Food

Before the arrival of the Europeans the dietary intake of the inhabitants of North America included a variety of products of vegetative and animal origin. The main product in the regions along the Pacific coast was red fish (salmon) that was eating in the fishing season and stored up for the winter. Fish and seafood also prevailed in the ration of inhabitants of other coastal regions. In most inland regions of the continent animal meat formed the basis of the peoples’ board. Some Indians, for example Sioux, called buffalo meat the “real food”. Native Americans also prepared a type of “canned” meat: dried meat was pulverized with hammers and turned into meat powder – pemmican, that was often mixed with paste made of dried berries. The ration of the Eskimo people was formed by raw seal and reindeer meat and seal fat. That is why the Athabaskan Indians called them “Eskimo”, which means “people who eat raw food”. The Aleuts also ate raw walrus meat, fried whale meat and dried fish. Sea-urchin spawn was a brilliant source of vitamins and microelements. Pulverized root of the sarana plant seasoned with walrus fat and berries was a delicacy. 

The main source of food for Californian Indians was oaks that gave acorns. In the autumn acorns were collected, cleaned and washed with water to remove tannin that gives them a bitter flavor. From dried and pulverized acorns people baked flat cakes and made mash. Some maggots and caterpillars that were boiled with salt, as well as fried grasshoppers, were considered a delicacy. Products of collecting were of high importance in droughty regions of the American west where one can rarely find large mammals. Seeds of pignon pine were of special value. 

North American Indians were not familiar with bread. They made mash, different mixtures and baked puddings from seeds and grains. The Algonquin people made soups from wild rice with meat, fish, berries and maple sugar that they received by boiling down maple juice. For small children rice was pounded and turned into powder. Meat or fish was either fried on open fire or boiled by putting heated stones in a vessel with water. Vessels for boiling food were usually made of wood (on the north-west coast), from bark (in taiga zone) and leather (on the Great Plains).

Harvest of sea urchins during low tide. USA, Alaska, Aleutian Islands , Umnak. The Aleutians. V. I. Iohelson. 1909