once/
More than that, we completely transformed the native ecology of places such that they're nearly unrecognizable from what they once were. Native plants only occupy a tiny, tiny slice of the ecology that they used to, thanks to invasive introductions that came either accidentally or deliberately with livestock and agricultural imports. I know that in California, many of the plants the native people depended on are difficult to find anymore, and are almost never deliberately cultivated. We also took deliberate, calculated steps over decades to eradicate their cultures, and since very little was ever written down, it was largely successful.
In spite of all that, AFAIK there IS at least a Dine restaurant that they're using to try and teach their own people and others about their traditional culinary and food-ecology practices.
Odd take because plenty of communities have lower populations and still have restaurants of their cuisine. But also because there are a bunch of native cuisine restaurants.
It doesn't help that a relatively equal society without extreme division of labor is probably not producing cuisine on the same level as cultures with extreme inequality. A class of jealous and idle nobles with personal chefs trying to outdo each other does a lot to push culinary experimentation.
Here's a couple of NPR stories about indigenous people running restaurants that reflect their cultures:
To be more accurate, smallpox killed somewhere between like 65-95% of the native american population after contact with Europeans. And, of course, many of their remaining descendants ended up concentrated into reservations.
So, I imagine if you were going to find native american cuisine restaurants, they'd be rare but typically in and around reservations.
imagine never having a fry dough experience....
FUCKING SAD
Natv in Broken Arrow is pretty good.
If y'all get a chance, try Navajo Tacos.
To divide indigenous people with our current borders is anachronistic and not useful.
For example, Aztecs migrated from the current United States (or close, as there's no consensus) into Mexico. I bet they carried on culinary traditions. If so, dishes from Mexico City are an example of native (native to their first and their second land) cuisine.
Yaqui, Pima/Pima Bajo, Kickapoo and other groups lived and live both in the U.S. and Mexico. So, again, northern Mexican dishes might be "Native American" dishes.But that notion alone is problematic as it implies the indigenous peoples' food was and is more similar than it actually is. We can have Quechua cuisine, Mayan cuisine, Cherokee cuisine, but grouping them up for a restaurant would be as easy as trying to open an "East Asian restaurant" or a "European restaurant". What to put on the menu? Lol.
I hope I'm not pedantic. I just don't agree with the divide of the indigenous people by our current nations, and I'm debating the air over here.
I've actually been to a native american restaurant. It was on a reserve. They served buffalo burgers. It was fucking delicious.
Canadian Native here, if anyone ever has the chance to try moose meat, do it! It's easily my favorite meat, I'd take moose over a t-bone or prime rib every single time. If I had to eat it every single day for the rest of my life I'd die with a smile on my face. You can make steaks out of it, make ground moose burger, cut it into small slices and stew it, or one of my favorite treats, turn it into smoky jerky etc. Lot's of different ways to cook it.
The taste is hard to describe, it's a bit gamey but not overly so (at least to me, I grew up on the stuff) and it's very tender and flavorful. Tastes a bit like beef I guess but IMO much better.
Important to point out: native food culture was wiped out because of the forced migration of natives. The federal government subsidized natives with basic food ingredients that were not commodities to them. I can’t really imagine what they ate prior to being pushed out of their native lands without doing a serious deep dive into pre-19th century accounts of their food.
Don't you worry Patrick, our zealous lefties are on that shit. Why, just recently, they spent a long time discussing why they'd prefer a fascist regime than to vote for someone they considered guilty of genocide.
Admittely it hasn't worked out very well yet, but the point is that they are keenly aware of the issues with the Native American genocide. I'm almost sure.
Check out Sioux Chef in Minneapolis. That one is pretty good!
I fully accept I’m being a bit dense here, but what’s this guys point? There’s a good reason why there aren’t many Native American restaurants, and probably most of the world knows why…
I just started to listen to A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn on Audible. https://www.audible.com/pd/B0030H777E?source_code=ASSORAP0511160007
The first chapter talks about Columbus and the genocide he started. It's eye opening.
lol, holy shit search that guy. He looks like he still wears short pants. Some rich douche with a real punchable face. ... fucking Polo logo on a baseball cap.
I know I saw some in coastal towns in Alaska. Didn't have a chance to try them, though.
If you ever have the chance to visit Alaska, do it. It's a highly underrated state. Jesse ultimately got the good ending in Breaking Bad.
You got any of that fry bread.
I like this place https://www.iespokane.com/
Very few real Aztecas dance in Mexico Tenochtitlan these days too. I wonder why.
