Native American Traditions (Part 1)

By Claude Chavis

This series of articles will share information on Native American cooking, culture, folklore, games, history, and technology.  Technology will include subjects such as basketry, farming, flint knapping, and pottery.  The series will also share recipes for a more “traditional” diet that have been adapted for the modern cook. 

Our first recipe is one that is common to Native Americans, Corn Soup.  This recipe is often attributed to the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, including the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.  Two versions are included – one traditional and one modern.

Traditional “Corn Soup” starts with thoroughly dried corn. The corn is picked in the late fall, the husk pulled back, then braided into three foot long bunches and hung up inside to dry.

Once dried, the corn is put through a process called "lying.”  Lye is a strong chemical that can be made by boiling hardwood ashes (potash).  The corn is boiled with the lye for about two hours.

Boiling the corn with lye softens the outer shell and allows the two black eyes found on each kernel of corn to be washed off after cooking. This is a tricky process - too much lye will destroy the corn and too little will not do the job.  The end product is “lyed” corn or as we in the South know it – hominy.

Traditional Indian Corn Soup attributed to Loren (Lolly) Green.

• Wash 1 1/2 quarts of "lyed" corn and put into an 8-quart pot. Fill with water 3/4 full and cover. Bring to a boil and keep at a rolling boil for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Do not let it stick to the bottom of the pan.
• While the corn is cooking, cut up 1 1/2 lbs of pork shoulder butt steaks and ¾ pound of salt pork (fatback) into ¾” square pieces. Boil meat in a separate pot with plenty of water.  Add more water if necessary, since you will use this for stock.
• After the corn cooks to your satisfaction (two hours maximum), remove from stove and strain. Do not rinse corn. Rinse out pot and put corn back into pot. Add the cooked pork along with the stock.
• Add three 1 lb cans of dark red kidney beans.   Add water to cover mixture 3 inches or so. Boil mixture for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding water in necessary. Stir occasionally; do not let it stick to the bottom of the pot.

Serve in individual bowls, season with salt and pepper after serving. Best if eaten with warm yeast bread and freshly churned butter.

Simplified Indian Corn Soup attributed to Claude “Turtle Dreaming” Chavis.

• Brown a pound of bacon and/or fatback in a skillet.  Drain on paper towel and then crumble into a large stockpot. 
• Add entire contents of 4 cans of white hominy corn and 3 cans of Red Kidney Beans.   If desired, chopped onions can be added.
• Add salt and pepper to taste, cover and simmer for 1 to 2 hours, adding water if necessary. 

Serve with cornbread or corn fritters.  Some people find this recipe bland but you can crank if up with some hot sauce or hot peppers.

If you have a favorite traditional recipe or story that you would like to share, please send it to Claude Chavis, 109 James Drew Court, Charlotte, NC 28270, or email boda1949@gmail.com. 

Deadly Diet

 Since the days of the first “westerns,” Hollywood has portrayed Native Americans as lean muscular hunters who lived on a diet of meat and berries with an occasional root threw in for variety.  Today’s reality is very different, spend some time at a Native American clinic and you will see patient after overweight patient with cancer, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. 

The journal Cardiology in 1991 reported, "with the adoption of Western lifestyles and diet...heart disease has become relatively common among a number of Native American tribes." Heart disease ranks as the leading killer of Native Americans, causing more than one-fifth of all Native American deaths, according to U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS) figures.  Diabetes kills Native Americans at more than triple the overall U.S. rate, according to the IHS. 

One possible reason for these epidemics and overweight Native Americans may be a "thrifty" gene.  This gene, that helps the body store fat, was a survival trait in the past.  It helped Native American survive leaner times when fatty meat was a rarity in their diets.

Contrary to Hollywood’s visions, for thousands of years Native Americans survived and thrived in the Americas on a diet of small mounts of lean meat with vegetables, legumes, and whole grains as the staples.  One of the earliest books written about the Carolinas, “A New Voyage to Carolina,” by John Lawson in 1709 details page after page of plant foods important to Native Americans.  It also describes a wide variety of fish, game, and shellfish – all of which contain very little fat.

The Iroquoian tribes, including the Cherokee and Tuscarora of the Carolinas, grew 17 varieties of corn, seven types of squashes, and 60 types of beans.   They called this trio of major foods the "three sisters."

Other Native Americans gathered a cornucopia of 34 wild fruits, 11 nut species, 12 kinds of edible roots, 38 types of bark, 6 fungi, and maple syrup, the main confection of the Northwestern tribes, according to The Native Americans published in 1995.  In the western Great Lakes area, Native Americans harvested wild rice, and maple sugar, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, grapes, cherries, nuts, wild onions, and potatoes.  Other crops included peas, watermelons, sweet potatoes, and fruit trees.  They also foraged persimmons, plums, hickory nuts, walnuts, pecans, cherries, grapes, and mulberries.

Current federal Dietary Guidelines promote a meaty, cheesy diet.  The Journal of the American Cancer Society in 1996 noted that, "Nutrition-related cancers are likely to increase in the future among Native Americans [because] of changes in diet." A more traditional diet could reverse that trend as shown in studies by Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D.

The 1994 study published in Diabetes Care reported that diabetes and obesity are less prevalent among Mexican Pima Indians living a "traditional" lifestyle than among Arizonan Pimas in an "affluent" environment.  Switching to a plant-food diet, and consuming much less fat than current Guidelines suggest, can greatly reduce obesity and diabetes rates. 

Traditional Farming

When the first Europeans arrived in North Carolina, they found Native American farmers along all the major rivers and streams.  The Eastern Woodland people were farmers in spring and summer and hunters and trappers in the fall and winter. The women cultivated a wide variety of vegetables and native plants.

They farmed corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers to provide the bulk of their food.  Hunting and gathering only supplemented food from crops, but the white-tailed deer was still the most important source of meat.

Permanent villages were common. Some were hamlets, with houses strung out along riverbanks. Others were compact villages, with houses clustered together around a central, open area. Many villages have wooden stockades surrounding them.  House shapes vary across the regions, but usually were square or rectangular. Piedmont dwellings tend to be round or oval.

Lacking metal tools, Native Americans typically cleared land by girdling trees and then burning any undergrowth.  Girdling consisted of cutting away a wide band of bark from each tree using a stone axe or adz.  Most of their farming tools were very simple and made from antlers, shells, stones, and wood.  Some examples that we can make today include Digging Sticks, Hoes and Rakes.

Digging Sticks can be made from a green limb from a tree, approximately 36-48 inches long and 1to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. One end is sawn or cut an angled edge, to give the stick a sharp point for making holes in the soil.

An uprooted a sapling tree with the roots intact can make a simple Hoe.  The trunk serves as the handle while the root ball is carved into a blade and hardened in a fire.

Combining a digging stick and half of a large mussel shell can make Shell Hoes.  Drill a hole into the hinged edge to accept the end of a digging stick.  Then the shell is laced to the digging stick with cord or sinew.

A Bone Hoe uses a scapular bone from a turkey or deer.  Drill a hole into the end of the digging stick and insert the slender end of the scapular.  Then tie the bone in place with cord or sinew.  To make a Rake, a deer antler can be attached upside down to the end of a digging stick and secured with cord or sinew.

Using these simple tools, Native Americans cleared garden plots in the forests that covered the Carolinas and planted their crops.  The most important of those crops was corn or maize.  The Native American name for corn means “our life” or “it sustains us.” 

Nearly all the Native American traditions point to the far southwest as the mother country of corn or maize.  Most scientists now agree that maize was developed fro a Mexican grass known as “teosinte.”  Evidence points to the ancient Mayans near the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  Archeologists have found evidence of the spread of maize from there throughout the Americans long before the first Europeans arrived.

The Pilgrims in the Plymouth Colony on September 11, 1620 looted a nearby Native American village “and took with them parte of ye corne…and here is to be noted a spetiall providence of God… that hear they got seed to plant them corne ye next year, or els they might have starved.”

In John Lawson’s History Of Carolina, he stated “The Indian corn or Maize proves the most useful Grain in the World; and had it not been for the fruitfulness of this species, it would have proved very difficult to have settled some of the Plantations in America.” 

If you wish to plant corn in the traditional manner, plant the seeds directly in a garden plot after the last frost.  Corn can be planted in rows, with plants approximately 12 inches apart, or in hills with six to eight seeds per hill. Plant the hills far apart so that in hilling up later, there will be adequate soil to use. The seeds should be planted 1/2 to 1 inch deep.

The corn will grow vigorously with full sunlight and an inch to an inch and a half of water per week. If roots begin to appear, hill soil up around the roots to help support the stalks. The large tassels at the top of the plant are the male flowers and the silks are the female parts of the corn. At least twenty plants are needed to insure adequate pollination.

The corn was typically harvested when the silks turn brown.  Most of the crop was dried on the stalk.  The entire plant was allowed to dry and then the corn was removed from the stalks and husked in the field. Husking involves removing the husks from the ears of corn. The ears would then be placed on platforms to dry. In some instances, long ears were put aside and braided together by their husks and dried on poles.

When the corn was dry, Native Americans would sometimes construct a booth (walls around a platform) in which they used flails to beat the corn off of the cobs. The cobs were burned and the cooled ashes were made into balls that would be used for seasoning dishes.  Shallow bowls were used to winnow the chaff from the corn on a windy day.

The first taste of fresh corn each year was in the form of leaf bread.  The kernels of corn were cut from the cob while still green and mashed in a mortar.   The resulting thick milky paste is patted into a thin cake on one end of a large green corn leave.  The other end of the leave is folded over to provide a lid; and then other leaves are added to form a packet completely surrounding the corn paste.  After being securely tied, the packet is dropped into boiling water for 45 minutes.  The packets are then opened and the leaf bread eaten with butter, oil, or grease.  This makes a good tasty breakfast when lightly fried or drizzled with hot bacon grease.

Native American typically parched corn for storage.  To parch corn in a modern kitchen, put the dry kernels in a dry frying pan over low to medium heat. Stir until the kernels are lightly browned.  Parched corn was then ground into a meal and used in a variety of recipes.

The following recipe is for Johnnycakes, an adaptation of the original ashcakes:

The ingredients include:

1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 cups boiling water
1 pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons Maple syrup
3/4 cup light cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil for frying

Mix the cornmeal and salt. Scald this mixture with the boiling water by gradually adding the water as you stir rapidly. Stir until smooth and then stir in the maple syrup.  Cool the batter and thin with cream until it is of medium consistency, not runny.   Drop the batter by the spoonful onto a well-oiled griddle.  Cook for about 5 minutes per side.  Remove from griddle and set on paper towels to drain.