Native American Foods: Technology and Food Sources: Travel and Hunting Foods

Most tribes carried the dried berries and fruit of their regions when traveling. In northern areas processed blueberries and chokecherries, for example, were mixed with parched corn (roasted corn, either as whole kernels or flour). Complete on its own, the mixture was sometimes converted into pemmican with the addition of pounded, dried meat (jerky) and enough fat or marrow to form it into a thick paste. Variations of this basic recipe were made according to the available meat: Plains Indians used dried buffalo and antelope; the eastern tribes used dried deer and bear; and the northwestern groups used dried fish. Eating it necessitated consumption of periodic drinks of water, but pemmican was sustaining enough, even in small amounts, to fuel a long-distance runner.