Native American Foods: Before and after Contact: Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries

In the twentieth century a large part of Native American cooking was eroded by the same problems that had been established earlier: relocation, government control of cookery in government schools, the poverty and lack of opportunity associated with much of reservation life, the difficulties of minority status and racism, the passage of time, and the progress of the modern world. A new movement to relocate Indians in cities further weakened the cultural reinforcement often associated with reservation life. At the same time, many attempts were made to dissolve Indian governments and close reservations to open land for commercial interests. Indian reaction began a pan-Indian movement in which tribes came together to strengthen political power and culture.