Pre-reservation Lunch Gets San Carlos Apache Staff Remembering Catfish and Culture
Woman glazing baked pack rat.
More members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe are trying traditional foods like cholla (cactus) buds, acorn dumplings, pack rat, and quail -- thanks to the Traditional Western Apache Diet Program. The White Mountain Tribe, Tonto Apache Tribe, and Yavapai-Apache Nation are also participating in the program. The goal of the program is to analyze the pre-reservation Western Apache diet. It is a first step in encouraging tribal members to return to a more traditional diet.
To expand awareness and support, three San Carlos Apache Tribal staff prepared a special lunch for Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler and his staff. “We want to get more support from the Tribe by reconnecting people to traditional foods and Mother Earth. This food heals your body,” explained Department of Forest Resources Staff Twila Cassadore.
Twila and Health Educator Daylene Anderson created the menu of pico de gallo with cholla buds, spinach salad with currants and pine nuts, acorn dumpling and elk soup, quinoa topped with baked quail, baked pack rat glazed with agave, mini whole wheat fry bread topped with zucchini, corn, and tepary beans, blue corn crepes stuffed with cream cheese and prickly pear, and fresh squeezed lemonade with chia seeds. Most dishes represented what Western Apaches ate before reservations were created. No sugar, salt, or white flour was used.
People sitting at lunch table.
Twila had been gathering seeds for weeks. Twila and her family members had also spent days hunting pack rat and quail. Twila and Daylene were up early that day to prepare the meal.
When Chairman Rambler and four staff entered the room and sat down, Twila and Daylene brought out the first course, pico de gallo topped with cholla buds, served with blue corn chips. The guests started sampling right away. Immediately, the conversation focused on the past. “My grandma used to catch catfish, huge ones. We used to wrestle them out of the water,” recalled Chairman Rambler.
While guests sampled additional dishes, Seth Pilsk, Department of Forest Resources Staff, talked about the program. “We want to get the Apache diet back to the community. Not because it’s healthy, but because it’s super-healthy.”
Three women looking at traditional food.
He explained that the program has identified over 200 harvestable foods on San Carlos Apache land. A nutritionist is analyzing the diet, and discovering that it is indeed super-healthy – high in healthy fats, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol. “We have also found that it is very high in fiber,” said Seth.
After the meal, guests gathered around a table displaying seeds, nuts, flours, and celery root. Guest Kevin Cassadore said, “We are learning our culture, the roots of who we are. We can say, ‘We are Natives and this is the kind of food we eat.’”
In the weeks following the lunch, Traditional Western Apache Diet Program staff began weekend outings to teach tribal members how to identify and gather traditional foods.
