Native American Foods: Technology and Food Sources: Salt

Agricultural and hunting lifestyles determined which tribes ate salt. Meat contains more salt than vegetables do, and those who ate meat (Plains Indians, for example) or saltwater fish (coastal tribes everywhere) consumed enough salt to satisfy bodily needs. Peoples who subsisted largely on vegetation did not ingest enough salt, and therefore it was added to cooked foods by inland tribes of California, the Great Basin, the Southwest, and some parts of the Prairies. Salt was sometimes obtained by use of special plants. The southwestern saltbush and eastern coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) were used in pit ovens to flavor steaming corn, as winter fodder for sheep, in puddings, and as a general seasoning for meat and vegetables.