Before Europeans brought the honey bee to the Americas,
flowering plants were largely pollinated by native bees and insects. American
Indians ate a diverse assortment of plants and animals. Anthropologist and
beekeeper, Dr. Melissa Zabecki Harvey, the staff of Parkin Archeological State
Park, and a number of devoted volunteers recreated a meal of the foods
available at the Mississippian village of Casqui, the east Arkansas site
visited by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1541. See https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parkinarcheological/.
The bountiful meal served to the public at Parkin included
the Three Sisters from the park’s Mississippian Garden: maize, squash, and beans.
I sampled the following American Indian foods collected on the site and nearby:
Roasted Custaw Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, and Sunflower Seeds; Pecans; Black Walnuts;
Hickory Nuts; Roasted Burr Oak Acorns; Popcorn; Persimmons; Pumpkin Bread with
squash, persimmon paste, corn meal, duck eggs, and milk; Acorn Bread from burr
oak acorn flour, sunflower oil, duck eggs, and milk; Dried Cushaw Squash; Dried
Serviceberries; Persimmon Leather; Meat Pemmican of shredded venison jerky,
elderberries, and butter; Cornmeal Pemmican of cornmeal, serviceberries, and
butter; Venison Jerky; Raccoon; Duck; Rabbit; Smoked Venison; Buffalo Fish
baked in Tyronza River clay in an open pit on the park grounds; Crawfish Stew of
Jerusalem artichokes, corn, crawfish, sassafras leaf powder, sunflower oil,
onion grass, and salt; Squirrel and Cornmeal Dumplings; Acorn Stew with
venison, acorn flour, and hominy; Indian Stew of venison, pumpkin, sunflower
oil, blackberries, beans, hominy, maple syrup, and salt; Pumpkin Soup with,
maple syrup, spicebush berries, and animal fat; Kanuchi made from pecans and
amaranth grain with salt and maple syrup; Roasted Sunchokes or Jerusalem
artichokes; Hominy; Bean Cakes of beans, cornmeal, water, duck eggs, salt, onion
grass, and sunflower oil; Sunflower Seed Cakes with cornmeal, and maple syrup;
Hoe Cakes of cornmeal, water, butter, and pawpaw paste; Poyha made from ground
venison, oil, onion, duck eggs, cornmeal, and corn; Persimmon Paste; Hickory
Butter; Salt; Wild Garlic; Pine Needle Tea; Prickly Pear Juice; and Sumac Tea.
--Richard
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