Chapter 13: Cuny Cafe

Part of the magic and intensity of the Green Tortoise adventure travel experience in the Badlands involves eating dinner prepared by a pair of gregarious Lakota Sioux women at a place called Cuny Cafe. The cafe building doubles as their home on land that bears their family name. Cuny Table is located near Buffalo Gap on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. After eating dinner, the Green Tortoise is permitted to camp on this gorgeous piece of private land under special agreement with the Cuny family. The Green Tortoise has enjoyed a decades-long friendship with the Cuny family fostered by the owner of the Green Tortoise, Gardner Kent since 1972.

From Scenic we drove south and then west toward Buffalo Gap into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. On the vast treeless wilderness south of Badlands National Park, a small group of farm buildings sits at the end of a long dirt driveway. The word “CAFE” was painted in big white letters on the side of a simple square house, painted red with white trim. Two picnic tables sat under a shingled awning jutting out from the building, providing shelter from the sun. A doublewide trailer was attached to one end of the building. A stockade fence corralled the area between the house and a matching red barn. A pair of junk cars and some dilapidated farm equipment sat baking in the sun. Two wooden outhouses, one red and one blue, stood off to the side of the driveway some fifty feet from the house.

Two Indian children were running around in the dirt parking lot. Driver Chris slowed the bus down to a crawl as he pulled over to park on the side of the driveway. The white screen door on the side of the house opened with a bang. A grandmother Indian emerged, wearing a checkered apron, wiping her hands on a dishcloth.

The two Indian children ran to her sides as she walked happily toward the bus. Driver Chris pushed the air brake button and opened the door to greet her. “Hello, Mrs. Cuny,” he said smiling. She was clearly a dignified lady.

“Hello Chris,” she said as she grabbed the handrail and pulled herself up the first step of the bus into the stairwell. “You don’t need to be calling me Mrs. Cuny young man. Just because you haven’t been around for a while doesn’t mean you’re not part of the family.” She struggled up another step and waved to everyone inside. Where she lacked in fine motor skill, she more than made up for in spirit and determination. “Where have you been?” she questioned. “It’s been months since you came through.”

“This is my first trip north this season.” He nodded. “I see you’re still as sharp as ever Nellie. How’ve you been?”

“I’m trying to take it all in stride,” she said. “How’s this old bus holding up?” she asked gregariously.

“Four million miles and going strong,” Driver Chris spoke the legend.

“That’s how I feel myself some days,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for letting us know it’s a smaller group than normal. I just need a count of vegetarians.”

“Only six vegetarians,” he told her.

“Only six,” she questioned. “It’s such a small group,” she remarked.

“I’ve got some sad news,” he told her to the side. “My brother is in the hospital with a severe head injury.”

“My heart goes out to you,” she told him. “I’m sure Freida will say the same.”

“I’ll tell you more later inside. I would like to use your phone to make a collect call home if you would be so kind,” he requested.

“You’re welcome to it,” she told him. “Some of your friends passed through last week, but they didn’t stop for dinner,” she informed him. “Kevin and David, if I remember right.”

“Quick and Palmore,” he confirmed the other driver’s identities. “They probably forgot to call.”

“No worries,” she said. “We weren’t put out none. We just do not want to lose your business. We depend on it.”