Wild onion dinners mark the turn of the season in Indian Country

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER
Associated Press

OKMULGEE, Okla. (AP) — Wild onions are among the first foods to grow at the tail end of winter in the South, and generations of Indigenous people place the alliums at the center of an annual communal event. From February through May, there’s a wild onion dinner every Saturday somewhere in Oklahoma. The wild onions are typically cooked for large gatherings. It’s a side dish of greens with a familiar peppery bite, served alongside fried pork, beans, frybread, chicken dumplings, cornbread and soup. The food is familiar among tribal nations in the southeast, including the Muscogee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee and Seminole, and people travel from as far as Arkansas, Kansas or Texas, because the Saturday dinners are part of their heritage.