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The Notable Yavapai Meal

1,340 views · Published 14 June 2007 · 5:38 · Indexed 21 October 2026

Channel: Desertphile · 2007 · People & Blogs

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By all known accounts, in nearly all ways it was not a very notable meal as such: bland, lacking any and all seasonings, lacking leafy green vegetables, dinner rolls, and wine --- even a deficit of proper plates and forks, --- it was considered at the time to be the social failure of the year. On the "Martha Stewart Zero to Ten Scale of Great Meals" it would probably have ranked, to be generous, a "Two" in preparation and a "One" in presentation.

A pit in the sand had been dug and the meat, properly undressed, was set in place; sand was then placed over the meat to a depth of a few inches, leaving a slight depression. Dried honey mesquite and cottonwood limbs were piled over the ad hoc oven and set on fire. After the fire had died down and the sand given time to cool, the cooked meal was dug up and eaten by the three Yavapai Indian dinners.

Such cook-outs had been considered the proper way to roast meat by the American Indians of the east Mojave desert for dozens of generations. The most notable items of the meal in question were the forth participant who was laying stretched out on the desert floor, very, very dead, and the fifth, who was, coincidentally, also very dead --- and who was also the main entrée.

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