This is part 3 of today’s post on Native foods and was penned in a description of the Indians of North Carolina. Perhaps the reader may wish to compare the subtle differences between the three areas (Maryland, Georgia and neighboring Alabama, and North Carolina). Spelling is unchanged from the original book.
I saw an episode of Preppers about an Apache man named Snake Blocker whose idea of surviving a catastrophe of epic proportions was to live off the land as his ancestors had. He has a better than average chance of doing so, however, his wife wanted no part of his foraged tidbits. I’ve thought about the program, and turned to original 18th century sources for a refresher on native self-reliance.
…Indian foods which are as follows. Venison, and fawns in the Bags, cut out of the doe’s belly; fish of all sorts, the lamprey-eel excepted, and the sturgeon our salt-water Indians will not touch; bear and bever; panther; pole-cat; wild-cat, possum; raccoon; hares, and squirrels, roasted with their Guts in; Snakes, all Indians will not eat them, though some do; All wild fruits that are palatable, some of which they dry and keep against winter, as all sort of fruits, and peaches, which they dry, and make Quiddonies, and Cakes, that are very pleasant, and a little tartish; young Wasps, when they are white in the combs, before they can fly, this is esteemed a Dainty; All sorts of Tortois, and terebins; shell-fish, and stingray, or Scate, dry’d; gourds; melons; cucumbers; squashes; pulses of all sorts; Rockahomine Meal, which is their Maiz, parch’d and pounded into powder; fowl of all sorts, that are eatable; ground-nuts, or wile potato’s; acorns and acorn oil; wild-bulls, beef, mutton, pork, &c. from the English; Indian Corn, or Maiz, made into several sorts of bread; ears of corn roasted in the summer, or preserv’d against winter.”
Source: A New Collection of Voyages and Travels. Ed. Stevens, Ed. 1711. London.
