Tamales and other mysteries

[txbelle]

My grandfather made the very best tamales in the whole wide world. He claims to have learned from his mother.

He was born in Knoxville Tn in 1893 and moved to Texas with his family in 1896. He also told me he rembered (faintly) his grandmother patting out the corn meal to make the tamales.

His mother was 1/2 Cherokee and his father was said to be 1/4 Blackfoot.

Now here's the question.....................aren't tamales a Mexican Indian food?

If his grandmother was from Tennessee...............which she alsmost had to be............are tamales an indigenous food of the Eastern Native American cultures................or are they truly Southern?

This has puzzled me for many years.

[collins]

The food of Mexico is generally Native American food.
There may be slight variations in preparing various food items, but over all the dishes are relatively the same.

[PappyDick]

A couple of weeks ago I took my son and grandson to check out the newish National Museum of the American Indian. Kind of a strange approach to the curatorial task; they have fabulous collections, but a sort of perverse set of organizing principles. Whatever, we agreed that the high point of the experience was lunch in the kind of amazing cafe. They have native dishes from all over North, Central and South America. One that I tried and liked was a Tamal from someplace far to the south -- maybe Ecuador? I forget. Anyway it contained chicken, was not spiced like the ones from Texas, and was way good.

[Aubrey G. Cole]

Hello to all;
I am 66 yrs old and have been eating refried beans, Tamales, Tortillias, Frybread Etc as long as I can remember and my grandmother who back when I was a young boy always called it Indian food and said her recipies were all from the old people in she and grandfather's family. I believe the Spanish took Indian recipies and tried to claim them.
Aubrey G Cole