In June 2010 after meandering across the high plains and through the Black Hills, T and I arrived in Spearfish South Dakota. After a tour of this small college town, Debo took us for a drive up Spearfish Canyon in a cool drizzle and we stopped in at Cheyenne Crossing for brunch. While waiting in line to be seated we visited with a man who had gotten off of a bicycle and out of a slicker as we were driving up. He said he was riding west from Pennsylvania to Washington to be in a friends wedding. He wrote, in his journal and postcards, while waiting to be served.
Debo recommended the Indian Tacos and it was good advice. The filling was traditional beef, beans, lettuce, etc, etc. but was served on Frybread instead of tortillas. Frybread entered the Native American diet when the U. S. Government began to provide flour, sugar, lard and salt to the newly reserved peoples. Sounds pretty toothsome doesn't it - it is and it became a food tradition in modern Native American culture and probably contributed more than its fair share to epidemic diabetes among the reserved peoples. Read the works of Sherman Alexie to see the part that Frybread plays in modern life on the "Rez". Read Sherman Alexie anyway. But I digress. It was the only Indian Taco I ever had. The only thing that keeps it from being the best Taco of any kind that I ever had is Clara's on the street in San Miguel.
A couple of weeks later we were traveling from Glacier National Park to Calgary and stopped for lunch in Cardston Alberta. I went into an RBC branch to use the ATM for lunch money and found that the bank was serving lunch as part of a celebration honoring indigenous peoples - the Kainai Nation (Blackfoot) reservation is nearby. We were invited in and joined several Blackfoot for lunch prepared, as we watched, by bank staff. Lunch consisted of a tasty meatball stew and Frybread. Although one of our table mates was critical of the Frybread (not fluffy enough) I was confirmed in my opinion that it makes a great delivery system - in this case for local butter and honey. It is not something you would want to eat on a daily basis but it is real good bread.
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If you would like to see my collection of Carolina Lowcountry memories—"Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork," you can view the book trailer here, and see the book page here on the publisher's website. The book is also available from Amazon, B&N, and your independent local bookseller.
