In addition to cultivated plants like corn, beans, and pumpkins, the natives used a great many wild plants, of which wild rice was the most important. It was known to all of the northern tribes, and it was the chief food of the Menomini people who, many years ago, lived in what is now Wisconsin.
Great stretches of wild rice grew along the shores of lakes and rivers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and southern Canada. Wild rice was an important winter food for the indigenous people. It was also an important food for ducks, geese, and other waterbirds found in northern waterways and marshes.
Natives gathered wild rice just before it ripened. They poled their boats out to the wild-rice beds. The stalks were bent over the boat so that as the heads of the plants were beaten with a wooden club the grains fell into the bottom of the boat. When the boat was filled it was poled back to shore. The grains of rice were first dried in the sun and then put in a hole in the ground that had been lined with animal skins. After a man had stamped on the grains to loosen the hulls, the rice was placed on large birch bark trays and tossed up in the air to allow the wind to blow away the loosened hulls. Last the rice was washed. Then it was ready either to be cooked or to be stored away for future use.
The natives particularly enjoyed wild rice cooked with wildfowl and game, just as we do today. Sometimes they cooked the wild rice into a tasty pudding that they flavored with maple sugar. The natives made an especially delicious soup by boiling wild rice and blueberries together.
Woodland natives ate the starchy roots of several water plants. The yellow lotus, which was the most favored and most widely used, did not grow in all of the woodland lakes, and so they sometimes had to travel great distances to collect it. Natives used the growing tips of the large underground rootstocks. The tips, which were about the size and shape of a banana and contained a large amount of starch, were cut off, tied together, and hung over the fire to dry in the smoke. These made a tasty potato-like food for winter eating. The seeds were also eaten after roasting just as we roast chest nuts, or cooked and added to various corn dishes. Also edible are the young leaves and leaf stalks of this plant, which is known, too, as the American lotus or water chinquapin.
Another water plant that the natives gathered for its starchy roots was the yellow pond lily, or spatterdock. The Indians often raided muskrat houses for these roots, which the animals had stored away for the winter. The Indians cooked the starchy roots with meat or roasted them. The seeds of the yellow pond lily were dried and eaten like popcorn.
The underground bulb of the jack-in-the-pulpit, or native turnip, as it is sometimes called, provided their people with another starchy food. If eaten raw, the bulb causes great pain because it contains thousands of tiny crystals that pierce the tongue and the inside of the mouth. The natives got rid of the stinging by cutting the bulb into thin slices and baking them or by boiling and drying them. The slices were then used in a variety of ways, but especially as a flavoring.
The indigenous people of the Chicago region also used the cattail and the common milkweed in cooking. The rootstock of the cattail was either boiled into a thick starchy soup or it was roasted. The flowers and buds of the milkweed were used to thicken soups and to add a very pleasant taste to various dishes. Svoboda
Great stretches of wild rice grew along the shores of lakes and rivers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and southern Canada. Wild rice was an important winter food for the indigenous people. It was also an important food for ducks, geese, and other waterbirds found in northern waterways and marshes.
Natives gathered wild rice just before it ripened. They poled their boats out to the wild-rice beds. The stalks were bent over the boat so that as the heads of the plants were beaten with a wooden club the grains fell into the bottom of the boat. When the boat was filled it was poled back to shore. The grains of rice were first dried in the sun and then put in a hole in the ground that had been lined with animal skins. After a man had stamped on the grains to loosen the hulls, the rice was placed on large birch bark trays and tossed up in the air to allow the wind to blow away the loosened hulls. Last the rice was washed. Then it was ready either to be cooked or to be stored away for future use.
The natives particularly enjoyed wild rice cooked with wildfowl and game, just as we do today. Sometimes they cooked the wild rice into a tasty pudding that they flavored with maple sugar. The natives made an especially delicious soup by boiling wild rice and blueberries together.
Woodland natives ate the starchy roots of several water plants. The yellow lotus, which was the most favored and most widely used, did not grow in all of the woodland lakes, and so they sometimes had to travel great distances to collect it. Natives used the growing tips of the large underground rootstocks. The tips, which were about the size and shape of a banana and contained a large amount of starch, were cut off, tied together, and hung over the fire to dry in the smoke. These made a tasty potato-like food for winter eating. The seeds were also eaten after roasting just as we roast chest nuts, or cooked and added to various corn dishes. Also edible are the young leaves and leaf stalks of this plant, which is known, too, as the American lotus or water chinquapin.
Another water plant that the natives gathered for its starchy roots was the yellow pond lily, or spatterdock. The Indians often raided muskrat houses for these roots, which the animals had stored away for the winter. The Indians cooked the starchy roots with meat or roasted them. The seeds of the yellow pond lily were dried and eaten like popcorn.
The underground bulb of the jack-in-the-pulpit, or native turnip, as it is sometimes called, provided their people with another starchy food. If eaten raw, the bulb causes great pain because it contains thousands of tiny crystals that pierce the tongue and the inside of the mouth. The natives got rid of the stinging by cutting the bulb into thin slices and baking them or by boiling and drying them. The slices were then used in a variety of ways, but especially as a flavoring.
The indigenous people of the Chicago region also used the cattail and the common milkweed in cooking. The rootstock of the cattail was either boiled into a thick starchy soup or it was roasted. The flowers and buds of the milkweed were used to thicken soups and to add a very pleasant taste to various dishes. Svoboda
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| Native women harvesting wild plants for cooking. |
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