Chapter 2. Insect Foods of North American Indigenous Populations ...

Chapter 254 of 68 9/20/2012 1:34 PMcoprolites in Lovelock Cave in west-central Nevada. As both of these genera are scavengers on plant and animalproducts, it is doubtful that their presence in the coprolites suggests ingestion, or at least intentional ingestion.The authors state that "coprolite analysis is the most precise method available to archeologists for determiningancient dietary patterns and food-preparation practices," and briefly mention coprolite rehydration techniquesthat improve analysis for delicate remains such as those of insects.Henderson, W.W. 1931. Crickets and grasshoppers in Utah. Utah Agric. Expt. Sta. Circ. 96, 38 pp.(Tettigoniidae)Hevly, H.C.; Johnson, C.D. 1974. Insect remains from a prehistoric pueblo in Arizona. Pan-Pac. Entomol. 50:307-308.The authors report the identity of four species of insects from a 13th Century pueblo in Arizona, butconsider the insects to have been intrusive and not used as food.Hitchcock, S.W. 1962. Insects and Indians of the Americas. Bull. Entomol. Soc. Am. 8: 181-187.(Introduction)Hoffman, W.J. 1878. Miscellaneous ethnographic observations on Indians inhabiting Nevada, California, andArizona. In Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories,Embracing Colorado and Parts of Adjacent Territories, being a Report of Progress of the Exploration for the Year1876. Washington: Govt. Print. Off., pp. 465-466. (Ephydridae)Hoffman, W.J. 1896. The Menomini Indians. 145th Ann. Rpt., Bur. Ethnol., Part I, p. 287.Hoffman reveals some of his own feelings about eating insects as well as providing some information onthe Menomini:The Menomini Indians are not addicted to eating all kinds of reptiles, insects, and other loathsomefood, as was common to many of the tribes of the Great Basin and of California. This form ofdiet may result from having always lived in a country where game, fish, and small fruits werefound in greater or lesser abundance, and the evident relish with which the so called Diggers, theWalapai, and others, devour grasshoppers, dried lizards, beef entrails, and bread made ofgrass-seed meal mixed with crushed larvae of flies, would appear as disgusting to the Menominias to a Caucasian.Hooper, Lucile. 1920. The Cahuilla Indians. Univ. Calif. Publs. Am. Archaeol. Ethnol. 16(6): 315-380.(Bruchidae)Hrdlicka, A. 1908. Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of southwestern United Statesand northern Mexico. Smithson. Inst., Bur. Am. Ethnol. Bull. 34, pp. 25, 264-265.Hrdlicka mentions (p. 25) that locusts, grasshoppers, water beetles, dragonfly nymphs and certain kinds oflarvae are among the "small animal" food occasionally eaten by the Tarahumare in the Southwest. Mentionedalso (pp. 264-265) is that a favorite sweet of the Pima children is honey deposited by a small solitary bee,probably Anthophora or Melisodes (Anthophoridae), in underground clay cells. These cells or clay "jars" are dugup by the children. The honey is called mo-wa-li chuh-nie, or "fly syrup."Hutchings, J.M. 1888. In the Heart of the Sierras, the Yo Semite Valley, etc. Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press, pp.427-429. (Ephydridae and Acrididae)Ikeda, J.; Dugan, S.; Feldman, N.; Mitchell, R. 1993. Native Americans in California surveyed on diets,nutrition needs. Calif. Agric. 47(3): 8-10. (Introduction)Irwin, C.N. (ed.). 1980. The Shoshoni Indians of Inyo County, California: The Kerr Manuscript. Ballena PressPubls Archaeol., Ethnol, Hist., No. 15, pp. XVII + 1-92.Irwin provides the following footnote on p. 47: “Bishawa’da a yellowish or cream colored larvameasuring approximately one-quarter-inch long. The species proliferated in Owens Lake. This food should not be