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

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Chapter 262 of 68 9/20/2012 1:34 PMRussell, F. 1898. Explorations in the Far North. Iowa City: Univ. Iowa Press, p. 228. (Hypodermatidae)Russell, F. 1908. The Pima Indians. 26th Ann. Rpt., Bur. Am. Ethnol., p. 81. (Sphingidae)Sandel, A. 1715. (Note.) Mitchell and Millers Medical Repository 4: 71.* (Cicadidae)Sapir, E.; Spier, L. 1943. Notes on the culture of the Yana. Univ. Calif. Anthropol. Recs. 3(3): 239-298.*(Pteronarcyidae)Schmid, J.M. 1984. Emergence of adult pandora moths in Arizona. Great Basin Nat. 44: 161-165.(Saturniidae)Shimkin, D.B. 1947. Wind River Shoshone ethnogeography. Univ. Calif. Anthropol. Recs. 5(4), p. 265.Insects were not a food staple, but a few people, particularly in the Green River country, ate locusts,crickets and ants.Silver, Shirley. 1978. Shastan Peoples. In: W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 211-224.Shasta territory was rich in food resources (p. 216), and grasshoppers and crickets were among thesignificant non-vegetal foods. If people from other divisions were visiting in the Shasta Valley at the right time,they also gathered and ate crickets. "Men hunted and fished; women gathered seeds, bulbs, roots, insects, andgrubs and caught fish in baskets."Simms, S.R. 1984. Aboriginal Great Basin Foraging Strategies: An Evolutionary Analysis. Ph.D. Diss., Dept.Anthropol, Univ. Utah, Salt Lake City. (Introduction)Simpson, J.H. 1876. Report of explorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a directwagon-route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859. U.S. Army, Engineer Dept., U.S. Govt. Print.Off., Washington, D.C., pp. 35, 36, 53.Simpson (p. 35) mentions that: "Some of the weaker bands both of the Snakes and Utahs are almostcontinually in a state of starvation, and are compelled to resort almost exclusively to small animals, roots, grass,seed, and insects for subsistence." Relative to the Go-shoots, an offshoot of the Ute Indians, Simpson mentionsspecifically as foods (pp. 36, 53) rabbits, rats, lizards, snakes, insects, rushes, roots, and grass-seeds. He statesthat rabbits are their largest game and it is seldom they kill an antelope.Skinner, A. 1910. The use of insects and other invertebrates as food by the North American Indians. J. NewYork Entomol. Soc. 18: 264-267.The author reviews some of the earlier literature and states that, west of the Mississippi River insects areused as food by tribes of the Algonkian, Siouan, Shoshonean, Athabasca, Pujunan, Pinan, and Shastan stocks, "atleast." He says that records of food insect use by tribes east of the Mississippi are lacking, and suggests that the"universal practice of agriculture south of the Great Lakes" obviated any need for insects as food, thus explainingthe absence of such customs.Smith, Anne M. 1974. Ethnography of the northern Utes. Mus. N. Mex. Papers Anthropol. No. 17, pp. 1-288,30 pls. (Acrididae)Smith, J.S. 1977. The Southwest Expedition of Jedediah S. Smith. His Personal Account of the Journey toCalifornia, 1826-1827. (Edited by G.R. Brooks 1977.) Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Co.Smith mentions "Sugar Candy" (pp. 90-91), which, on enquiry he found was made from cane grass. Theeditor of this work, George R. Brooks, quotes from a report by Lt. Robert S. Williamson, who, during the courseof work on the railroad surveys reported cane at the same location in 1853. Williamson wrote: "[The Indians]seemed at this season of the year [August] to be principally employed in collecting a kind of bulrush or cane,upon the leaves of which is found a substance very like sugar, which to them is a not unimportant article of food.They cut the cane and spread it in the sun to dry, and afterwards, by threshing, separate the sugar from the leaf.
Chapter 263 of 68 9/20/2012 1:34 PMThe cane itself had no sweet taste."Spier, L. 1930. Klamath ethnography. Univ. Calif. Publs. Am. Archaeol. Ethnography 30, pp. 160, 227.(Saturniidae)Spier, L. 1933. Yuman Tribes of the Gila River. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, pp. 65, 73. (Sphingidae)Spier, R.F.G. 1978. Monache. In: W.C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 8,California (R.F. Heizer, vol. ed.), 1978, pp. 426-436.The author states, relative to the Monache in central California (p. 429): "Insects, grubs, and seeds wereparched with hot coals in a winnowing basket before being eaten. Yucca and other roots were collected androasted. Honey was relished when found."Steward, J.H. 1933. Ethnography of the Owens Valley Paiute. Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Archaeol. Ethnol. 33(3):233-256.Steward, in discussing the sweets and candies of the Owens Valley Paiute, based on visits to Owens Valleyand Mono Lake in 1927 and 1928, describes (pp. 245-246) hau've (Phragmites communis Trin.), a cane or reedas most important: "Sugar, called hauva-hauva, the dried sap brought to surface by small green insects, gatheredby beating into baskets; many insects remained in sugar. Made into balls. Later softened by fire and eaten likesugar. Much less sweet than commercial cane sugar. Formerly popular." Steward describes a second process:"Green cane gathered in summer when leaves are thick. Entire plant cut up; dried until sap is on surface inlumps; cane piled on canvas, beaten with sticks to loosen sugar; sugar gathered up, cleaned by winnowing, andstored in shallow baskets, about sixteen inches diameter, made of tule. Tule preferred to willow, believing itpreserves the sugar but does not give it taste nor change its color. Now ready to eat as candy."Steward (pp. 255-256) draws mainly from the earlier literature in discussing several other Owens Valleyand Mono Lake foods. Several Indians denied eating grasshoppers (a takica) and crickets (tsu nutugi'), althoughMuir had seen Mono Lake Paiute, in 1870, eating larvae of ants, wasps, bees, and other insects, and "Diggers,"probably Miwok, eating ants after biting off their heads. According to Steward, piuga, the larvae of Coloradiapandora, and cuza vi (Owens Valley) or cu-tza or cutza (Mono Lake), the pupae of Ephydra hians, were tradedwidely. Muir is cited to the effect that families and tribes claim sections of the shore at Mono Lake where thewindrows of pupae wash up and disputes arise over encroachment into a neighbor's territory.Steward, J.H. 1938. Basin-plateau aboriginal sociopolitical groups. Smithson. Inst. Bur. Am. Ethnol. Bull. 120,pp. 27, 34. (Partially reprinted in Coon 1948.) (Acrididae and Tettigoniidae)Steward, J.H. 1941. Culture element distributions: XIII - Nevada Shoshoni. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.Rec. 4(2): 209-359.Steward (pp. 228, 277, 331) found food insect use widespread among the Nevada Shoshoni. Ants, ant"eggs," larvae, crickets and locusts were delicacies. The Mormon cricket, occasionally in incredibly large swarmsin eastern Nevada, was an important food when plentiful. Among caterpillars, Coloradia pandora and at leasttwo other species were used. One of the latter was called "tsagwano"; they were roasted in coals after removingthe heads. Pupae of Ephydra hians from Owens Lake were called "cuija'vi" or inada, and Shoshoni said pupaeof at least two other species were procured from the lake. A large black ant called "ani'" was "dug from nest inearly morning while still cold; dirt winnowed out in basket; killed with coals in parching tray; entire ants groundon metate; boiled into mush." Red ants were eaten as a tonic when a person was thin. Yellowjacket eggs werecalled "pena."Steward's notes continue: "cicadas gathered from bushes in early morning into conical basket; parched incoals which burned off legs and wings; dried and ground on metate; could be stored for winter." They werecalled "kua" or "gua" by different Shoshoni groups. The cricket, called "maico," is "scooped into conical basketin early morning; thrown into pit from which fire has been removed; covered with grass; when roasted, insidesremoved by pulling off head; legs pulled off; dried; ground; stored in buckskin bags for winter use." Anothergroup drove them into the fire and then dried and ground them. Grasshoppers, called "a:tin," were eaten onlywhen the people were hungry; they were thrown into a grass fire and eaten when they turned red.Steward, J.H. 1943. Culture element distributions: XXIII - Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni. Univ. Calif. Pubs.Anthropol. Rec. 8(3): 263-392.
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