Salads and chips, for instance, is what you get addressing Native American event that's not centre stage (8)
I believe the answer is:
sideshow
'instance is what you get addressing native american event that's not centre stage' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'salads and chips' is the wordplay.
'salads' becomes 'how' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'chips' becomes 'sides' (chips are often ordered as sides in a restaurant).
'how' after 'sides' is 'SIDESHOW'.
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sideshow that I've seen before include "Minor but diverting incident" , "Stall at a fair; diverting incident" , "Stall at a fair or circus" , "Not the main scene of activity" , "Wished so for minor incident or issue - at fair?" .)