If you stop at a roadside restaurant anywhere between North Dakota and Oklahoma, you might not immediately get a sense of culinary diversity. Many menus in rural and small-town middle America consist…
The main problem (in my opinion) is that industrialization of food happened after Native American and Anglo-American food systems combined. (And that combination was enforced by the displacement and confinement of Native Americans).
There aren’t many restaurants providing Native American food as it was eaten 200 years ago. Similarly, there aren’t many restaurants providing English-American food as it existed 200 years ago. Most foods we eat could not have existed back then due to things like selective breeding, long distance shipping, and refrigeration.
These advancements changed food all around the world, and many foods were invented that couldn’t have existed before. Later waves of immigration brought new foods to America that were already part of industrialized food.
Many foods that Native Americans ate long ago are part of what is just considered “American food”. Just look at the list of vegetables that came from the americas during the Columbian exchange.
With the rise in “farm to table”, I think there has been a bit of resurgence in Native American food, it might just not be labeled as such. You do have people like Sean Sherman who are really advocating for food that is explicitly Native.
The main problem (in my opinion) is that industrialization of food happened after Native American and Anglo-American food systems combined. (And that combination was enforced by the displacement and confinement of Native Americans).
There aren’t many restaurants providing Native American food as it was eaten 200 years ago. Similarly, there aren’t many restaurants providing English-American food as it existed 200 years ago. Most foods we eat could not have existed back then due to things like selective breeding, long distance shipping, and refrigeration.
These advancements changed food all around the world, and many foods were invented that couldn’t have existed before. Later waves of immigration brought new foods to America that were already part of industrialized food.
Many foods that Native Americans ate long ago are part of what is just considered “American food”. Just look at the list of vegetables that came from the americas during the Columbian exchange.
With the rise in “farm to table”, I think there has been a bit of resurgence in Native American food, it might just not be labeled as such. You do have people like Sean Sherman who are really advocating for food that is explicitly Native.