A Native American Thanksgiving
Harvests feasts have an ancient tradition in the Americas that long predate the era when our ancestors allowed starving refugees and involuntary passengers from the Old World to settle here. The newcomers were so impressed by the farming skills of our ancestors that they created one of North America’s most important holidays to honor them . . . Thanksgiving!
Your family can also honor the culinary gifts that the indigenous peoples of the Americas gave all humanity by planning “An All American Thanksgiving.” Only serve dishes that originated in the Americas!
It’s going to be tough . . . not because of the limited choices, but because there is so much to choose from. Throughout the world, American vegetables predominate on the dinner table. The Muskogeans also gave the world deep fried, corn meal battered, poultry and fish that’s now called “Southern Fried.” (They used hickory nut oil with zero cholesterol.) Most all indigenous Americans liked to barbecue meats.
Meats
Smoked turkey, baked turkey, fried turkey
Fried duck, baked wild duck, roasted wild duck
Smoked wild goose, baked wild goose, roasted wild goose
Smoked venison, roasted venison
Smoked buffalo, grilled buffalo
Roasted elk, smoked elk
Smoked fish, barbecued fish, fried fish, baked fish
Roasted bear, smoked bear, barbecued bear
Deep fried turtle or frog legs
Fried quail, smoked quail
Baked possum with sweet potatoes*
*It is something like roast pork.
Brunswick stew
Vegetables
Corn bread, corn on the cob, niblet corn, creamed corn, hominy corn, grits, sofke, hush puppies, corn flat cakes, hasty pudding, corn soup, tamales, tortillas, popcorn
Northern wild rice, Southern wild rice
Sunflower seeds
Amaranth
Chives
Ramps (onion relative)
Avocado
Maple Syrup
Ginseng
Vanilla
Green beans
Bush beans
Pole beans
Lima beans
Navy beans
Kidney beans
Pinto beans
Purple beans
Red beans
Speckled beans
Black beans
Has beans
Sweet potatoes
White potatoes
Andean purple potatoes
Jerusalem artichoke (Indian potatoes)
Jicama
Yucca roots
Cassava
Tapioca
Wild garlic
Ramps (member of onion family)
Chives
Tomato
Bell pepper
Pimiento pepper
Hot pepper
Yellow crookneck squash
Butternut squash
Cousaw squash
Acorn squash
Calusa squash (sweet)
Calabaza squash (sweet)
Pumpkin
Nuts
Pecans
Peanuts
Hazelnuts
Black Walnuts
Butternuts (White Walnut)
Pine nuts
Chinkapins
Chestnuts
Coconuts
Brazil Nuts
Live Oak acorns
Fruits
Muscadine grape
Scuppernong grape
Catawba grape
Concord grape
Persimmon
Coco Plums
Gooseberry
Elderberry
Maypop
White Mulberry
Red Mulberry
Black Cherry
Banana
Papaya
Mango
Plantain
Guava
Paw Paw
Pashion Fruit
Pineapple
Coconut
Cranberry
Red plums
Purple plum
Coco Plum
Blackberry
Dewberry
Blueberry
Strawberry*
*Most commercial strawberries in the world are hybrids created from the native strawberry of the Southeast, which was grown by American Indians.
Agave
Tuna Cactus fruit
Soursop
Beverages
Chocolate
Ginseng tea
Sassafras tea
Yaupon tea
Pulque
Corn beer
Getting hungry? Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends around the Americas . . . even if your country doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
Richard Thornton
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Richard Thornton
President at The Apalache Foundation
Richard Thornton is a professional architect, city planner, author and museum exhibit designer-builder. He is today considered one of the nation’s leading experts on the Southeastern Indians. However, that was not always the case. While at Georgia Tech Richard was the first winner of the Barrett Fellowship, which enabled him to study Mesoamerican architecture and culture in Mexico under the auspices of the Institutio Nacional de Antropoligia e Historia. Dr. Roman Piňa-Chan, the famous archaeologist and director of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, was his fellowship coordinator. For decades afterward, he lectured at universities and professional societies around the Southeast on Mesoamerican architecture, while knowing very little about his own Creek heritage. Then he was hired to carry out projects for the Muscogee-Creek Nation in Oklahoma. The rest is history.
Richard is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the KVWETV (Coweta) Creek Tribe and a member of the Perdido Bay Creek Tribe. In 2009 he was the architect for Oklahoma’s Trail of Tears Memorial at Council Oak Park in Tulsa. He is the president of the Apalache Foundation, which is sponsoring research into the advanced indigenous societies of the Lower Southeast.
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Now you’re talking! There is no better way to serve a turkey than slow smoked on the grill.
Where can I find out more information about Native American cooking prior to Columbus’s arrival.
Thank you
Hey Ed,
Most of the websites I looked at for this subject were by non-Native Americans, who didn’t know diddlysquat about the subject, but were paid $10 to write a “how to” article on the net. I found this book, being sold by the Manataka Indian Council that seems legit, but I have never read it.
FOODS OF THE AMERICAS : Native Recipes and Traditions
The secret to smoking poultry is using the right wood. A lot of woods give the meat a chemical or turpentine taste. I am using hickory charcoal to cook my turkey this Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving Richard! My Mother loved the pictures of your pole beans. Keep up the good fight! Your Friend, Dave Turner
Well, thank you sir. Tell your mother that they were crowder peas and sugar snap peas – but also legumes like pole beans.
I found that Blue Lake green beans do better on these terraces than pole beans. They are not as much affected by the hot dry weather in late summer, and so keep on bearing into late September.