November is Native American Heritage Month, and a North Texas restaurant serves up Indigenous pride year-round. People can taste Native American dishes with a dash of history and culture in every bite.

The Fort Worth Stockyards are an iconic part of Tarrant County, and tucked away among the hustle and bustle sits a business rich in heritage.

“I’m part of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma,” Ruth Hooker said.

Bringing Indigenous pride to the Fort Worth Stockyards  

Ruth Hooker opened North Texas’ only Native-American owned restaurant in 2017.

“Food is a gateway to communication, so it’s a great conversation starter,” Hooker said.

One of the Indigenous items on the menu starts with fry bread, a Native American staple.

“Our Indian tacos are right up there with our burgers,” Hooker said.

They’re cooked with love by Hooker’s 81-year-old mother, Kathryn, who customers affectionately call “mom.”

Fry bread: a staple of survival, now served with love at Hooker’s Grill  

“Even though it’s a popular dish that we love, it was brought about during a very difficult time in history,” Hooker said.

Fry bread became a survival food when Native Americans were forcibly removed and relocated during colonization.

“It allows me to speak on my grandfather and also on Native American heritage,” Hooker said.

Hooker’s great-grandfather, George Davenport, served in the 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division in Texas. He trained at Camp Bowie in Fort Worth before deploying to France.

“My great-grandfather was a code talker in World War One, along with his brother,” Hooker said. “I had relatives that were in the original group of code talkers.”

With the sizzle of Indian tacos comes a reminder of the people behind them.

“2024 was the 100-year anniversary for Native Americans to be citizens of the United States,” Hooker said. “That’s kind of crazy to think about since they were actually here before America even had a name. They weren’t even considered a citizen like my grandfather.”

New generations, same traditions

A new generation of Native Americans cooks up a taste of home for customers.

“I hope that the big takeaway when they come here is that they’ve either learned something or remembered something,” Hooker said.

The lessons taught are as bright as the colors of the Indigenous mural that greets guests, which leaves them curious to learn more about the history right in their own backyard.

Hooker’s Grill serves up other Native American dishes, including some seasonal recipes.

“We have a lot of people that just order fry bread with green chili and cheese. You can get fried eggs on the fry bread. We’re very customer-oriented here,” Hooker said. “We do a lot of frybread burgers, so we make the fry bread smaller in size, and it acts as the two buns in place of hamburger buns, so that’s very popular. We have our rez dog, which is a hot dog with cheese that we wrap in fry bread and fry it. It’s kind of similar to a corn dog but better.”

The restaurant is open from Wednesday through Sunday.