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Native Americans, especially in the Southwest and in Central and South America, have always believed their gods are intimately connected to — and even embodied by — the corn and wheat and fish and animals they consume.
Native Americans, especially in the Southwest and in Central and South America, have always believed their gods are intimately connected to — and even embodied by — the corn and wheat and fish and animals they consume.
Photos: Corbis
The Zunis believed the rain priests from the underworld brought pigweed up to the earth; to the Maya, cacao beans were found by the gods in a mountain filled with delectable foods; ancient Greeks and Native Americans alike referred to the sacred nature of the Corn Mother.
Thus, many of the foods that the rest of the world acquired from the Native Americans have divine attributes, and, by extension, plenty of medicinal benefits, from dandelion blossoms used for heart trouble to chile peppers for rheumatism.
Just imagine how the world's gastronomies have been radically changed by the import of Native American foods. There would be no tomatoes in Italian cooking or polenta made from cornmeal. There would be no chile peppers in the kitchens of India, Thailand, and China, and no paprika in Hungary. There would be no French fries and no sustenance for the Irish because potatoes came from the Americas. There would be no Swiss chocolate, no British strawberry jam. Indeed, had the Wampanoag Tribe not shown the Pilgrims how to plant corn instead of wheat and brought venison and turkeys to the settlement, the settlers would have perished within the first year.
Native Americans also gave the world avocados, many types of beans, watermelons, pumpkins, American per-simmons, bison meat, maple syrup, and even Jerusalem artichokes (which are named not for the biblical city but from the Italian word for "turning to the sun," girasole). They even showed the Cajuns how to thicken their gumbo with native sassafras and introduced them to crawfish. The Europeans, of course, brought their own foods to the Native Americans, who adapted them successfully, not least of all developing jerky from beef.
Different tribes developed their own cooking along seasonal and regional lines, so that the Indians of the Pacific Northwest lived principally on the bounty of the Pacific, from abundant salmon to geoduck clams. In the West, the common denominator of most tribes was bread made from corn. The Navajos mixed in a little cedar and juniper ash, which added nutritional minerals to their bread. And the Hopi revered somiviki, a bun wrapped in corn husks and then steamed, as well as the multilayered piki bread, the making of which was a requisite skill for a Hopi girl to master before marrying.
The Spanish brought wheat to the Americas, and many tribes switched from corn to white flour for bread-making, but the tortilla made with cornmeal was, and still is, a beloved staple north and south of the Mexican border.
In a way, much of Indian food culture can be found dispersed throughout Tex-Mex dishes that share affinities for beans, tomatoes, chiles, corn, guacamole, tortillas, and corn chips. The Europeans may have brought in the beef to make chili con carne and the sour cream for the enchiladas, but that is why the real treasure that Columbus found in the West was not gold but food. After all, he came to the New World looking for a spice route. He just didn't realize what bounty he would discover along the way.
