Introduction
In this day and age, almost every person living in a big city is able to try the traditional cuisine of another culture without having to leave the town. Due to the fast development of the hospitality industry, multiple businesses such as restaurants and cafes focus on providing their customers with an exceptional experience of something new and nuanced. This is why there are so many excellent Italian, Japanese, Indian, and Chinese restaurants with dishes either resembling or fully implementing the traditional dishes of these countries in the menus.
However, there is a lack of Native American restaurants despite the fact that this culture directly correlates with the territory of the current US. It is rather unusual that a nation living on the USA territory for long before the colonists arrived is not widely represented in the hospitality industry, namely traditional restaurants. Several reasons have impacted this gap, especially the historical background, the poverty that affects the Native American community, and the different approaches to food as a whole.
Historical Background
Unlike such countries as Japan, China, Italy, and other countries with cuisine widely available in US restaurants, Native Americans have a different experience in terms of history. The culture itself suffered due to the colonization and the assimilation that the government was trying to install for an extended period of time. Sherman (2021) refers to these actions as an aim to isolate, terminate, and convert a large number of the population to traditional western ways of life. Due to the extended efforts towards westernizing Native Americans, many aspects of the culture that have been descriptive of the community became much less practiced or even remembered. Moreover, the centuries of discrimination and abuse led to the isolation of Native Americans and the dissociation with the rest of the country.
Colonialism
A primary aim of colonialism and assimilation of the existing population is the installment of other traditions and cultures in a structure with entirely different overviews and ways of life. This was the case for western colonizers interested in converting the native people into the religious, social, and political system practiced in countries actively trying to take the territories over. While food is not considered a crucial descriptor of a nation in contrast with religion, language, tradition, and other vital factors, it is one of the primary things that differs one culture from another. Since the objective was to take the traditional ways of life and replace them with new ones, food was one of the aspects that needed to change.
Instead of the unique agricultural systems and hunting widely practiced by natives, the colonizers brought their traditional farming animals (pigs, chickens, cows, etc.) and planting strategies that were foreign for the people living here (Sherman, 2021). Due to a shift in the agricultural structure of the country practiced for centuries, the traditional cuisine lost its primary source of raw materials.
Poverty
Native Americans, as mentioned before, are isolated through reservations. Moreover, it is inevitable that living on a reservation usually correlates with poverty and a lack of financial resources. Multiple people receive governmental help through food stamps and other help related to food items (Sherman, 2021). While such support is necessary for households with few opportunities in terms of investing in nutrition, food stamps are primarily designed to mitigate one’s caloric deficit.
On the other hand, the items that a person can receive through governmental help are often dense in calories yet relatively poor in terms of taste. Based on the condition that a large number of people are limited in terms of foods they can afford, it becomes increasingly hard to keep traditional ways concerning cuisine preferred by ancestors for centuries. When one cannot purchase products, grow plants, or hunt, unlike predecessors, Native American food became less popular even within the community itself.
Agricultural Modernization
As mentioned prior, Native Americans primarily consumed food that was hard to harvest and animals that were difficult to hunt and expensive to farm. According to Sherman (2021), bison, insects, and multiple medicinal plants were staples in Native American cuisine. However, the agricultural system that involves spending little resources while having the best numeric outcome does not align with the older agriculture practiced centuries ago. Harvesting organic plants and farming bison is more costly compared to the current industrial trends. This is another reason why traditional food has lost its availability throughout the country where, centuries ago, it was vital in terms of nutrition.
Isolation
While open political, social, and legal discrimination has been eradicated in the last century, multiple communities still deal with past abuse and exploitation outcomes. Native Americans have had a tragic history involving colonists, diseases, targeted extermination, abuse, and cultural assimilation aimed to mitigate traditions, languages, and historic differences contrasting with the colonists’ ways of life. Due to the fact that no current law encourages the active discrimination of these communities, a seemingly logical result would be the flourishing of native traditions forgotten during the early time periods.
However, it is vital to acknowledge the dispersion between the tribes and the rest of the countries. As mentioned before, many Native Americans live on reservations in close-knit groups. They share similar views, religious practices, languages, and other cultural aspects that determine them as communities. However, such a way of life leads to isolation and dispersion.
When a group of people is isolated and does not live in harmony with the rest of the country, it becomes increasingly harder to avoid such a moral distance and open businesses available for everybody. Due to the lack of connection, opening a traditional Native American restaurant for people not used to such foods may appear to be a doomed idea. Moreover, because of the controversy around the aspect of cultural appropriation, some non-Native American individuals may have the impression that eating the food of a community previously marginalized by their ancestors can be perceived as offensive. On the other hand, supporting such businesses would help impoverished groups of people and contribute to the popularization of Native American traditions.
Facing the Disparities
As highlighted prior, the history of the Native American population has been traumatizing for the individuals who became marginalized and violated on physical, mental, and social levels. However, the modern world allows every person to achieve specific goals despite being a minority. While this is a truthful statement, certain populations tend to be forgotten or avoided when it comes to governmental assistance. Food stamps, tax cuts, and other benefits are the only measures that authorities implement to help out a community with such a tragic past and complex present.
While financial help is useful for people living below the poverty line, there are fewer efforts towards providing the community with long-term and sustainable solutions to the current situation. There is a sense of avoidance and disassociation with Native Americans that cause an even more significant gap. Several causes may be the result of this gap, such as a lack of desire to be involved, shame, inability to have a connection with a traumatized population, etc. A lack of Native American restaurants can be one illustration of the authorities being passive towards encouraging the communities to open businesses. Facing the lack of such projects may lead to the discovery of other issues that need to be faced, which the government may deem too costly or potentially inefficient.
Conclusion
There is a lack of Native American restaurants, a fact which can be explained through several causes. First, the history of this community can be described as purposeful mitigation of all cultural descriptors correlating with traditional ways of life, including nutrition, hunting, and agriculture. The colonialism resulted in the disappearance of several important cultural aspects of this nation. Moreover, the current poverty that is prevalent in reservations does not allow Native Americans to follow the tradition of their ancestors, which leads to a change in the practice of growing food and continuing the habits of hunting and agriculture. The modern agricultural industry is different from the more sustainable and natural ways of obtaining food, which is another cause for the decrease in popularity of Native American cuisine.
Furthermore, an isolated community is more prone to failures in terms of opening businesses in the hospitality industry due to the small customer base available. There is also a psychological/political aspect of the government avoiding dealing with issues rooted in the nation because of past actions towards the destruction of Native American ways of life. All these factors create a gap in the industry regarding the small number of Native American restaurants on the market.
References
Sherman, S. (2021). Why aren’t there more Native American restaurants? [Video]. TED. Web.