Native American Celebration: A Tribute to Culture and Community

“I wanted to make sure that the food was something that was authentic to the different regions of the country,” said Leah Graham, canteen chief at Murfreesboro with Veterans Canteen Service (VCS).

The “loose” meat buffalo burger was something that the Plains Indians, Blackfeet, and Salish peoples would have served, said Graham. The next dish was a ground bison meat taco with lettuce and tomato using fry bread and represented Apache and Navajo tribes from the southwest.

Graham emphasized that fry bread is technically not an indigenous item.

“Fry bread was developed after the [Indian Removal Act], where Native Americans were taken from the southern regions and forced out west to the Oklahoma and Kansas area,” Graham said.

The forced relocation of Native American tribes into unfamiliar territories caused challenges for them with different soil conditions, climate, and growing seasons. Unable to apply their traditional agricultural knowledge in these new environments and stripped of their ancestral farming lands, many tribes faced severe food insecurity. In response, the U.S. government implemented a commodity food assistance program to provide basic staples of flour, lard, cornmeal, and more.

“With [these basic staples], they came up with fry bread,” Graham said. “It really shows the resiliency of Native Americans in this country to take these tiny little scraps that they were given and come up with something flavorful, filling, and wonderful.”

The Native American Celebration is an important event for Graham, who is a Chickasaw tribe member. She draws her heritage from her mother and grandparents who were also part of the Chickasaw nation. In fact, her family’s legacy traces to Natives who were forcibly moved west from southern Tennessee and Mississippi area – her family eventually settled in Oklahoma.

This celebration of food and history provides valuable insight into traditions and traditions that many may never have heard of – like jingle dresses.

Graham, dressed in a jingle dress, discussed that she has been dancing at different pow wows across the country since she was two. The jingle dress is a heavy dress affixed with dozens of little bells that jingle with each step.

“For almost 35 years, I would dance at different pow wows across the country, ranging from the gathering of nations pow wow in Santa Fe every year […] all the way to the Iroquois in New York,” Graham said. 

The influence of the “code talkers” was another topic discussion during the TVHS Native American Heritage celebration. Code talkers were Natives who used their local language to transmit coded messages that enemy forces were unable to cypher. Their influence and self-less service were a vital part of U.S. forces in World War I and World War II.

The Native American celebration serves as an opportunity for the TVHS community to learn more about the rich Native American heritage of Veterans and TVHS staff who work around them. Holding events like the Native American celebration, and other special emphasis program events, highlights the importance of diverse cultures and ideas that create a better working environment at TVHS.

In fact, TVHS earned VA’s Customer Service Innovation Award for Employee Experience in August 2024 for the creation of the TVHS Diversity Leadership Council.

“I think that it brings people together because they understand the other culture a little bit more when they come and participate in these types of events,” said Amy Huddleston, lead Equal Employment Opportunity specialist for TVHS. “They also see similarities within their culture, and I think it has a way of bringing people together as well.”

The ceremonial music might mark the end of this year’s event, but the work of Graham and Huddleston will live on.

“America is a great melting pot of people. VCS was very proud to sponsor this event and provide the food, and I myself was very happy to make all of this food – and I just hope everybody enjoyed,” Graham said.

To learn more about how the VCS supports Veterans and VA community click here.