The source material was
taken from a: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE REPORT, 1870.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
This report represents
native products important to Indian economy and often used as a
source of supply by government agents, merchants, fur traders
and travelers across North America.
Prairie Potato
or Bread Root, also called Indian Turnip, pomme de
prairie by the French, or tip-sin-nah by the Sioux. This root
was used extensively, the size of a hens egg, ovid shape, thick
leathery skin. Known to be easily prepared when cooked, fryable
when dried and easily pulverized into starchy flour. Sweet
turnip taste when cut thin and dried for winter storage and
usage, very palatable and considered an especial luxury by many
tribes.
Kamass Root
or Wild Hyacinth resembles an onion in shape, size of
a hickory-nut. The root is dug in June and July, can be eaten
raw with a pleasant taste or cooked and somewhat resembles
potatoes. When the root is boiled in water, yields a very good
molasses, prized by various tribes for special occasions.
Edible Pine
is a small scrubby pine found in New Mexico into Mexico, called
Pinon by locals. The seed is the size of a kidney bean, thin
shell, pleasant flavor and found to be oily. They should be
roasted before eaten, but some tribes have been known to carry
them in a raw state.
Sugar Maple
is collected in the spring throughout the Northern States by
many of the tribes of that area. Native American women have
marketed the prepared sugar in birch bark boxes for over a
century called "Mococks" and probably longer than
this, but no recorded information was found. Winnebagoes and
Chippewas produced the largest amounts, often selling fifty
thousand pounds a year to the Northwest Fur Company.
Common Blackberry
has been found cultivated by local tribes in Missouri, Texas,
California and Minnesota, the Native American is as fond of the
berry as the whites.
Buffalo Berry
is a shrub fifteen feet high, berries the size of a pea, bright
scarlet in color and containing one seed. Usually found in areas
of Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming* in great
abundance.
* have never seen berries
of this type in Wyoming, but this report was written in 1870 and
areas change.
Mulberry
have grow abundantly in Northern Missouri and along the rivers
of Kansas, the fruit being large and sweet, of a dark to black
color. The Indians will travel many miles in search of them,
within their restricted areas as well as out of the boundaries
of their tribes.
Prickly Pear
is the fruit of a species of cactus, much eaten by the Indians
of New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Utah, under the common
Spanish name of tunas, great quantities being dried for use in
the winter. These plants are found in the arid desert locations
which seems to produce large amounts; large and bright red to
purple color; rather pleasant sweet, somewhat acid taste, thin
skinned and large seeds, all of which is discard. The skin is
stubbed with bunches of very fine downy spines, which the
Indians brush off with a bunch of grass. The Apaches use wooden
tongs to gather the fruit, preventing being scratched by the
spines or thorns of the plant. The Pawnees and Papajoes dry the
unripe fruit for future use, used when cooking meat and other
substances. The unripe fruit is oftened boiled in water from ten
to twelve hours, until soft, when it becomes like apple-sauce;
after fermenting for a period it becomes stimulating and
nutritious according to local Indians. The leaves are roasted in
hot ashes, and when cooked, the outer skin with thorns is easily
removed, leaving a sweet succulent substance, which is eaten.
Hunger and destitution have caused Native Americans as well as
whites to live off this plant for periods of time as an only
food.
Prunus Americana
is found in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Oregon, and Texas. During
the ripening of the fruit the Indians live sumptuously, and
collect quantities for drying.
Dwarf Cherry
The interesting species of the plum is but a small two to six
feet high. The fruit is larger than a damson, sweet, and in
color varies from a light pink to a deep crimson, and from a
light deep yellow, and grows abundantly in the Indian Territory.
Every Indian, young and old, capable of traveling, goes to the
plum ground in the proper season, as it is their great harvest.
The fruit is dried, and also made into preserves. The plant
thrives in sandy wastes, and is sometimes called sand-hill plum.
Sunflower
from one of several species of the dwarf sunflower of the West,
which grows on river bottoms and rich, moist spots on the
prairies, the seeds are often gathered. Being very sweet and
oily, they are eaten raw, or pounded up with other substances,
made into flat cakes and dried in the sun, in which form they
appear to be very palatable to the Indians.
Indian Corn
may be said to be the most universal article of food cultivated
by the Indians of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and
Utah, while the tribes of the Indian Territory consider this
grain the staff of life. The cultivation of corn has not been
acquired by them from others. It is a matter of historical
record that, when living in the Southern States, long before the
white man set foot in the country, it was cultivated, and by
nearly all the Indians of the present United States to a greater
or less extent. The Indians who grow it in the primitive manner,
and have the original corn of America, are the Pueblos of New
Mexico and Arizona. The grains vary in color through shades of
pink, blue, and white, and the ears are generally rather small
and slender. The blue variety is preferred for bread, and is
sorted from the rest with much care, and stored by itself. The
ear has fourteen rows of grains, which are full and plump, and
is six and three quarters inches long, and four and three
quarters around. The corn, after being reduced to meal in a
stone mortar, has a peculiar bluish-white appearance. In
converting it into bread, it is mixed into a thin batter, a
brisk fire is made to heat a slab of iron, or stone, or a flat
earthenware plate, which is elevated from the ground by stones
to admit the fire; when sufficiently heated, the women press the
fingers of the right hand together, dip them in the batter,
drawing them out thickly covered with the mixture, at the same
time drawing the hand equally over the heated baker, leaving a
thin coating, which quickly curls up, a sign that it is cooked
on that side; it is then taken off, another dip is made with the
fingers, and the baker is besmeared again; then the upper side
of the first cake is laid on the top of the new dip; when the
second one is ready to turn, the first one is already cooked,
and the second is put through the same process as the first, and
so on until a number of these large thin sheets of water-like
bread is accumulated. They are rolled up together, and form what
is called by the Moqui Indians guagave. It looks like blue
wrapping-paper, but somewhat coarser, and has a polished
appearance. During the summer of 1869, the writer and Mr.
Vincent Collier, with Lieutenant W. Krause, visited the Moquis,
and were feasted bountifully at every house with this blue
paper-like bread. At first it seems dry in the mouth, but it
soon softens, is quite sweet, and is readily masticated. All
three of us, doubtless, will ever remember with pleasure the
relish which our hunger gave to this singular treat. At one
house the nicest dried peaches, of their own production, well
cooked, were set before us, into the juice of which the bread
was dipped, at the same time serving as a spoon. At another
house the roasted mescal, dissolved in water, was set before us,
in which to dip our bread or guagave rolls, the ends of which we
bit off from time to time, after saturating them, until
satisfied, each declaring the food excellent. A favorite mode of
preparing corn is to boil it in weak lime-water, to remove the
husk bran. It is then ground into a soft pulp, and made into
bread like the above, but is not so palatable to the general
taste. The corn, thus hulled, is often mixed with chopped meat,
formed into cakes, and dried for future use. Often, when new
corn is ground, it is mixed with pieces of meat, and red or
green peppers, placed between soft corn husks, tied at the ends,
and boiled. This is called by the Mexicans tomale, but is not
acceptable to civilized palates. Corn meal is also made into
attole or guel, and, when mixed with sugar, or the flour of the
mesquite, it is claaed pinole, and is much relished by all the
Indians. Water is sometimes added to it, forming a cooling,
sweet, nutritious drink. To make this nicely, the corn must be
carefully parched, then pulverized, and prepared as above. The
raw meal is often made into a kind of bread, called tortillas by
the Spanish. Some Indians prepare the roasting ears by stringing
and drying them for winter. The Apaches, and many other Indians,
toast their corn in baskets with much dexterity. This is
effected by placing the grains and a few live coals or hot
stones in the baskets, and keeping up a brisk agitation,
occasionally holding the open basket to the fire. The Indians
are very fond of parched corn, and consume it surprising
quantities.
Wild rice
called pshu by the Sioux, and the Chippewas refer to it as man-om-in.
It is a constant article of food with the Northern Indians of
the lakes and rivers between the Mississippi and Lake Superior.
This plant delights in mud and water five to twenty feet deep.
When ripe the slightest wind shakes off the grains.
After being gathered it is
laid on scaffolds about four feet high, eight wide, and twenty
to fifty long, covered with reeds and grass, and a slow fire is
maintained beneath for thirty-six hours, so as to parch slightly
the husk, that it may be removed easily. Its beard is tougher
than a rye. To separate it from the chaff or husk, a hole is
made in the ground a foot wide and one deep, and lined with
skins; about a peck of rice is put in at a time; an Indian steps
in, with a half jump, on one foot, then on the other, until the
husk is removed. After being cleaned the grain is stored in
bags. It is darker than the Caroline rice. The hull adheres
tightly, and is left on the grain, and gives the bread a dark
color when cooked. The husk is easily removed, after being
exposed to heat. In Dakota the men gather this grain, but all
other grain the women collect. An acre of rice is nearly or
quite equal to an acre of wheat in nutriment. It is very
palatable, when roasted and eaten dry.
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The Sioux prepare a
favorite dish, used at great feasts, called wash-en-ena,
consisting of dried meat pulverized and mixed with marrow, and a
preparation of cherries, pounded and sun-dried. This mixture,
when eaten raw or cooked, has an agreeable vinous taste. To this
compound is frequently added, when to be cooked, a kind of flour
made from root of pomme blanc, (white apple,) thus
designated by the French Canadians, and derived from the Psoralea
esculenta.
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Note: You may notice how
this report made it sound that our Native American brothers were
a poor people, not able to care for themselves, living off the
land with items that no other people would consider eating,
unheard of to the Europeans.
Many of the government
reports of this period were written to sway public opinion, to
moving the Native American to central locations where the
government could provide living quarters and a steady food
supply.