Food


 * Native American Foods Celebrate Life! **
 * "This Thanksgiving, do not grieve the changes that have occurred in the Americas over the last five centuries; instead pray for the revival of the foods of your ancestors, and pledge to bring them back, if not for yourself, then for the next seven generations."**

Before Europeans, the Native people were farmers, and hunters. The main crops were corn, beans, and squash and were considered special gifts from the Creator. They are known as the [|"three sisters"] and imagined them as beautiful women clothed in the plants. Native Americans have always been thrifty cooks. They are known for never wasting any food. In the days when they hunted buffalo, they used almost every part of the animal. Only the [|buffalo] hearts were left behind. This was supposed to help the herd to grow again. (6) This video has a small difference about the heart, but each tribe also has slight variations on everything.

media type="custom" key="11195926" width="150" height="150"

Corn has always been a sacred food for Native Americans. Different tribes have different names for corn, but all of them mean "life." Corn was the most important dietary staple. It was served at almost every meal. Ears of corn were boiled or roasted over a fire. Corn was also pounded into flour and then cooked as cereal (mush) or baked in bread. Native Americans were also the first people to cook popcorn. According to legend, an American Indian named Quadequina brought a bowl of popcorn to a Thanksgiving dinner in 1621. (6)

It is believed that corn, beans and squash are precious gifts from the Great Spirit, each watched over by one of three sisters spirits, called the De-o-ha-ko, or Our Sustainers". The planting season is marked by ceremonies to honor them, and a festival commemorates the first harvest of green corn on the cob. By retelling the stories and performing annual rituals, Native Americans passed down the knowledge of growing, using and preserving the Three Sisters through generations.(8)

It is an ancient method of gardening using an intercropping system which grows corn, beans, and squash crops simultaneously in the same growing area that is typically a rounded mound of soil, often called a hill.


 * Corn** is the oldest sister. She stands tall in the center. [[image:corn.jpg width="228" height="199"]]


 * Squash** is the next sister. She grows over the mound, protecting her sisters from weeds and shades the soil from the sun with her leaves, keeping it cool and moist.


 * Beans** are the third sister. She climbs through squash and then up corn to bind all together as she reaches for the sun. Beans help keep the soil fertile by coverting the sun's energy into nitrogen filled nodules that grow on its roots. As beans grow they use the stored nitrogen as food. (7) [[image:beans.jpg width="194" height="137"]]

Other foods that could be found naturally in the Americas and were often eaten included eggs, honey, maple syrup and sugar, salt, nuts (including peanuts, pine nuts, cashews, hickory nuts, and acorns,) fruit (including cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, chokecherries, wild plums, and persimmons), and a wide variety of beans, roots, and greens.

Hospitality has always been an important tradition among Native Americans. Guests were always served first at meals. If an Inuit Indian had only one bit of food, he would first offer it to his guest. Native Americans also made sure that the poor people in their community had enough to eat. Native American cooking tended to be simple. Most Native Americans preferred to eat their food very fresh, without many spices. Meat was usually roasted over the fire or grilled on hot stones. Fish was often baked or smoked. Soups and stews were popular in some tribes. Corn was eaten in many different ways, including corn-on-the-cob, popcorn, hominy, and tortillas and corn bread baked in clay ovens. Indians in some tribes enjoyed fruit puddings or maple candy for dessert. Most Native Americans always drank water with their meals. (11)

Modern Native Americans eat many of the same foods as other Americans. They enjoy everyday foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, and ice cream. However, some traditional foods, such as corn, are still important. So are dishes like fry-bread, a popular snack and side dish. Fry-bread is probably the most popular traditional food still eaten by Native Americans. It is served with meals or eaten as a snack or dessert. (6) (6) http://www.foodbycountry.com/Spain-to-Zimbabwe-Cumulative-Index/United-States-Native-Americans.html (7) http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/teach/2003045238014436.html (8) http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html (9) [] (11) []
 * Potato Soup - (Nu-nv Oo-ga-ma) -**YGQsg, ** INDIAN FRY BREAD O'Odham Tash **
 * (Created By : Missy Beckwith) **