I have tried to make the yearly American Thanksgiving celebration a time about sharing gratitude with my family and friends, a true giving thanks for their love and support. Since in large part, this holiday is also about the American mythology surrounding the relations between Colonialists and Indigenous Peoples, I thought it would be appropriate to really look at that time period.
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Colonial European Arrivals
Before the names New World (pre-1492), America (1648), United Colonies (pre-1776), or USA (1776), this country was called Vinland (1000) by Norsemen. Prior to all these European names, some of the Indigenous Peoples called North and Central America Turtle Island. The name comes from various oral histories that share stories of a turtle that holds the world on its back.
I know the Norse were the first Europeans to come to North America. But, while those visitors explored and clashed with the people already living on the land, they did not eventually colonize due mainly to climate change and how cold the area they landed on became. Thus, “Colonial America” according to AmericasLibrary, is dated hundreds of years later, from 1492 to 1760.
- The Portuguese established fishing outposts in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ~1521.
- France starts to lay claim to lands in USA and Canada starting in 1534.
- Spaniards settled in St. Augustine, Florida in 1565.
- English people settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
- English Puritans land in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.
- Netherlands claimed lands encompassing New York to Delaware in 1623.
At that inital point of colonization, an estimated 60M Indigenous Peoples inhabited what we now call the USA. For this post I am looking at two settlements:
- By 1607 the first British colony, Jamestown, was set up among the ~30K Algonquian peoples who lived in the region.
- Later, by 1620 Plymouth was established by separatist Puritans who had broken away from the Church of England. They set up their outpost on the land of various tribes of the Wampanoag people.
Unprepared
For this section I am relying on the SmithsonianMag, mainly East coast museums, recorded comments from current Indigenous People, and other original sources of Colonialists or Seamen’s diary, letters, and logs.
There were differences in how these varied colonialists were approaching the travel to new lands. For some (France and Spain), they were funded by the government and had better chances at survival because of their resources and support; the British colonialists however, were mainly funded by venture capitalists looking for a quick buck. Apparently, these capitalists were not focused on sending farmers, woodlands men, or hardy survivalists , but decided to contract with and send people who were looking to escape Europe, to live their non-normative religious practices freely. The capitalists contract with the Pilgrims was to send back the fruits of their labor plus any gold they found, in exchange for the trip.
The Pilgrims did not learn from the returning visitors to the new land, for they shared information indicating the new land was colder, had more woodlands, and was basically very different than Britain. So, to say the British colonialists were not really prepared is an understatement, and the proof is in the survival rates.
- JAMESTOWN is justifiably called “the first permanent English settlement” in the New World—a hard-won designation … of the first 104 colonists who landed in April 1607, only thirty-eight survived the winter (2).
- Even with help from the Algonquian peoples (3, 4), ~10k Europeans may have left England for Jamestown between 1607 to 1622, at the end of that time, only 20% remained.
- In Plymouth 45 out of 102 people died the first year from lack of shelter, scurvy, starvation, etc. (5, 6).
Governor William Bradford wrote a history of Plymouth Colony, and wrote that the colonists were so unprepared they resorted to robbing Indian houses and graves for the search for food. Both Jamestown and Plymouth only survived because of Indigenous Peoples’ help (1).
Sensibilities
The Colonists also arrived with very different sensibilities. For instance, the Colonists considered land in terms of strict individual ownership, while the Indigenous Peoples had broad territories they moved within. The two peoples did not share religions, with the Colonists’ religious worldview and intentions apparently being more subversive (7), judgmental, and racist from what I have read. It is no wonder that, after a while, initial good will between these peoples, resulted in deaths and mistrust.
Additionally, these first Europeans to arrive to this “new world” came with the food-sensibilities of their homeland and no knowledge of the new environment, plants, or game that populated this land.
- The Plymouth colonists intended to produce their own food, but did not bring any cows, sheep, or goats, although they may have had pigs (8).
- They intended to make a livelihood by catching and exporting fish to Britain, but the gear they brought was useless for the type of fishing in the area (9).
European Travel Preparation
I have already referenced some of the real Thanksgiving and early food stories in a previous post, Southern USA Cuisine. But, to repeat a bit, the arriving colonists brought their seeds, in some cases domesticated animals (dogs, pigs, goats, sheep, or chickens), and had no other information about the land they were going to occupy.
Provisions
This is a partial list of the recommended provisions each family should bring. I am copying the older spelling and terms, and will translate when necessary.
- Victuals for a whole yeere for a man
- 8 Bushels of meale
- 2 Bushels of Otemeale (oatmeal)
- 1 Gallon of Aquavitae (ethanol or distilled wine)
- 1 Firkin of Butter
- 2 Bushels of pease (dried peas)
- 1 Gallon of Oyle (oil)
- 2 Gallons of Vinegar
- Household Implements
- 1 Iron Pot
- 1 Gridiron
- Trenchers (a flat, round board or bread to serve food on similar to Ethiopian Injera, or a cheese board)
- Dishes
- 1 Vettel (an iron skillet)
- 2 Skillets
- Wooden Platters + Spoons
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Spit (used for roasting meat over a fire)
- Spices
- Sugar
- Cloves
- Mace
- Fruit
- Pepper
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
Colonialists + Indigenous Peoples Meet
The first ones to arrive truly were not as prepared as they thought for what they would find upon landing in the New World. Shortly after arrival, the settlers began to explore the area and they soon encountered the Indigenous Peoples of the Chesapeake Bay region, mainly the Powhatan, the Piscataway, and the Nanticoke (10).
The settlers were so clueless about this new (to them) land, about the seasons, about what foraged foods would be edible, and so often they were at the mercy of the Native Peoples to help them. In fact, at first, Powhatan, leader of a confederation of tribes around the Chesapeake Bay, hoped to absorb the newcomers through hospitality and his offerings of food. As the colonists searched for instant wealth, they neglected planting corn and other work necessary to make their colony self-sufficient. They therefore grew more and more dependent on the indigenous people for food (3).
From the reports I could find, after some initial clashes, the majority of Indigenous People were helpful diplomatically to introduce other tribes, taught and brought or shared food, as well as attempted to teach the Europeans how to help themselves. Reports are that there were amicable relationships built on trade and barter, and the exchange was that the Indigenous Peoples helped the newcomers with basic survival.
- The PostGazette wrote that not only did Native Americans bring deer, corn and perhaps freshly caught fowl to the annual harvest feasts, but they also ensured the Puritan settlers would survive through the first year in America by acclimating them to a habitat they had lived in for thousands of years.
NationalGeographic reports that over time, however, relations between the now-established colonies and the local peoples deteriorated. Some of the problems were unintentionally introduced by the colonists, like smallpox and other diseases that the English settlers had unwittingly brought over on their ships. But the colonists also overstepped their agreements regarding land and boundaries, and some started to believe God had given them sovereignty over the lands and peoples they found there. When asking or bartering for food failed, often the colonists took what they needed by force.
The Indigenous People reportedly resisted the efforts of the Europeans to gain more land and control during the colonial period, but they struggled to do so against a sea of problems, including new diseases, the slave trade, and an ever-growing European population. Eventually, the colonists conducted search and destroy raids on Native American settlements. They burned villages and corn crops (ironic, in that the English were often starving). Additionally, and according to Brown, often not reported, between 1492 and 1880, between 2 and 5.5 million Native Americans were enslaved in the Americas in addition to 12.5 million African slaves. But millions were killed by the introduction of European disease.
For a more complex view of the interactions please read the Smithsonian article, Native Intelligence.
Colonialists’ Food
Food Preparation + Consumption
Food preparation and consumption varied, depending upon the location the colonialists settled. Southern colonies had ample opportunities for food given the conditions of the land and climate, while Northern colonies had more limited opportunities with shorter growing seasons. So this review is more a generic historical overview rather than specific to a given colony.
Cookware
The first colonialists ate primarily from wooden or horned dishes as many of the tableware brought over from Europe had broken during passage, or were too special to be considered everyday tableware.
Soups, and other liquids were drunk from a cup and not a bowl.
The most used eating utensil was a knife. Although they had forks, it was larger than a dinner fork, and was used to toast small pieces of meat. They also cooked using ladles, strainers, and spatulas.
Cooking Techniques
Primarily reports are the colonists boiled a lot of their food, subsisting on soups, stews, porridges, and breads. But they also pickled foods, and dried meats.
The Indigenous Peoples cooking methods included baking, frying, deep fat frying, boiling, and roasting over an open fire. Corn was especially important, and they taught the colonists how to cook and eat baked corn bread, corn pudding, boiling corn soup, and fried corn cakes (11).
Farming
Colonists had brought seeds and planted the crops they were most familiar with, and they had mixed results given the different environment, climate, and growing season in the areas they landed. What they could grow included turnips, onions, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, beans, and other “winter” foods that could be preserved well. They also grew apple trees, leading of course to cider and hard cider. But often they had to rely on supplies arriving from Europe, or the kindness of Native Peoples to show them how to forage and what foods were edible.
For instance, the Indigenous Peoples taught them to plant corn + pumpkins, how to forage by identifying veggies + wild berries and what nuts + herbs were readily available. This means they showed the colonists how to use no-till farming, how to process the foods, and how to use the three-sisters concept of planting corn, beans and squash together: corn is harvested, beans grow on the remaining corn stalk, and the bean leaves provide shade for the squash while adding nutrients back into the soil and keeping the soil moist.
Unfortunately, the stories I read make the colonialists seem very set in their ways if not outright arrogant. Often they would ignore the Native Peoples and their recommendations on what was edible. Until, that is, they were starving. Eventually, they started to incorporate the foods Indigenous Peoples had been eating for millennia: beans, squashes, corn, nuts, berries, fruits, fish, and small game, etc.
Hunting + Fishing
Commonly hunted game included deer, bear, buffalo, beaver, and turkey. But they also ate squirrel, rabbit, duck, passenger pigeons (hunted to eventual extinction in 1914), and other small game, fish, or any other meat they could get their hands on.
In fact, hunting and fishing was the one thing colonialists did well at, and as a result many of their dishes were often meat and fish heavy.
Meals
For breakfast, after the colony men returned from tending to their animals and doing morning chores they ate breakfast as it was prepared by the women. In the beginning it was simply a pot of porridge that had been cooking overnight, and a quick glass of cider or ale (12) or later it would be a cornmeal mush that would be flavored with molasses or berries.
Dinner would be served in the late afternoon, as a community meal of some sort of meat and vegetable stew. The vegetables were often what was in-season, and therefore had to be eaten quicker than their stored root veggies and preserved foods. Bread might also be provided, but it was often stale as there was no way to preserve the bread, and it was not served often given limited stores of flour, salt, and sugar. I imagine often people would dunk the bread into the stew or just tear it apart and add it to the stew like a panade.
- They ate a very fatty, gamey tasting, roasted Beaver’s tail
- Eel pie, which is really an English dish
- Snake meat stew
- Scrapple, which is a meat-loaf mix of any left over parts of pigs, cows, or sheep or wild game
- They also ate fowl and fish per their land of origin recipes
But eventually their food stores grew low, winter continued, and they needed help to locate and cook the food that was all around them. So let’s turn to some of the more well known food that might have helped keep them alive.
Shared Indigenous Recipes
Here are some traditional Indigenous Peoples’ recipes, similar foods may well have been shared by the native peoples with the Colonialists to help them survive, and perhaps even eaten during a harvest festival.
Prepping Corn for Consumption
We have original records showing the Indigenous People sharing the planting, growing, and storing of corn, as well as showing how to cook the new food. For corn, they also shared how to utilize the cob, and process the kernels for food.
Indigenous people understood corn, and had several varieties. Some of the dried corn needed to be processed, called nixtamalization (the word comes from the Aztec language: nextli means ashes and tamali means unformed maize dough). That is, the traditional soaking of dried corn in a hardwood-ash (alkaline) water to remove the hull and germ. The corn will actually change chemically, white corn will turn yellowish-orange for instance. And this change allows the food to be drained, cleaned and then ground as masa for cornbread, or consumed directly in stews.
Maize Cakes
Native Americans baked maize cakes, called “appone” or “ponop” using ground dried corn, water, and salt. These snacks were basically simpler versions of modern day cornbread (WindsorHistoricalSociety). Originally, the corn was processed and then ground into a meal for this dish.
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Combine 2C cornmeal with 1/2t salt and mix.
- Then add 2T melted fat (butter these days) and up to 1-1/2C boiling water for a semi-stiff mush consistency.
- Then heat oil in a cast iron skillet, and spread the mush into the pan and bake for ~20-30 minutes.
- Note: You can make little cakes like the picture shows above by forming and then baking on a parchment lined baking sheet. I just happen to like the skillet technique.
Native American Samp (aka Cornmeal Mush)
Samp, or nasaump, the Algonquian term for the porridge from ground Indian corn, was served in such bowls which were generally carved from hardwood knots or burls using crude flints, scrapers, and stone adze blades (Masshist). Traditionally, the corn (removed from the dried cob) would be procesed, and then ground into a meal that was boiled.
- In 1 quart of boiling water add 1-1/2C cornmeal, and 1C of berries (strawberry, raspberry, or blueberry), and 1/2C crushed nuts (walnut, hazelnut, acorns, chestnuts, or sunflower seeds).
- Turn down the heat to a slow simmer and cook for ~15-20 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add maple syrup to taste, before serving.
Corn Soup
The video discusses and shares the process of making Indigenous People’s corn soup. The ingredients are dried corn (that has gone through the ash process into hominy), dried kidney beans, lots of fresh water (and the water from the soaking of beans), salt, and these days a scored pork (pork belly now, deer then?) for flavoring.
I hope you find this interesting from a historical perspective. Too often the only American history we have learned was while in USA elementary school. But learning more about the beginnings of this country is important, and this history does play a big part in American culinary history.
—Patty
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