Native American Foods: Technology and Food Sources: Wild Fruits and Berries

Fruits were among the most important wild foods throughout America. Highly seasonal, they were dried and stored for year-round use and then served as an important source of flavor, sugar, and vitamins. Fruit generally was eaten raw in season and incorporated into beverages, soups, dumplings, and sauces. Preserved fruit, often dried, was used in winter. Fruit was often stewed briefly, mashed, formed into small cakes, and then dried in the sun to be reconstituted by stewing in water. Some fruits, particularly less juicy tree fruits such as black cherries (Prunus serotina), were sun- or fire-dried by many tribes, including the Iroquois. Fruits with larger seeds were pitted before drying, for example, the early Spanish peach (Prunus persica), which was adapted to local climates by the Lakota, Navajo, and Hopi. Chokecherries were widely used small cherries. Although they are very tart, chokecherries sometimes were eaten raw. More often, they were dried and stored in cakes and then used later in sauces or jerky. Chokecherries figure in rituals such as the Navajo Mountain Way Ceremony. Fruiting bodies such as rose hips (genus Rosa) were eaten raw, cooked, and dried throughout America by tribes such as the Montana, Lakota, Chippewa, Pomo, and Cherokee. Ground cherries and husk tomatoes (genus Physalis) were common in the Southeast and Southwest.