Recipe archive
Recipe archive
The Melting Pot
Bison Stew hero image coming soon
Pre-1776-present - Indigenous Great Plains cooks and modern Native food-restoration advocates
Bison stew can be a modern way to honor older Indigenous food relationships when it is framed carefully. Bison supplied meat, fat, hides, tools, and ceremony for many Plains nations; corn, beans, and squash add a broader Native agricultural foundation.
Difficulty
Easy
Prep time
25 minutes
Cook time
2 hours
Total time
2 hours 25 minutes
Servings
6 servings
Region
Great Plains and Indigenous foodways
Era introduced
Pre-1776-present
Introduced by
Indigenous Great Plains cooks and modern Native food-restoration advocates
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Bison stew is more than a generic frontier novelty. Bison are central to the histories and food sovereignty work of many Plains Indigenous nations, while corn, beans, and squash reflect deep Native agricultural traditions across North America. This recipe is a respectful modern home version using accessible ingredients and a slow simmer. The archive context points readers toward tribal and Native-authored sources as this entry continues to mature.
Drafted with bison and Three Sisters stew context from Honest-Food (https://honest-food.net/bison-stew-recipe/), Native-authored foodways context from Native News Online (https://nativenewsonline.net/health/a-good-stew-is-a-story-blackfeet-buffalo-rancher-shares-three-sisters-buffalo-stew-recipe/), and bison history from the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (https://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.pe.010.html).
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