Moccasins
Flintknapping
Arrow-making
See Arrow-making for more information.
For a full list of species historically used by American Indians for arrows, see Patreon.com/paleoforaging.
Bow making
For a full list of species historically used by American Indians for bows, see Patreon.com/paleoforaging.
Seed gathering
Seeds were knocked off the bearing plant with a basketry racket into a large-mouthed basket or other receptacle (Barrows 1967:52). The closely-woven baskets sealed with pine pitch about 2.5 ft wide by 3 ft deep were used to gather the seeds by the Gosiute (Chamberlin 1911:342). A basket the size of a skillet,with a handle on one side was used to strike or sweep the plant tops or seed heads, with the larger basket positioned to receive the falling seeds (Chamberlin 1911:342). This racket often had a flat, sharp wood piece on the side opposite the handle, with which the fruiting parts of the plants could be cut (Chamberlin 1911:342). Sometimes the large basket was carried on the back, and the sweeping motion directed to carry the seeds over the shoulder and into the basket (Chamberlin 1911:342).
Any bag or container with a wide, stiff opening can be used by the modern forager.
Seed threshing
The gathered material was beaten with sticks or paddles to separate the seeds from the chaff (Chamberlin 1911:342).
Flailing was a method in which plant tops or stems bearing the seeds were laid whole onto a mat or the like and beaten with sticks, or perhaps trampled, in order to release the seeds, which were then winnowed.
This method can be appreciated by the modern forager gathering large amounts of seed heads or bean pods or the like. A canvas tarp on a hard surface can be used instead of a hide or mat.
Winnowing
A circular or ovate basket, shallow and slightly depressed in the center, was used to toss the seeds in a breeze to remove the chaff, which is blown away, while the heavier seed meal falls back into the basket (Chamberlin 1911:342). It was done by hand for larger materials (Chamberlin 1911:342).
I often use an electric fan for generating a steady wind, but otherwise this method is still quite useful to a modern forager.
Sifting
A flat basket was skillfully tilted to separate different grades of seed meal, or baskets with fine open weaves were used to sift out finer grains from coarser grains, which were then further ground and the process repeated as necessary.
Wire mesh baskets or other modern sifting tools may be preferred by the modern forager.
Grinding, pounding, pulverizing
A mano and metate or mortar and pestle was used to reduce seeds into meal. Mortar and pestle was universally used to reduce a vast amount of plant material for food and medicine. Mortars ranged in size from large tree trunks to handheld, and pestles ranged in size from 6 ft long and arm width to handheld. Their dimensions were designed to be ergonomic and adequately fit the purpose. Some methods used multiple people alternately pounding with their pestles in one mortar. Mortar and pestle were most commonly made of wood. The mortar bowl was made by burning it out with embers and scraping it to shape. The mano and metate were both stone. Wood burls or knots made preferable mortars. (Kavanagh 2008:37,372, Swanton 2001:37).
A range of sizes of ceramic or stone mortar and pestle can be readily purchased by the modern forager. However, finding very large sizes may be difficult. For this, one can use a carving gouge and maul (or perhaps chainsaw) to carve out the center of a log.
Leaching
To remove bitter or astringent elements from plant foods such as seeds, acorns, or nuts, the meal was placed on sand inside a large shallow basket placed on a platform (Barrows 1967:52). Water was gently poured on the meal and allowed to drain slowly through (Barrows 1967:52).
Baskets, fine-mesh strainers, and bags can be used by the modern forager.
Earth ovens
Those used by the Apache for Agave crowns were 10-12 ft in diameter, 3-4 ft deep, lined with large flat rocks, with oak and juniper wood for fuel (Castetter and Opler 1936:36). Plant lining used was moist grass of various kinds, or bear grass (Nolina microcarpa) since it does not burn easily (Castetter and Opler 1936:36). The Iroquois dug pits in the sides of banks or in a clay deposit, built a fire in them, removed the coals, placed foods inside, and covered it with ashes (Waugh 1916:56).
The modern forager can mimic an earth oven by wrapping the food item in aluminum foil (to prevent moisture escape) and cooking in the oven at low temperature (e.g. 200 degrees F) for long times.
Boiling
Boiling is an essential process for food and medicine processing. Many different methods have been used such as:
– Pottery: pottery vessels were placed sitting in the fire or suspended above it.
– Stones: fist-sized stones were heated in a fire and placed in the container filled with water, then food was added. The container was a rawhide basin, a waterproof basket, a pottery vessel, or simply a hole in the ground. Note that many stones can explode when heated in the fire, especially those with pockets of water inside, such as a porous stone taken from a creek. Porphyritic or close-grained igneous rocks and soapstone are two historical examples.
– Bark: elm (Ulmus spp.) bark was used to make a kettle by tying large pieces together at their ends with strips of inner bark. This kettle was filled with meat and water, suspended between two sticks over a fire, but not in contact with flames, and the meat was cooked before the bark was burnt through.
(Foster 1998:173, Hart 1979:298, Kavanagh 2008:264, Waugh 1916:55,56, Smith 1974:67).
Other cooking methods
These include baking on a flat stone, searing directly on red coals, broiling on sticks stuck into the ground (Waugh 1916:55).
Baking in the ashes of a burned-down fire with coals still burning underneath and plenty of residual heat was a common method of cooking food without the possibility of burning it, similar to the earth oven.
Seeds were often roasted by shaking or stirring them in a basket along with live coals (Coville 1892:353). I demonstrate this in the above paloverde bean video, starting at 03:59.
In the above acorn video, I show how to make acorn bread with hot rocks.
Dehydration
Fruits were dried by spreading them out in the sun, setting them near a fire, spreading them on a small openwork platform over a smoky fire, crushing them to a paste and spreading that out in the sun, or forming small cakes from the paste to sun-dry. To prepare, they were soaked in water and used in various ways, or put directly in watery dishes such as soups or mush.
House construction
One general method, common among the Asinai, Caddo, and other eastern Texas tribes, was to dig post holes in a circle, plant tall posts (whole tree trunks as thick as the thigh at the base) in them, and unite the posts by bending them to meet in the center in a dome. These houses were about 25 ft in diameter and 20 ft high. Juniper was a common material for framing wood.
Then, poles of wood lathing were wound around the frame to provide a surface from which to hang thatching, being secured to the posts with bark (e.g. mulberry inner bark) lashings. Willow, being abundant and flexible, was a common material for this lathing. Then a thatching material was attached to the supports, starting with the bottom layer and working up. Grass was a common material for thatching. A log with notches cut into it was used as a ladder. This latter log was sometimes planted in the center like a post, and cut away after construction finished. Smoke holes were at the top, sometimes on two sides.
Houses for other purposes were common, especially summer houses with open walls. These were often rectangular in framing, with a flat roof of horizontal rafters covered with boughs. The Quapaw, living in the mosquito-rich lower Mississippi, built platforms 15 to 20 feet high upon which they slept in order to evade the biting insects.
Most houses were built on the bare earth, but often the floor was finished by hardening the ground or by it covering with mats.
Reed mats or bison hides streched on elevated platforms (like cots) were sometimes used for beds and sitting. Large animal pelts covered the beds. Reed bolsters, an object to comfortably elevate the head, were used.
(Foster 1998:276, La Vere 2006:85, Swanton 1996:149-154)
Storage and caches
Elevated platforms, such as a simple wood frame 10-12 ft high with a surface of canes secured by bark on top, or even just a boulder, were used to store foods such as nuts, acorns, and seeds (Bean and Saubel 1972:111, Foster 1998:237, Smith 1974:67). Basketry granaries on elevated platforms were commonly used. A semi-spherical willow basket about 3 ft diameter is one example (Barrows 1967:52).
Insect infestation was prevented by methods such as sealing the granary with mud, using insect-deterring aromatic herbs (e.g. Artemisia sp.) to construct the granary, or mixing in fine sifted ashes (Bean and Saubel 1972:111). They could be covered with bark as a roof (Smith 1974:67).
A large hole that was larger at the bottom than at the opening was lined with bison hide, filled with food, and the hide closed like a sack before being buried and covered with grass by the Wichita (La Vere 2006:80).
Pots, baskets, and sacks were filled with dried foods and stored out of the way in houses (Barrows 1967:53). Dried meat and herbs were suspended from the ceiling (Barrows 1967:53).
Food cache holes were dug under cliff overhangs by the Ute (Smith 1974:67). Sacks of rawhide or woven bark were lined with clean dry grass, the sacks covered with bark, grass, and rocks, then covered with dirt and more rocks, and a fire built atop to disguise it (Smith 1974:67).
Digging sticks
A long pointed stick was the common tool to dig up edible roots, excavate root strands for basketry, and more. The points could be fire-hardened (Hart 1979:297). Transverse handles of horn, antler, wood, or simply the fork of the same branch were used by the Flathead and Kootenai (Hart 1979:297). Hardwoods such as oak were preferred, and elk antlers could be used (Castetter and Opler 1936:35, Hart 1979:297). They could be flattened and pointed at the tips (Kavanagh 2008:138). Similar tools were used to cut agave plants, with a sharpened, shovel-like flat end.
The modern forager can easily adapt this method by cutting a stout, hard stick at a sharp angle to serve as an improvised trowel or shovel in the field.
Salt
Salt was a common trade item among American Indians (Foster 1998, Winship 1904:37,153,176, Varner and Varner 1988:450). It was gathered from various sources, such as saline lakes, lake shores, marshy lakes, salt springs, or the bottoms or banks of certain creeks (Berlandier 1969, Kavanagh 2008:334, Mails 1974, Winship 1904:153). Salt mixed with sand could be used by mixing it with water, allowing the salt to dissolve, and pouring off the salted water (Foster 1998:237,139). The ashes of certain plants were used as a salt substitute, and some tribes used no salt at all (Waugh 1916:151).
Unless one lives by a salt source, the modern forager will likely rely upon trade to obtain salt, and can be recommended to carry it on long foraging expeditions afield.
Fire starting
FIRE-STARTING METHODS AND SPECIES USED
The fire-drill is the most common and reliable primitive technology for fire-starting among American Indians. This generally consisted of a straight, round stick about a foot tall, the drill, and the board against which it was spun, the hearth. The hearth has a cylindrical hole bored into it, and at the edge of the hole, a V-shaped notch is cut, with the point of the “V” leaving a small opening in the hole, opening to the very edge of the hearth board, allowing the ember to be dropped out of the hole and onto awaiting tinder. The hearth can be braced by the feet or knees as both hands spin the drill, applying downward pressure that causes the hands to slowly slide down the drill. As the hands reach near the hearth, they are quickly re-positioned to the top of the drill and the process continues until smoke is seen. The ember is quickly dropped into tinder and held in the hands as it is blown upon to ignite a flame.
Species for the drill: tree wood – juniper, pine, maple, mesquite, oak, ash, cottonwood, hornbeam, willow, basswood, elm, buckeye; herb stems – yucca, sotol, sage, snakeweed, spiderflower.
Species for the hearth: juniper, sotol, yucca, hornbeam, basswood, mesquite, mulberry, spiderflower, buckeye.
Species for the tinder: juniper (bark), cottonwood, (seed fluff or wood), grass, Spanish moss, oak (leaves), elderberry (pith), sagebrush (leaves), alder (wood), any with dry-rotted wood, & any bracket fungus (shredded fruiting body), bison manure.
For further details on fire-starting and species used for fire, see the page linked above.
Dyeing
Many species were used for dye, including: agarita (roots), elderberry (fruits), pokeweed (fruits), prickly pear (fruits) juniper (fruits, needles, sumac (roots), mesquite (resin), hickory (leaves, bark, hulls), oak (acorns, galls, bark), sunflower (seed hulls, flowers), holly (fruits), various colorful lichens, charcoal, ochre, & mud.
A chemical added to a pigment to increase the uptake of that pigment by a medium, such as basketry splints, is called a mordant. Leaves and twigs or ashes of sumac, clays or muds from certain earth deposits containing alum or sulfur, or urine were used as mordants.
Cordage
Musical Instruments
Select references:
Barrows 1967:52,53
Bean and Saubel 1972:111
Castetter and Opler 1936:36
Castetter and Underhill 1935:15
Coville 1892:92,353
Chamberlin 1911:342
Elmore 1944:21,43,61
Foster 1998:173,237,276
Hart 1979:297,298
Kavanagh 2008:37,127,138,264,372
La Vere 2006:80,85
Schenck and Gifford 1952:380
Smith 1974:67
Swanton 1996:149-154
Swanton 2001:37
Waugh 1916:55,56
Winship 1904:100