#taelor barton

[appalachianfuturism]

“The question led Barton to scholars like David Morgan and Kristen Gremillion, and obscure discoveries in places like Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, a 29,000-acre canyon system in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Before the Gorge finds, archaeologists “assumed that the peoples of this region just sat around passively, waiting for others to send them the gift of agriculture,” says Morgan, director of the National Park Service’s Southeast Archaeological Center. “But that simply wasn’t the case.”

Plant materials recovered by archaeologists in the Gorge in the 1980s and ‘90s led to a historical revision “that fundamentally alters how we think about indigenous peoples of the [precontact eastern U.S.],” says Morgan. A trove of ancient seeds debunked then-dominant theories “depicting early inhabitants as backwater nomads that didn’t acquire agriculture—and thus the markers of complex society—until after A.D. 1, when maize arrived from Mesoamerica.”

Gremillion, a paleoethnobotanist, chairs the Ohio State University department of anthropology and is the author of Ancestral Appetites: Foods in Prehistory. She started working in the Gorge around 1989, using techniques such as direct radiocarbon dating and high-magnification microscopy to study ancient caches of seeds, food stores, cooking refuse, and human feces. She found specimens buried under massive stone outcroppings and in caves—all in remarkable condition.

“We found things like 3,000-year-old sunflower heads and baskets full of seeds,” says Gremillion, who compares the digs to opening storage vaults. The finds were unprecedented, and old vanguard archaeologists were dismissive. “They said the materials couldn’t possibly be so old.”

Gremillion’s research proved them wrong; the region’s indigenous peoples had been farming for more than 5,000 years. The work helped establish the Eastern Woodlands as an independent center of prehistoric plant domestication and agricultural development—alongside areas like southeast Asia, Mexico, and the Fertile Crescent.”

[ucflibrary]

In March, a few weeks before COVID-19 shut down the country, chef Nico Albert and her longtime mentee, chef Taelor Barton, met at Duet Restaurant + Jazz to discuss plans for their upcoming Native American dinners and culinary classes.

Each November for the past two years, Albert has turned the menu at Duet Restaurant + Jazz into full Native American fare. While the seasonal, New American food that Albert serves year round has made the 140-seat eatery one of Tulsa’s most beloved fine-dineries, it is this menu of contemporary Native dishes, available only during Native American Heritage Month, that truly stands out. Locals and regulars flock to the restaurant, and Cherokee and other tribal members come from as far away as Michigan or Seattle. The offerings—which include persimmon frybread pie made with Pawnee heirloom corn and crispy, sumac-crusted snapper with roasted squash, wild greens, sweet corn hazelnut sauce, and pickled blueberries—routinely sell out.

The women, both members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, were slated to lead historical-foraging and Spring Onion Dinner experiences about pre-colonial foodways and matriarchal roles, and cook suppers of traditional Cherokee foods for local museums and historical societies.

They were also discussing possibilities for this year’s November menu at Duet. (Barton may be a guest chef.) Of course, it should continue to feature contemporary Native American food, whose presence at a fine-dining restaurant remains rare and special. But might it also debut their effort to restore one of North America’s oldest regional indigenous cuisines—one that has been almost completely lost, and is rarely referenced outside the pages of archaeology journals?

....

[jonhenrygeneralstore]

We are honored to be part of the new People's WPA Cohort with the @usartsdept: #Repost @usartsdept @download.ins --- The USDAC team is thrilled to announce a group of 25 creative practitioners who will deepen and support the building of our People’s WPA platform! They are: Austin Robey, Ampled Co-op, New York, NY; Ana Rodney, MOMCares; Baltimore, MD; Free Bangura, Richmond, VA; Yahdi Harris, Dallas Robinson, Suparna Kudesia, CoFED, California; Danny Park, Skid Row People's Market, Los Angeles, CA; Fronteristxs Collective, New Mexico; Kirsten Kirby-Shoote, Taelor Barton; I-Collective; Mondo Bizarro and The Land Memory Bank; Invisible Rivers, LA; Jon Henry General Store, New Market, VA; Kristina Wong, Auntie Sewing Squad, Los Angeles, CA; L.M. Bogad, The Center for Tactical Performance, Berkeley, CA; Michelle Browder, Montgomery, AL; Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, Guam, Miracle Jones, Pittsburgh, PA, Natalie Benally, Santa Fe, NM; People's Paper Coop, Philadelphia, PA; Brandi Turner, Sipp Culture, Utica, MS; Lou Murrey, Mekyah Davis, Stay Together Youth Project (STAY), New Market, TN; Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier, The Black School, New York, NY; Sacramento Knoxx, Detroit, MI; Anti Eviction Mapping Project, San Francisco, CA; Rolling Rez Mobile Arts Unit, South Dakota; Jackie Sumell, Solitary Gardens and the Prisoner's Apothecary, New Orleans, LA; Neta RGV, Rio Grande Valley, TX; Turn The Page Movement, Newark, NJ The People's WPA is a storytelling project with the goal of convincing policymakers to invest in arts, culture, and newly imagined sectors of labor critical to our healing and survival. Over the course of the next 6 months, these stellar individuals and collectives will help give life to our ideas. Together we will lift up the many vital ways in which community-based artists and cultural workers are working to repair society and move us into a more sustainable and enriching future. Check out usdac.us/peopleswpa for more information. (at Jon Henry General Store) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHG5ZVZBCNZ/?igshid=116dd9twz2vh1

[notinthenews]

The Cherokee Chefs Bringing Back North America’s Lost Cuisine

The Cherokee Chefs Bringing Back North America’s Lost Cuisine

In March, a few weeks before COVID-19 shut down the country, chef Nico Albert and her longtime mentee, chef Taelor Barton, met at Duet Restaurant + Jazz to discuss plans for their upcoming Native American dinners and culinary classes.

Each November for the past two years, Albert has turned the menu at Duet Restaurant + Jazz into full Native American fare. While the seasonal, New American food…