As I continue with my series for Native American Heritage
Month, I thought about what foods we enjoy today that was introduced by the
Native Americans. Just as spices were introduced to Europe through exploration
of the East, a variety of foods were introduced to the world known as the
Colombian Exchange. The world today owes the Native Americas of North and South
America for many of the food it enjoys. Approximately, 60% of the world’s food
originated in the New World. From fruits to vegetables to meats, the Native
Americans enjoyed a vast and varied diet. Traditionally thought to be mainly
hunter-gatherer societies, Native American tribes were also farmers who
cultivated a wide variety of foods.
1. Tomatoes: First cultivated in South America in the region
of Chile to Ecuador, birds are believed to have carried the seeds spreading
them to present day Mexico as early as 800 BCE. The Aztecs embraced the red
tomato as well as the green husked tomatoes known as tomatillo to become a
staple in their diets. Europeans first feared the tomatoes. They thought they
were poisonous as tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family. There is some
debate about how the tomato reached Europe. One story states that Hernan Cortes
brought the plant in 1521 while another story states that Christopher Columbus
might have brought it back in 1493. The first mention of the tomato in European
writings was in 1544. However, it wasn’t incorporated into Italian cuisine
until the late 17th or early 18th century.
2. Potatoes: Usually associated with the Irish and the Great
Famine of 1845, the potato was first cultivated by pre-Inca peoples of Peru
between 3700-3000 BCE. Over 3,000 varieties of potatoes can be found in the
Andes of South America. First introduced in Europe in the 16th
century by the Spanish, the potato has been estimated to be responsible for a
quarter of the growth in the Old World population and urbanization between 1700
and 1900 as the potato yields abundantly with little effort. European farmers
were skeptical of the potato but soon it became a staple in European diets. North
American, however, didn’t see the potato until the Irish immigrants brought
them in the 1700s although a wild variety of potato can be found as far north
as Mexico and Texas.
3. Maize (Corn): I’m sure everyone is familiar with corn as
originating in the New World. However, many do not realize how important maize
is to the Native peoples. First cultivated in Mexico and Central America, maize
plays a vital role in many Native cultures. Corn is one of the Three Sisters,
along with squash and beans. Referred to as a relative, corn is essential in
many creation stories. For example, Little Giver is a corn spirit in
southeastern tribal stories. He presented the people with the gift of corn. Selu
of Cherokee legend is a goddess associated with fertility. The Mayans believed
that humans were fashioned from corn and based their calendar on the planting season.
The Zuni people of southwestern US has a story of the 8 corn maidens whose
dance helped the corn grow.
4. Berries: Cranberries were used as food, wound medicine
and dye by the Northeastern natives. Due to its bitterness, cranberries were
used as a part of a tonic which was given for various ailments. The Algonquian
peoples called the berry, sassamanash, and introduced it to starving settlers
in Massachusetts. In the 1820s, cranberries were shipped to Europe and became
popular in Nordic countries as well as Russia. Currants were used by many
native tribes for medicinal purposes. Blackfoot natives used currant roots for
treatment for kidney disease and menstrual issues. The Cree natives used
currants as a fertility enhancer. The strawberry we know today are a crossbreed
of two New World strawberries: Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America
and Fragaria chiloensis of South America. The two species were first bred in
Brittany, France in 1750s.
5. Squash: The word comes from a native word askutasquash, meaning “a green thing
eaten raw” from the Narragansett, an Algonquian tribe of the Rhode Island area.
Although most natives would eat various squash raw, they were also dried and
roasted. The most common native squash is the pumpkin. Pumpkins are thought to
have originated in Mexico area between 7,000 to 5,500 BCE. Pumpkin seeds, also
called “pepitas” have been discovered by archaeologists in caves of Mexico
dating back to 7,000 BCE. The natives used pumpkins not only as a food source
but medicine as well. In particular, the seeds were dried and roasted and used
for intestinal issues and kidney aliments. Another native squash is the acorn
squash. The seeds were the most consumed part of the acorn squash as they were
dried and stored for a food for lean times as well as for journeys.
6. Meats: While Native Americans consumed little to no meat
in their everyday diets, they consumed various wild and domesticated animals.
Tribes near water sources consumed various fish, lobster and shellfish. For
example, the costal tribes of California consumed abalone. In California’s
Northern Channel Island, the natives there gathered and consumed abalone for
nearly 12,000 years. Turkey is another meat source that was popular as a feast
food especially for the Mayans and the Aztecs who revered the wild turkey known
as huexolotlin as a manifestation of the trickster god, Tezcatlipoca. Turkeys
were domesticated and spread as a food source from Central America north
through the southwest and the eastern America. The Muscovy duck was often
fattened and eaten as a feast food in Mexico, Central and South America. The
duck is thought to originate on the Miskito Coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras.
In conclusion, this list is just a small portion for the
wide variety of food which originated with the New World. I found it
interesting that many of us cannot think of the potato without thinking of the
Irish or even Italian food with the tomato based pasta sauces. These foods are
so engrained in those ethnic cuisine, we don’t realize that they were always
there. It wasn’t until the exploration of the New World that the dishes we know
today came about. Many of the foods I listed are among my favorite foods. How
many of your favorites are on the list?
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