Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
The latest: New lounge makes it Native, artist dream animals, dancer carries dual traditions
CUISINE: A bison and three sisters walk into a bar…
A new restaurant bar, the Frybread Lounge, opened in August 2024, the first and only Indigenous-owned restaurant in upscale Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona. For the holidays, it has been twinkling with lights and decorated with cutouts of deer and Santas. It’s designed like a casual diner with a counter, a bar, and lots of tables.
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The new restaurant is headed up by Darryl Montana, O’odham, who has 15 years of top-shelf food service experience. He has worked closely with award-winning Chef Sean Sherman at Owamni, Sherman’s restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the restaurant decolonizes foods. Owamni has won the James Beard Foundation Award for 2022 and USA Today Restaurant of the Year in 2024.
Montana said he is proud to present an “Indigenized dining experience.”
“Our restaurant will provide an elevated experience of appetizers, and entrees inspired by local Indigenous communities,” he said. “We prioritize purchasing from Indigenous food producers locally and nationally.”
He continued, “At our restaurant, we pride ourselves on preparing every dish with the freshest and highest quality ingredients, from our perfectly prepared frybread to our juicy bison burgers. Each dish is made to order and bursting with flavor. Our warm and welcoming atmosphere and friendly staff create a dining experience that is both delicious and memorable.”
Some of the tasty menu items include the Rez charcuterie board with the Chef’s Choice of Indigenous meats, salami, pickled onions and jams. The Three Sisters salad has squash, beans, hominy, quinoa, Indigenous pesto, jicama, cilantro, mixed greens, berries and a prickly pear vinaigrette. And the popular bison ribeye is hickory smoked and served with sweet potatoes, baby carrots and Indigenous pesto.
The most popular items are the bison asada taco and the frybread taco with Indigenous meats and all the toppings.
Imaginative drinks, made to order at the bar, include the Canyon Winds, made with Taos Rolling Stone Lavender Vodka, Italicus bergamot liqueur, lemon juice, Tres agave nectar and blueberries.
ART: ‘Wild Things’ on the wall
Ponca artist Julie Buffalohead, whose mythic animals tell tales, will have her second solo exhibition at the Jessica Silverman in San Francisco opening Jan. 9.
Based in St. Paul, Buffalohead is well known for her large-scale canvases that use animals to create dreamlike worlds, depicting scenes that explore themes around social equity, Native stereotypes and ancestral knowledge.
For this exhibit, “The Wisdom of Wild Things,” she focuses on birth stories and motherhood both in humans and animals, using her experience as a mother with myths from the Ponca tribe. Coyotes, deer, geese, and hares are also central characters in the creation of all things.
There are nine paintings where creation tales and cycles of kinship show resilience, strength and mutual care. In “Wind Woman” (2024), a pregnant woman reclines against a column that has shades of ribbon work, something she sees as “a woman’s signature.”
In “Snoopy” (2024) she directly references objects and memories from childhood, mixing a Snoopy toy with moccasins alongside a deer, a black dog, and a hare. The work reminds viewers of ancestry, and how the memories of childhood remain.
Buffalohead’s animal characters become enigmatic as well as playful as they cross worldly and spiritual realms offering protection and transformation.
DANCE: Tribal dancer wins award
A generous fellowship has been awarded to Indigenous dancer/artist Vaughnda Hilton.
Hilton, who is Blackfeet, Seminole and Creek, performs and teaches traditional dances and songs, building connections and belonging within Indigenous communities. She shares tribal culture through public events and partnerships with Indigenous leaders and Philadelphia city government.
The founder and chief executive of Native Nations Dance Theater and AfroDanze, she served as president of the United American Indians of the Delaware Valley, among other education and advocacy group leadership roles.
The fellowships recognize and reward the efforts of Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous artists. Eleven fellowships totaling $1.185 million have been awarded as part of Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasure, a funding initiative administered regionally
Hilton wrote about the fellowship on her Facebook page.
“Chehuntamo Community! I would like to thank my late mother Pauline Songbird first for always being there, providing a loving environment and pushing me to excel in academics, art, music, and all dance forms. My mother made sure that I knew who I was culturally and that was an immense gift, may she rest in heavenly peace. Thank you to my family and all the members of Native Nations Dance Theater for always saying yes when I say, “We have a show to do.
“I am so honored to have been nominated and selected to receive one of the Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Fellowship Awards. This is all possible due to your tenacity and fierceness. Thank you so much, this honor means so much and I feel truly blessed in this moment. Thank you to all the Natives and dancers who have ever joined me on a powwow journey, show, performance or gig over a 40-year stretch. I appreciate all your talent and willingness to share our culture.
“Thank you to the Philadelphia Cultural Treasures organization and all the artistic foundations behind this incredible gift. I am truly honored and will continue to keep the spirit alive in my teaching, presentations, dance performances, concerts and educational presentations around the world. Honor and Congratulations to all other Fellowship artists in 2024. Shonabish. Thank you all.”
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