Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources / Oklahoma State University

The first authentic American ethnic food

By Fred Causley

Raymond and Waltena Red Corn of Pawhuska are something else. She is 81, he is 85, and neither of them looks or acts like it. In fact, the proprietors of HA-PAH-SHU-TSE (Red Corn) Indian foods can frequently be found delivering meals to "old people." They have been married for 64 years.

Raymond Red Corn once cooked Indian food for the Queen of England and still has a formal letter of appreciation. In 1929, while on a Boy Scouts of America encampment in England with Sir Baden Powell (Powell originated the BSA in Pawhuska in 1909), Red Corn cooked and served Native American cuisine for the Prince of Wales and for Prince George.

Waltena is the energetic talker and marketer of the family products; Raymond is the quiet founder whose classic Native American countenance graces each package of fry bread and Indian taco mix.

"I like to talk," Waltena says, gesturing across the table toward Raymond. "He's the quiet one in the family.

"I'm really not all that quiet," he answers, smiling. "I just don't get a chance to say much."

You can't help but like them immediately, and Waltena's enthusiasm is infectious. She is convinced that Native American cuisine can become a common part of everyday American culture.

Raymond and Waltena Red Corn are still in the Native American Foods business
they started in 1973. She is now 81 and he is 85. Waltena would like to
see Oklahoma become "the center for American Indian food."

"If Oklahoma wants to be put on the map as the source of the first authentic ethnic food of America, it can be done with Native American foods. The time is right. Somebody just needs to step forward and get it done. Oklahoma means red man, and a Native American food industry would be a tribute to the very things that once sustained us," she says, her eyes sparkling.

"I don't have anything against the other ethnic foods, but they all came later: the Italian, Chinese, and other cuisines. I would love to see the day Oklahoma would be the center for Indian food, when you could hear a family say, 'Let's eat Native American food tonight.'"

Raymond and Waltena agree that the new OSU Food and Agricultural Products Research and Technology Center would have been invaluable in helping them get their business established. Theirs was an experience of trial and error.

"We worked for two years just to get the mix right," Waltena recalls. "We gave out samples for a 'survey' of sorts, and then used the most often complimented recipes for advancement until we got it right. Once we obtained a patent, we thought we were finished, but we learned we were just beginning."

Trial and error extended to packaging and marketing as well. At first, the Red Corns put their mix in plastic bags bearing Raymond's likeness. Then they learned they had omitted the bar code, and their bags--quite expensive to a budding business--were obsolete.

Waltena's flair for marketing seems to be one part shrewd businesswoman and one part fast-talking used car salesman.

"The original mix wasn't selling fast enough, so we packaged 'Indian Taco Mix,' 'Indian Bread Mix,' and others. It was all basically the same mix--but we sold more of it," she says.

The couple began their Indian food business in 1973. As it caught on, they opened a Native American restaurant in Pawhuska and ran that for several years. Today, their products are packaged and marketed through the Advance Food company out of Enid, Oklahoma. Their son took over the mail order side of the business a few years ago and currently runs it from Kansas City.

Indian fry bread is perhaps the most popular item the Red Corns sell, and ironically, it is the newest to be developed among the Native American cuisines. There was a reason for that.

"Most Indians were not oven people," Waltena explains. "We were corn people. When Indians were moved onto reservations, the government began issuing them salt, baking soda, and flour. They did not know how to use the flour. A lot of it was just dumped out. Then, when they learned to make dough, there were no ovens, so they simply fried it. About every tribe came up with some sort of fry bread."

Fry bread is but one of many interesting foods the Red Corns sell. The package also features Indian tacos, pancakes, biscuits, waffles, corn dogs, Indian meat pie, and grape dumplings, all that can be made with the mix as the main ingredient.

Some of the recipes and cuisine of Native American peoples are actually threatened, simply because the culture is being lost. The red corn is a primary example. Raymond still grows some of it and provides it to others who want to help preserve it. OSU Cooperative Extension vegetable specialist Jim Motes recently received some of the rare corn and will plant a seed increase next spring.

"I have seen so much of our foods vanish," Waltena says. "If the John F. Cope company (a business in Pennsylvania that sells dried corn) were to quit business, we wouldn't even be able to have a tribal feast."

Grape dumplings are an Indian dessert that is almost lost, according to Waltena Red Corn.

"They tasted twice as good with wild grapes," she recalls. "Now we have to use commercial grape juice because no one goes out to pick wild grapes. But they still taste pretty good. We wanted to develop a package complete with the grape juice and mix, something like Chef Boyardee does. If we had the energy and were a little younger, we might still consider doing that."

When you get to know the Red Corns, you know that statement is more than just talk. If they were just a little younger, they might actually tackle that challenge. Where in the world do you suppose they get all that energy?

Who knows? Perhaps it was something they ate.

Agriculture at OSU Fall / Winter 1996
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