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Fall 1998*MWF 9:05-10:00 AM*(3) Credits*No Prerequisite

Native Americas contributions to the world: FOOD

It is fitting that November, the month of Thanksgiving, is designated as Native American Month since food is one of the major contributions of Native America, not only to this country but to the world. Of the four basic food crops of the world, two were domesticated by Native Americans---maize (corn) and potatoes. The other two, wheat and rice, are of the Old World.

As every American knows, the Pilgrims could not have survived without the generosity and assistance of the Native Americans who supplied corn over the first winter and taught the pilgrims how to grow it and other native crops such as pumpkins, squash, and beans. The harvest of those crops occasioned the first Thanksgiving. All the foods that are traditional on Thanksgiving are Native American---pumpkins, cranberries, squash, potatoes, corn, turkey, the pecans in pecan pie, etc.

Ancient Native Americans, primarily in the Andes and Mesoamerica, were the worlds premier agronomists. Today they are recognized for their sophistication in plant breeding, propogation, cultivation and food preservation. For example, the Incas used freeze-drying for potatoes making it possible to store them for as long as 5 or 6 years. Jerky, dried meat, was also created by the Incas who called it charqui in their native Quechua language. The beautiful terraces of Machu Pichu were apparently agricultural experimental stations where plants were tested with the different angles of sunlight and altitude. Today there is an effort to revive lost agricultural techniques and reintroduce plant foods of the ancient Native Americans, the worlds premier agriculturalists.

Native Americans cultivated over 300 food crops. Today 3/5 of the crops now in cultivation originated in the so-called New World. The following is a list of the major food crops domesticated by Native Americans and adopted by other parts of the world:

Beans - while there were beans in Europe, the American variety were kidney, lima, pinto, wax, navy and common beans. Bean seeds 6 - 7,000 years old were found in an archaeological site in Mexico. They were often eaten with corn and squash and were a good protein source.

Cacao or Chocolate - Cortes was served a cacao drink at Montezumas court and cacao is documented in a Maya codex. The processing of cacao (extraction, drying, roasting and grinding) was copied by the Europeans and is essentially the same today except for the machinery.

Cassava - Peruvian origin. Tapioca is derived from it. Along with corn, cassava became an important food crop for Africa ironically ensuring enough population growth to supply the evil slave trade.

Corn or maize - Domesticated about 8,000 years ago in Mexico from where its cultivation spread all over the Americas reaching New Enland about 1200 AD. The many varieties of corn that were developed could grow in different environments from Canada down to S. America. The corn raised in the Corn Belt had its Native American origins: The corn and other crops the village women tended, emplying some of the essential dry-farm techniques (such as hoeing to retain soil moisture as much as to remove weed) that later would be put to use by white settlers on the High Plains, were well attuned to the severe northern climate and eventually provided valuable genetic resources for European farmers upper Missouri crops. Of 13 types of corn said to have been raised and carefully maintained as pure strains by the long ago Mandans, nine were in existence early this century. A total of 50 relatively pure corn strains have been preserved from the Missouri tribes. Typical yields have short 8 to 12 rowed ears. The names are a pleasure on the tongue: Ree pink; Arikara red; Omaha blue; Mandan soft yellow; Ponca gray; Pawnee red-speckle... (from Magpies Rising, p.102, see below)

Peanuts - the peanut became especially popular in Asia and Africa. Chinese and South Asian cooking use peanuts and peanut oil in their cuisine, along with chili peppers.

Pecans - were cultivated by Native Americans and are especially favored in the South for Pecan pie.

Pepper or chili pepper - domesticated in Mexico, the name chillies derives from the Nahuatl word chili. The Bell pepper, cayenne and Jalapeno peppers all originated in Native America. The black pepper is of the Old World and is a different plant. Native American peppers have changed the cuisines of the world. Along with the tomato, another Native American food, the Bell pepper is a major ingredient in Italian food. Paprika, the main spice of Hungarian and other East European food, is derived from the sweet red pepper. And the spicy cuisines of China, Thailand and Korea are all based on the Native American chili pepper.

Potato - It was cultivated thousands of years before the Incas. At the time of European invasion, the Andean people had developed 3,000 varieties of potatoes. Their cultivation had begun to spread into the southwestern United States at the time the Spanish arrived. Along with corn, the potato is a main staple in much of the world and contributed to the population growth in Europe which was the source of the land-hungry immigrants to the United States. It was especially suited for the cold damp weather of northern Europe.

Squash - This food along with beans and corn was a major food for Native Americans. Zucchini is not Italian but Native American in origin. As with the rest of the foods on this list, it became a part of the national cuisine.

Sunflower - Domesticated by North American natives, it became especially favored in Russia. It is used for oil and animal feed in Europe.

Sweet Potato - Became a major food for Chinese commoners. The Chinese also developed noodles from this Native American crop. ( Yams are native to and were domesticated in Africa.)

Tomato - Tomatoes, of course, became a main ingredient of Southern Italian cooking but they were also adopted into the cuisines of South Asian cooking.

Vanilla - Comes from an orchid vine indigenous to the Caribbean and central America. It was cultivated and processed by the Totonacs of Mexico 1,000 years ago who called the vanilla bean tlilxochitl. Vanilla was used as a flavoring, perfume and even as an insect repellent. The Aztecs took it as tribute and from them it was taken by Spain. Vanilla requires longer and more complicated processing than chocolate.

Some other crops domesticated and cultivated by Native Americans are: avocados, guavas, papayas and pineapples. Native Americans also taught the settlers how to extract the essence of mints and wintergreen. Much of American cuisine is derived from Native American foods, such as the following:

The New England clambake

• Cranberries
• Succotash
• hominy
• grits
• cornbread
• hush puppies
• popcorn
• peanuts
• jerky
• Cracker Jack (mixture of corn, peanuts and syrup)
• maple syrup
• chocolate
• vanilla
• pecans for pecan pie
• cashews

Besides corn, tobacco and cotton (a superior strain to the Egyptian variety) were other crops that contributed Americas wealth.

Postscript: There is a tragic paradox in the fact that Native Americans fed and assisted the early colonists but then suffered hunger and starvation as a result of the European invasion of their homelands. Hunger and starvation were constant companions as they were driven from their fields and homes.

Even under the U.S. government, when on the reservations, Native Americans were often short of food or fed rotten meat that made them sick or killed the most vulnerable. One of the most shocking but little known tragedies in Native American history is the nearly 600 deaths from starvation suffered by the Blackfeet on their reservation in the winter of 1883/84.

Sources:

The Blackfeet: raiders of the Northwestern Plains by John C. Ewers. Norman:University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.

Chilies to chocolate: food the Americas gave the world. Nelson Foster and Linda S. Cordell, eds. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992.

Indian givers: how the Indians of the Americas transformed the world by Jack Weatherford. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1988.

Magpie rising: sketches from the Great Plains by Merrill Gilfillan. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing Co., 1988

Seeds of change: quincentennial commemoration, edited by Herman J. Viola and Carolyn Margolis. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.

Additional sources on Native American contributions to this country.

Extraordinary American Indians by Susan Avery and Linda Skinner. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1992.

I have not seen this book but an adult friend found useful information about Ely Parker, for example. It would probably be good for a school project.

Native roots: how the Indians enriched America by Jack Weatherford. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1992.

As the author of Indian givers listed above, Weatherford provides information on the great extent that this country is indebted to Native America for its standard of living, political theories, wealth, etc. His two books ought to enlighten the ignorant who believe that Native Americans were irrelevant to this countrys history and development into a world power. Jack Weatherford deserves a lot of credit for giving Native Americans the recognition that is due them in his two books. Hopefully, Native American children will read them so as to be rightfully proud of their heritage as well as prepared to educate the bigots and the ignorant.