Why Francis Ford Coppola opened a Native American-themed restaurant in Geyserville, California.
The opening of Werowocomoco, director Francis Ford Coppola's new Geyserville restaurant, which features Native American cuisine, intends to pay homage to a culture Coppola admires and became interested in as a child.
"I was filled with awe and respect for these people and fascinated with their story and wanted to learn what I could," he writes in an article for SF Chronical.
"I was filled with awe and respect for these people and fascinated with their story and wanted to learn what I could," he writes in an article for SF Chronical.
"I also wanted the opportunity to taste and experience what Native American food is like today, and so over several years I traveled in search of it. I shared meals on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, in private homes and eateries for local people."
In 2002–2003 a comprehensive archaeological survey and excavations revealed an extensive settlement on the York River which researchers believe was Werowocomoco. Excavation has revealed that the settlement was inhabited since 1200 CE, and complex earthworks were built about 1400 CE. Powhatan may have made use of a site already well-known to his people as a regional center. background music on/off control here
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Coppola continued: "A chance opportunity enabled me to buy a set of rare books (“History of the Indian Tribes of North America,” assembled by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall between 1836 and 1844), which consisted of beautiful color prints of American chiefs as they appeared at the time. These books and reproductions of some of the prints are on display.
Coppola: "My interest began with Virginia Dare when as a child I remember hearing the jingle of the Virginia Dare wine on the radio, and seeing the label art that featured a pretty blond girl who seemed out of a fairy tale. Later, I wondered what had happened to this early American winery, which was one of the first in the U.S.A., and this led to research and the fascinating story of the birth of the first Anglo child in the New World, the disappearance of the Lost Colony, and the power of the consolidated Algonquin tribes under the great chief Powhatan and his brother Opechancanough, in Werowocomoco, Va."
"Werowocomoco, American Native food restaurant will, guided by our council of advisors, choose charitable organizations, offer preferential employment opportunities and give foodstuffs acquisition preference to local tribes, and in the spirit of companies such as Orvis. The Virginia Dare Winery, a family-owned company, will donate 5 percent of its pretax profits to America’s Native People."