Hollywood Food History

The reaction of colonists to Indian corn cakes is probably fairly well represented in the 1972 Robert Redford film, Jeremiah Johnson. In it our hero is forced, out of an accident of Flathead Indian etiquette, to take the tribal chief’s daughter as his wife. In their ensuing attempt to set up housekeeping, the girl collects grain, pounds it into meal, and presents her new husband with the Flathead version of the flapjack. Redford’s face pretty much tells the story when he tries a bite, then turns to his adopted son and says “Go fetch us some proper food.”