Eighty-one guests enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal Friday at the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe Grace Moore Center, a dinner complete with pumpkin pie and a take-home treat.
The meal, prepared by cooks Cyndi Weddell and Pam Kitto and director Gayle Soward, included turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry fluff, dinner rolls, relish and pie with whipped cream. Guests also took home popcorn in a brown paper bag shaped to look like a turkey leg.
Guests thanked the staff with a round of applause. “You are our elders. That’s why we do it,” Soward told them. She said those who eat at the center appreciate the meals, and workers enjoy making dinners special, including things like lit candles at each table.
“We do the decorating. We do the cooking. We do everything together,” she said.