Indigenous Voices (and Foodways) in Southern California
In dark times, it is worth stepping back and following the lead of indigenous resistance, for there are centuries of experience dealing with the evils of settler colonialism.
🪶 TURTLE ISLAND (Indigenous North America)
📍 (Tule River) Eagle Mountain Casino, Autry Museum of the American West, and Anaheim Founders' Park.
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly
📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles“The Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world, a world filled with broken promises, selfishness, and separations, a world longing for light again.”
-Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota NationI do not like to write in the first person because the stories I want to tell are never about me. Originally I had no plans to write about these vendors because I could not find the context on Eat the World Los Angeles, but with the backdrop of last week’s election, I have been finding some solace in the voices and resistance of indigenous people. I have spent this past week watching new (to me) indigenous-made films and documentaries and re-watching favorites.
Kanopy is a streaming service that is free if you have a Los Angeles Public Library card (or any other library that partners with the service) and is an incredible resource for these films. You can even find decent libraries on Amazon Prime and advertisement-heavy services like Tubi. I will put a list of some recommended gems at the end of the article.
To finish up about the election, personally I think the Democrats got what they deserved. They have all but left behind the needs of the common working person in the United States. They embraced positions like murderous genocide in Gaza and uplifting of the war criminal Cheney family while shifting even further to the right. Simultaneously it is hard not to be devastated by the immediate future of another four years with a dangerous snake oil salesman/carnival barker who cares about no one besides himself and is willing to threaten already vulnerable people in search of applause.
If you are also unhappy with the way the world is going and are feeling helpless, one way to be inspired in resistance to government that only caters to already rich and powerful people is to follow indigenous radicals. Listen and learn from their experiences and fights, for they have been dealing with this a lot longer than you and I have. There is a reason indigenous people have so much solidarity with Palestinians, who for the last three-quarters of a century have been enduring the same type of murderous settler colonialism that happened in what is now referred to as North and South America.
We are blessed in Southern California with the amount of indigenous nations, history, and people that are still here. Despite such a wretched (recent) past, these peoples should never be referred to in the past tense because they still flourish today.
There are so many gatherings that websites track the dates of powwows and other events while various vendors sell their delicious foods at all of them. It seems appropriate to talk more about indigenous foodways in Southern California with the backdrop of three recent events that I had the honor to attend.
The frybread taco above was found at the Hale’s Indian Tacos and Frybread stand, which set up shop last weekend in Anaheim’s Founders’ Park. The Anaheim Public Library partnered with indigenous groups and vendors to showcase crafts, food, music, and culture, and were even giving away books written by indigenous authors to all who attended.
While always delicious, frybread is unfortunately a symbol of colonialism, a food that came about from the ingredients indigenous people were forced to use after being violently separated from their original lands and traditional foods. But it also can be a symbol of strength and resistance, the creation of something new from the terrible rations given to people confined to reservations by an occupying force.
Originally made by Diné people, frybread is generally a beloved food but it does have its critics among indigenous people today because of these dark origins. Sean Sherman, an Oglala Lakota and owner of Owamni Restaurant where he goes by the name The Sioux Chef, says the food represents both perseverance and pain. His goals are more about reclaiming traditional foodways to bring back what was lost and also to improve his peoples’ health, which has suffered from colonialism.
All of this can be true at once, especially as cultures overlap and exist in different groups. Many indigenous people in Southern California are obvious Dodgers fans, wearing fresh blue hats with 2024 World Series patches on the side as they take orders and prepare foods. The most unique offering of the recent United American Indian Involvement Powwow was the Dodger Fry Dog made by Wildhorse Cafe. The Autry Museum in Griffith Park is the perfect place to enjoy this take on the famous Dodger Dog eaten at the stadium not too far away. The long hot dog link is tucked into a folded piece of delicious frybread rather than a bun.
A few hours north, a three day celebration with over $100,000 in prizes and by far the largest of the three events was this past weekend’s Tule River Powwow, held at the Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville. This amazing annual gathering was hosted by the Tule River Indian Tribe and attracted beautiful people, regalia, drum groups, and dancing from all across the western half of the country.
The stunning Grand Entry seen in one of the top photos above, is a procession of everyone that has come to be a part of the powwow. It is the type of event I hope that everyone can experience at least once in their lifetimes no matter how close their connection is to indigenous culture.
Besides the event and all of its sub-competitions, there were also numerous vendors set up just outside the casino’s event auditorium. Stands by indigenous and non-indigenous chefs and craftspeople made sure that everyone would find what they were looking for before and between shows.
Once again it was the frybread that was so hard to say no to despite the existence of Filipino, Chinese, American, and Mexican vendors.
While recent decades and governments in these so-called United States have thoroughly and horrendously let down most of its peoples, being surrounded by those whose ancestors have known nothing else for the past five centuries is somehow grounding. Indigenous peoples have lived through legacies of military and settler violence, intentional spreading of disease, extermination of food sources, horrific cultural suppression through boarding schools and laws, and land allotment to force systems of capitalism.
Amongst so many other tragedies, events like the three written about here are still taking place and resistance movements are still intact. Some are small and hyper-local while others are vast and attract many different tribes into one cause. Lower Brule Lakota author, professor, and organizer Nick Estes writes about indigenous history as the future and the only way forward on this land if any healing of Earth and its people can take place. So many indigenous people feel this way, and we should all get out of their way to let them lead. Any hope for a brighter future might depend on it.
RECOMMENDED FILMS:
River Of Renewal (2009)
What Was Ours (2016)
A Different American Dream (2016)
On A Knife Edge (2017)
Moroni For President (2018)
Return (2019)
From Wounded Knee To Standing Rock (2019)
Gather (2020)
Our Story (2021)
Lakota Nation vs. United States (2022)
Oyate (2022)
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