| dc.description.abstract | Food has always been important to societies and cultures from everyday life and over generations. Yet, very few societies still eat the same way that they did 500 years ago. Today, indigenous people are challenged by settler colonial outcomes to reclaim our foodways and the knowledge that is engrained in them. Embodied in our food are stories, language, and place-based relationships. Knowledge of foodways in Comanche culture means more than revisiting a “Plains Indian” stereotype of only getting sustenance from bison hunts, yet, the documented food systems in Comanche culture is barely scratching the surface, especially in contemporary life.
This thesis gathers narratives about foods used and prepared by Comanche people through discussions with individuals that reside in the boundaries of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in Oklahoma. Within this arbitrary boundary are different Comanche communities from areas like Walters, Lawton, Elgin, Cache, Indiahoma, Fletcher, Sterling, Richard Spur, Mt. Scott, and Apache. People from all of these different communities are known to hold the knowledge of plants and food. | en_US |
