Chapter 2
INSECTS
FORMERLY USED AS FOOD BY INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS
OF
NORTH AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO
Taxa and life
stages consumed
Bruchidae (seed
beetles)
Algarobius (=
Bruchus) spp., larvae, pupae
Neltumius (=
Bruchus) spp., larvae, pupae
Cerambycidae
(long-horned beetles)
Ergates spiculatus Leconte, larva
Monochamus
maculosus Hald., larva
Monochamus
scutellatus Leconte, larva
Neoclytus
conjunctus Leconte, larva
Prionus
californicus Mots., larva, adult
Rhagium lineatum Olivier, larva
Xylotrechus
nauticus Mann., larva
Curculionidae
(snout beetles, weevils)
Rhynchophorus
cruentatus (Fabr.), larva
Dytiscidae
(predaceous diving beetles)
Scarabaeidae
(scarab beetles)
Cyclocephala
dimidiata Burmeister, adult
Cyclocephala
villosa Burm., adult
Phyllophaga fusca Froelich, adult
Polyphylla crinita Leconte, adult
Scientific name(s)
unrecorded
Ephydridae (shore
flies)
Ephydra cinerea Jones (= E.
gracilis Packard), pupa
Ephydra macellaria Eggar (= E.
subopaca Loew), pupa
Hydropyrus (=
Ephydra) hians Say, pupa
Oestridae (warble
flies, bot flies)
Hypoderma bovis Linn., larva
Oedemagena tarandi (Linn.), larva
Rhagionidae (snipe
flies)
Atherix sp., egg masses
with adult females
Tipulidae (crane
flies)
Holorusia
rubiginosa Loew, larva
Tipula derbyi Doane, larva
Tipula quaylii Doane, larva
Tipula simplex Doane, larva
Scientific name(s)
unreported
Belostomatidae
(giant water bugs)
Lethocerus
americanus Leidy, adult
Aphididae (aphids)
Cicadidae
(cicadas)
Anthophoridae
(digger bees)
Anthophorid
honey
Apidae (honey
bees, bumble bees)
Bombus
appositus Cresson,
larva/pupa
Bombus
nevadensis Cresson,
larva/pupa
Bombus
terricola occidentalis
Greene, larva/pupa
Bombus
vosnesenskii Radoszkowski,
larva/pupa
Cynipidae
(gall wasps, etc.)
Cynipid-produced
oak galls
Formicidae
(ants)
Camponotus sp., larva, adult
Formica rufa Linn., larva/pupa/adult?
Lasius niger Linn., larva/pupa/adult?
Myrmecocystus
melliger Forel,
honeypots
Myrmecocystus
mexicanus hortideorum McCook,
honeypots
Pogonomyrmex
californicus Buckley,
larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex
desertorum Wheeler,
larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex
occidentalis Cresson, larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex
owyheei Cole,
larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex sp., adult
Vespidae
(paper wasps, yellowjackets, hornets)
Vespula
diabolica Saussure,
larva/pupa
Vespula
pennsylvanica Saussure,
larva/pupa
Vespula spp., larvae/pupae
Rhinotermitidae
(subterranean termites)
Reticulitermes
tibialis Banks
Scientific
name(s) unreported
Arctiidae
(tiger moths, etc.)
Arctia caja
americana Harris, larva
Lasiocampidae
(tent caterpillars)
Malacosoma spp., larvae
Megathymidae
(giant skippers)
Megathymus
yuccae Boisduval &
Leconte, larva
Noctuidae
(noctuids)
Heliothis zea
Boddie, larva
Homoncocnemis
fortis Grote, larva
Spodoptera
frugiperda Smith, larva
Saturniidae
(giant silk moths)
Coloradia
pandora Blake, larva,
pupa
Hyalophora (=
Platysamia; = Samia) euryalus Boisduval,
larva (see Essig 1958, Arnett 1985)
Sphingidae
(sphinx or hawk moths)
Hyles lineata
Fabr., larva
Manduca sexta
Johannsen (= Macrosila
carolina (author?)), larva
Scientific name(s) unreported
Aeshnidae
(darners)
Aeshna
multicolor Hagen, nymph
Scientific
name(s) unreported
Acrididae
(short-horned grasshoppers)
Arphia
pseudonietana Thomas,
adult
Camnula
pellucida Scudder, adult
Melanoplus
bivittatus Say, adult
Melanoplus
devastator Scudder,
adult
Melanoplus
differentialis Thomas,
adult
Melanoplus
femurrubrum DeGeer,
adult
Melanoplus
sanguinipes Fabr. (= M.
mexicanus mexicanus Suassure;
reported as M. atlanis Riley by Essig 1931), adult
Melanoplus sp.
Oedaloenotus
enigma Scudder, adult
Schistocerca
Shoshone Thomas (= S.
venusta Scudder), adult
Gryllacrididae
(wingless long-horned grasshoppers)
Stenopelmatus
fuscus Haldeman
Gryllidae
(crickets)
Gryllus
assimilis Fabr., complex
Tettigoniidae
(long-horned grasshoppers)
Isoperla sp., nymph, adult
Pteronarcidae
(giant stoneflies)
Pteronarcys
californica Newport,
nymph, adult
As with
indigenous populations nearly everywhere, North American Indian tribes made
wide use of insects as food. Dozens of
species have been recorded or are highly suspect on the basis of distribution,
abundance and ecology. Data on the use
of insects in aboriginal cultures are primarily of two types, ethnographic and
archaeological, and it has been particularly necessary to draw upon the full
range of methodology in North America where the original cultures have been so
completely enveloped by a later European-derived culture. Ethnographic data are derived from direct
observations by anthropologists, observations by non-anthropologists (e.g.,
ethnohistoric accounts), memory culture, continuation of practices into the
present, and inferences from ethnographic data from neighboring groups. Sutton (1988: 1-10) points out pitfalls relative to the
gathering and interpretation of each kind, and provides some insight as to why
the importance of insect consumption in aboriginal societies has been
under-reported and underestimated.
Sutton
points out that few of the observers were trained in anthropology, and fewer
yet in the natural sciences. Observers
from European cultural backgrounds were often biased in their observations of
insect consumption or disregarded it entirely.
In addition, as insects were usually processed and fragmented, they
often could not be recognized by ethnographers, and so were not recorded. As a result, Sutton concludes that it is
probable that a much greater number and variety of insects were utilized by the
Indians of the Great Basin than has been reported. In addition, misidentifications appear to
have been frequent, e.g., the term "locust" used interchangeably for
grasshoppers, crickets and cicadas. This
affects conclusions as to seasonality, technology employed, and caloric return,
and thus can lead to an underestimation of the importance of insects in the
aboriginal diet and a corresponding overestimation of the importance of other
dietary components.
Relative
to archaeological data, poor preservation and inadequate field and laboratory
methods result in a paucity of data.
Sutton discusses reasons for this, and why even coprolite analysis is
not as fruitful as might be expected.
Coprolite evidence exists for the use of several kinds of insects. Sutton notes that insect remains are
frequently encountered during flotation analyses of soil samples from features
and hearths in archaeological sites, but they generally are not identified
because they are considered unimportant.
Coprolites could yield much more information than has been the case to
date. "The recovery of
archaeological evidence of insect use suffers most from indifference,
disinterest, or ignorance on the part of archaeologists who are not attuned to
the recovery of such data."
Flotation samples must be given special attention and new data recovery
techniques must be employed.
As far
as known, insects never comprised the staple in any economy, but they
were often critical resources that were more than an occasional addition to the
diet. Sutton notes that Great Basin
investigators are now beginning to study resources in view of their seasonal
availability, nutritional content, and search and processing time, but, noting
the usually cursory treatment of insect consumption by anthropologists, he
states (p. 2): "From an ecological
standpoint, an understanding of, or at least a delineation of, all parts of an
economic system is necessary for an understanding of the system as a whole and
of its interactions with other systems."
Many components, including insects are poorly known. Anthropologists often consider that insects
are "famine food and backup resources, usually taken on an individual
encounter basis," yet, Sutton states (p. 3): "While it is probably true that insects
were taken individually during the course of other activities, the overall
procurement of insects appears to have been systematic and not confined to
chance." He concludes that,
"insects were commonly and extensively used and that they played an
important part in fulfilling the nutritive requirements of the Great Basin
Indians."
Sutton
concluded that crickets, grasshoppers, shore flies, caterpillars, and ants were
the most significant insect resources and they were utilized by almost every
Great Basin group. Other insects,
including bees, yellowjackets, aphids, mesquite beetles, june beetles,
stoneflies and lice were also eaten but in lesser quantity. Sutton disagrees with the view that insects
were mostly obtained on an "encounter" basis, stating that, "the
ethnohistoric and ethnographic data indicate that considerable planning,
travel, and effort was often involved in insect procurement." Such effort suggests that aboriginal groups
were knowledgeable about the seasonal and geographic availability of insects
and that the insect resources were fully integrated into aboriginal economic
systems. Although fresh insects were
available primarily from April to October, many accounts specify that insect
foods were stored for later use, often in large quantities. According to Sutton, "Stored insects,
combined with stored plant products (with which insects were often mixed) may
have formed a balanced diet providing for a comfortable winter."
Although
cost/benefit ratios for collecting most insect resources have not been
determined, Sutton notes that studies have shown high return rates for Mormon
crickets and grasshoppers. Collecting
and processing of insects in the Great Basin was conducted primarily by women,
although in "drives" requiring the participation of many people, men,
women and children probably participated.
In
summary, Sutton concludes that insects probably constituted a major rather than
a minor resource in the Great Basin, and states that "Anthropologists
should continue to seek elucidation of the use of insect foods, both ethnographically
and archaeologically, and should consider insect foods important resources that
were fully integrated into the various economies of the aboriginal Great
Basin."
The
point made by Sutton that if the role of insects in North American aboriginal
economies is underestimated, the role of other components is therefore
overestimated and we lack an accurate understanding of the systems as a whole,
is of particular interest and has wide implications. If this is true for North America, it is
probably equally true for Africa, Asia and elsewhere inasmuch as most of the
early information was furnished by Europeans.
The historical record of insect consumption may be an excellent example
of history distorted by being seen only through the eyes of those who wrote it.
Several
points come into focus as one peruses the North American literature:
1. Insect consumption was widespread among
tribes in western North America, but not in the eastern part of the
continent. Waugh (1916)
and Carr (1951) are among the few reports from east of the
Mississippi River. On the other hand,
not all western tribes used insects (see Dorsey 1884, Ray 1933, Voegelin
1938, and Barnett 1939, for example). Hoffman (1896) suggested that
the Menomini did not eat insects and other "loathsome food" because
they had "always lived in a country where game, fish, and small fruits
were found in greater or lesser abundance," and Skinner (1910)
suggests that "the universal practice of agriculture south of the Great
Lakes" obviated any need for insects as food.
The
reasons suggested by Hoffman and Skinner would seem to be discounted, however,
by numerous reports from the West that the Indians relished insects in the
midst of abundant food resources. Dixon
(1905) states, regarding the Northern Maidu in the lower Sierra region,
"Of animal food [deer, elk, rabbits, etc.] there was an abundance. . . .
Yellow-jacket larvae were, however, eagerly sought, as were also
angle-worms. Grasshoppers, locusts, and
crickets were highly esteemed, and in their dried condition were much used in
trade." Muir (1911),
described a great variety and abundance of foods, then stated, "Strange to
say, they seem to like the lake larvae [Hydropyrus hians pupae] best of
all." According to Ross (1956),
despite a profusion of salmon, buffalo and vegetables, the Snake Indians resort
to "the most nauseous and disgusting articles of food," such as
crickets, grasshoppers and ants.
2. Insects were an integral part of the seasonal
rounds of food gathering. This is
evident in many reports, but quick insight on the role of insects within the
context of food gathering can be provided by quoting from the excellent and
concise description by Emma Lou Davis (1962) of the seasonal
activities and locations of the Mono Lake Paiute. Mono Lake is located at the base of the
Sierra Nevada, within the Upper Sonoran Life Zone at an elevation of 6,400
feet. Davis states (p. 24):
Due to this climatic variability and
to the range in altitudes the area offered a wide range of seasonal foods which
were attractive to hunter-gatherers.
From April through October different natural food crops matured in turn
throughout the territory. The activities
of the Mono Lake Paiute, and of other aboriginal travelers and visitors, were
geared to this cycle of food events. At
each season the people had different sorts of camps, in different places and
with significantly different artifact assemblages.
The Kuzedika had only a stone-age
tool kit, [but] their culture was characterized by a number of highly developed
specialties which permitted them to cope successfully with their unpredictable
environment. In common with other
Basin-Plateau peoples they possessed a diversified complex of beautifully made
baskets, permitting them to collect, toast and winnow tiny seeds and fine meal.
They used metates and manos,
mortars, stone bowls, and pestles. With
this milling equipment they could reduce hard or tough foods to an edible
consistency. They made warm fur robes by
weaving twined strips of rabbit pelt into a fibre warp. They understood how to process and store
protein foods. Most particularly, they
had an encyclopedic knowledge of the ecology of which they formed a part. They were clever at devising ways of
harvesting every seed, grub and rat in their habitat. They ate everything they could digest and
knew precisely where and when it could be found and the best means of procuring
it.
The staffs of life of the Kuzedika
were greens, roots and fruits; seeds of grasses; fly larvae [actually Hydropyrus
hians pupae], pine tree caterpillars [Coloradia pandora larvae],
rodents, lizards, rabbits and occasional large game. The great winter staple was pine nuts. . . .
During an average year the Paiute
schedule of camping and collecting ran as follows: In winter, the groups broke up into separate
families. The families lived either in
the pine nut groves, close to their caches of nuts, or else in sheltered coves
around the warmer east end of the lake.
Here they subsisted on rodents and stored foods. . . .
In March, when the sun and the deer
returned, Kuzedika families moved to the west end of the lake and camped on
sunny, well-drained knolls near streams with gallery forests of aspens. The first new food activities in spring were
the hunting of deer and the collecting of fresh greens for which the people
were starved. . . .
By June groups of people moved down
to the summer grass sites. . . . These meadow camps served as a base for
collecting grass seeds, berries, roots and tubers. They were also a point of departure for more
distant and varied collecting activities.
Each summer the whole population migrated to the lake shores in order to
gather and process fly larvae, which piled up in windrows along the beaches. Open camps appear to have extended for miles
along high strand lines at the west end of the lake, where fresh water was
available. The wealth of food near the
lake attracted other people from miles around.
Even the unfriendly Washo paid regular visits to Mono Lake. The high percentage of projectile points
(some of them very large spear points) at beach sites suggests defensiveness or
an armed truce. . . .
In addition to its appeal as a food
larder, Mono Lake basin was a cross-roads for trade and travel [and] many other
people came and went through the home range of the Kuzedika. This situation was, of course, a potential
source of inter-group friction but appears only occasionally to have caused
outbreaks of armed hostility. The Paiute
were not an aggressive people and territoriality was but weakly developed among
these transient collectors.
On alternate summers, in the early
part of July, the Kuzedika and scattered groups of visitors migrated 15 miles
south to the Jeffrey pine forests near Indiana Summit. Here the caterpillars of a moth, Coloradia
pandora, completed their biennial cycle and emerged to feed on the pine
needles. Smudge fires were built;
circular trenches (still faintly visible) were dug around the bases of selected
trees. The trapped and stupified worms
were then collected, sun-dried and stored in slab shelters, a few of which are
still standing.
If the year were favorable, autumn
brought in the most important of all food crops: the pine nuts. Families worked together to amass great piles
of green cones, still tightly closed to protect the contained nuts. The cones were piled within retaining rings
of stones, covered with grass, boughs and slabs of rock and left as winter
stores. . . . If the harvest of pinyon nuts had been an adequate one, families
built brush tipis with countersunk floors and wintered near their caches. In the scattered winter communities people
trapped small game, gambled at Nayel'we, the popular Hand Game, told myths in
endless song-recitive during the long evenings and waited for the returning sun
to bring another cycle of collecting.
3. Some insects undoubtedly yielded a very high
energy return for the energy expended in their harvest. Although few experimental data are available,
this seems especially evident from the many vivid accounts of grasshopper and
Mormon cricket "drives" (see under Orthoptera: Acrididae and Tettigoniidae) and the
large-scale harvests of shore fly pupae (Diptera: Ephydridae) and pandora moth caterpillars
(Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Madsen and Kirkman (1988)
describe a special, but recurring, situation in which the return rate from
collection of grasshoppers washed ashore at Great Salt Lake was at least 16
times that of any local seed resource. Madsen
(1989) provides data suggesting that the return rates from Mormon crickets
collected by hand exceeded those from all local plant resources and compared
favorably with those from small and large game animals. It is likely that return rates from Mormon
crickets collected during the large, organized drives described by early
observors would have far exceeded those that can be obtained by
hand-collecting. Simms (1984),
although he makes no mention of edible insects, provides useful information on
the kilocalories returned per hour of work for various Great Basin collected
food resources, both plant and animal.
4. Insects, when dried, were storable for use in
the future and were an important winter food.
Grasshoppers, Mormon crickets, shore fly pupae, pandora moth
caterpillars, cicadas and ants were among the insects stored (e.g., Dixon
1905, Elliott 1909, Muir 1911, Steward 1941, Davis
1965, and Downs 1966, among others).
5. Insects were important items of trade among
tribes (e.g., Dixon 1905, Steward 1933, J. Davis 1961),
with grasshoppers, pandora caterpillars and shore fly pupae among the insects
most widely traded. Accounts of Indian
attempts to trade their edible insect preparations to Whites, however, are
frequently humorous (see, for example, Bidwell 1890). Disputes concerning insect collecting rights
sometimes arose among Indian tribes or individual families. Steward (1933: 245-246), for
example, cites Muir to the effect that families and tribes claimed sections of
the shore at Mono Lake where the windrows of shore fly pupae washed up and
disputes arose over encroachment into a neighbor's territory. Regarding pandora caterpillars, Miller
and Hutchinson (1928: 158-160) related that "...the
Monos, lured by the tempting collecting grounds, had crossed the range [the
Sierra Nevada] and gathered caterpillars from areas that were considered
exclusive worming grounds of another tribe.
This caused a serious break in diplomatic relations between the two
tribes and very nearly resulted in a great Pe-ag'gie war."
Conversely
to most reports, Heizer (1978) shows only three recorded
ethnographic instances of insects traded as food items from one tribe to
another in California.
Essig's (1931)
discussion is of particular interest because it is the first to provide the
specific identity (scientific names) of many of the insects that were, or
probably were, used as food in western North America. His information is incorporated under the
appropriate insect orders below. Essig
(1934), as did Davis (1962) and others later, extolled the intimate
knowledge of the Indians about natural history, including the life cycles and
habits of insects. He says (page 181):
Indians probably knew a great deal
more about certain facts concerning the natural instincts and habits of insects
than the white race will ever know. The
aborigines of California literally lived with their tiny six-legged brothers
and liked them in more ways than one.
Apparently there were no feelings of rivalry on the part of the red men
as is so often expressed to-day by the entomological economists who class
insects as man's greatest rivals on this earth.
The Indians accepted nature as it was without carrying out any great
schemes to replace the forests and the prairies with cultivated fields and
great cities.
Finally,
although our discussion here is limited to food, insects were much more than
food in the lives of the Indians. Hitchcock
(1962) has discussed a number of aspects in Indian culture, including
the spiritual power of insects; insects as omens and symbols; their use in
medicine, magic and witchcraft; influence on the growth and development of
children; use of products for various purposes such as ornaments, artwork,
dyes, not to mention honey and beeswax; domestication of insects of various
kinds; use as food (briefly); and the Indian view of insect control. Hitchcock, as did Essig before him, suggests
that the American Indian had a much more intimate view of himself in relation
to nature than we do and insects were part of the world around him. Indians in general did not regard insects as
pests in the same manner that we do.
This was partly because the Indian economy was such that insects did not
make such recognizable demands on it and partly because of their spiritual and
other importance. A point made by both Hitchcock
and Essig is that, in general, those groups that made the most use of
insects or insect products had great knowledge about the biology and
identification of their insects, a principle that we will see applies to
indigenous people in other continents as well.
DeFoliart (1991)
listed more than 70 species of insects known or presumed to have been used as
food by North American tribes. Included were representatives of 12 insect
orders and 28 families. DeFoliart (1994)
described a number of insect foods of the American Indians and incidents showing
how early whites reacted to them. The
author concluded: "As might be expected from our European cultural
heritage, some early American whites looked with open disgust at the insect
foods of the American Indians. It is
interesting, though, that so often . . . . these cross-cultural encounters
relative to food seemed dominated by feelings of mutual tolerance, curiosity
and respect and were described with a sense of humor."
Ikeda
et al
(1993) reported that some 500 descendants of Miwok-speaking Native
Americans live in Mariposa County, California, and that 50 percent of the
families live below the federal poverty level and are unable to afford the kind
of food that ensures an adequate diet.
The authors report:
Some families augmented their food
supply in traditional ways: 47% gathered wild berries, nuts, mushrooms and
other plants; 67% said their grandparents and parents traditionally used wild
plants as foods, and 81% said this knowledge had been passed on to them by
their elders. . .[22% gardened, 26% fished, 14% hunted] . . . Many Miwok
recalled foods their grandparents ate that they do not eat: insects such as
pine tree worms, Monarch butterfly larvae and grasshoppers; animals like
squirrel, Mono Lake shrimp, quail, deer, rabbit, bear and hedge hog; and plant
foods such as acorn mush, pine nuts, wild vegetables and berries. Some of these foods, particularly the
insects, are not considered food by the dominant culture. This may have influenced these Native
Americans to abandon them as food sources.
Sutton (1995)
reiterates the importance of insects in prehistoric diet and technology and of
their procurement in determining settlement/subsistence patterns. He also
re-emphasizes and expands on his 1988 criticisms of "Western bias" on
the part of anthropologists, ethnographers and archaeologists in assessing the
role of insects, especially as food. In
the interpretation of study results, there is an over-emphasis on male-oriented
subsistence activities and "big ticket" economic animals, particularly
mammals, while insects, which are not very mobile, are considered part of
"gathering" which is done by women and children. The author discusses in detail the reasons
for the low archaeological "visibility" of insects.
See
also Lowie (1909b, insects as food of the Assiniboine) and Osborne (1923,
insects in coprolites).
Coleoptera
Bruchidae (seed beetles)
Algarobius (= Bruchus) spp., larvae, pupae
Neltumius (= Bruchus) spp., larvae, pupae
Sutton (1988: 57-60) notes that bruchid beetles constituted
an "automatic inclusion of animal protein in processed mesquite."
Three genera of bruchids common in mesquite in North America are Algarobius,
Neltumius and Mimosestes (Kingsolver et al 1977: 113,
Table 6-3). There may be as many as
three generations per year, and as many as 80% of the pods may be infested by
the latter part of the season (Glendening and Paulsen 1955:
9; vide Sutton 1988), thus it was almost axiomatic that the bruchids would be a
part of mesquite harvest. Regarding the
harvest of mesquite pods, Bell and Castetter (1937:
22-23); vide Sutton 1988: 59) observed:
When stored in the form of whole or
dry pods, partially pulverized, they soon became a living mass, since an
insect, a species of Bruchus, was present in almost every seed. To the Pima or any other tribe of Indians,
this made little difference. The insects
were not removed but accepted as an agreeable ingredient of the flour,
subsequently made from the beans. If
reduced to a fine flour soon after gathering, the larvae still remained within
the beans and became a part of the meal, forming an homogenous mass of animal
and vegetable matter.
Hooper (1920: 357)
noted that the Desert Cahuilla ate mesquite beans that were "worm eaten in
spots, but regardless of this, they are all pounded together."
Bye (1972: 94)
gives the history of the botanical collections made by Edward Palmer and John
Wesley Powell and reviews the ethnobiology of the southern Paiutes, which lived
in southern Utah, adjacent northern Arizona, and southern Nevada. Relative to the mesquite, Prosopis
glandulosa Torr. var. torreyana, and the screwbean, P. pubescens
Benth., the fruits of which were important as food, especially the starchy
inner portions and the seeds, often contained Bruchus larvae which were
eaten along with the fruits. Now that
bruchid-containing pods have become unacceptable to some tribes such as the
Pima and Cahuilla, infestations can be controlled by heat-treatment as is the
Seri custom in Mexico (Felger 1977: 163).
Mesquite
seeds in a cached ceramic olla, or storage jar, recovered from CA-RIV-519 in
southeastern California (ethnographic territory of the Desert Cahuilla, and
radiocarbon dated to within the past several hundred years), showed evidence of
insect activity within the bean matrix (Swenson 1984: 249). This was probably the result of bruchid
beetles infesting the beans when they were still nutritionally viable.
Cerambycidae (long-horned beetles)
Ergates spiculatus Leconte, larva
Monochamus maculosus Hald., larva
Monochamus scutellatus Leconte, larva
Neoclytus conjunctus Leconte, larva
Prionus californicus Mots., larva, adult
Rhagium lineatum Olivier, larva
Xylotrechus nauticus Mann., larva
Essig (1931)
states that the fat wood-boring cerambycid grubs, some of which measure up to 60
mm in length, were especially relished by the California Indians. Species mentioned include: Ergates spiculatus Leconte and Prionus
californicus Mots. (obtained from old logs and stumps of coniferous trees,
and the latter also from various deciduous trees); Rhagium lineatum
Olivier (beneath the bark of dead pine trees in the foothills and lowlands
during the winter and spring); Xylotrechus nauticus Mann., Neoclytus
conjunctus Lec. and other species of these genera (under the bark of
various deciduous trees); Monochamus maculosus Hald., and M.
scutellatus Lec. (in fire-scorched, injured and dead coniferous
trees). These and "countless"
other kinds of cerambycid grubs from all kinds of vegetation were dug out and
eaten, usually raw.
Roust (1967: 56,
82) reported adults of Prionus sp. (probably californicus) in
prehistoric human coprolites from Lovelock Cave in western Nevada. The heads of the beetles were not found,
"indicating that they were either bitten or torn off prior to ingestion,
without chewing, of the whole beetle."
See
also Powers (1877a, cerambycids as a food of the Nishinam of Pacer County,
California) and Zigmond (1986, as a food of the Kawaiisu). It is surprising that, considering the
extensive worldwide use of cerambycid grubs, and that hundreds of species occur
in North America, there have been so few reports of their use as food here.
Curculionidae (snout beetles, weevils)
Rhynchophorus cruentatus (Fabr.), larva
Ghesquièré (1947)
indicates by the following (translation) that this species was consumed:
"In his interesting History of Entomology, Essig (1931) devoted a
chapter to edible insects in North America; however, he neglects palmicoles in
it and does not cite (cf. Bowdman, 1888, and Kunze, 1916) the boring Rhynchophorus
cruentatus of the saw palmetto and the date tree, whose larvae are
nevertheless eaten by the natives."
The species occurs in Florida and nearby states in the southeastern
United States, and southward through the Caribbean region.
Dytiscidae (predaceous diving beetles)
Cybister explanatus (author?), adult
Roust (1967)
reported adults of Cybister sp. (explanatus?) (pp. 56, 60, 84) in
prehistoric human coprolites from Lovelock Cave in western Nevada, and C.
explanatus and unidentified insect parts in prehistoric human coprolites
from nearby Hidden Cave (p. 66). As with
the cerambycid adults mentioned above, the heads had been bitten or torn off
prior to ingestion, without chewing, of the whole beetles.
Also
see Hrdlicka (1908, dytiscids as a food of the Tarahumare, southwestern U.S.).
Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles).
Cyclocephala dimidiata Burmeister, adult
Cyclocephala villosa Burm., adult
Phyllophaga fusca Froelich, adult
Polyphylla crinita Leconte, adult
Indians
in Madera County, California, were reported to have regularly eaten the adults
of "the white-striped June beetle," Polyphylla crinita Leconte
(Essig 1931). Sutton (1988:79)
reports (via personal communication from Nancy Peterson Walter) that the Owens
Valley and Mono Lake Paiute roasted June beetles (possibly Phyllophaga fusca)
as late as 1981. These insects may have
been used by other groups as well, but there are no other specific data. Sutton
notes that other June beetles occurring in the desert areas of Arizona and
California include Cyclocephala villosa and C. dimidiata.
Miscellaneous Coleoptera
White
grubs from the soil and weevil grubs in nuts are mentioned by Essig (1931)
as food in California, but no specific observations are mentioned. Essig notes that the larvae of leaf beetles
(Chrysomelidae) and ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) were probably not eaten
because of their offensive body secretions.
According to Ebeling (1986: 368), the Cahuilla used as
food an insect (probably a beetle larva) gathered from Australian saltbush (an
introduced plant) when it bloomed.
Diptera
Ephydridae (shore flies)
Ephydra cinerea Jones (= E. gracilis Packard), pupa
Ephydra macellaria Egger (= E. subopaca Loew),
pupa
Hydropyrus (= Ephydra) hians Say, pupa
There are numerous reports on the
harvesting of shore flies, mainly the pupae of Hydropyrus (= Ephydra)
hians Say, and their use was undoubtedly widespread. They were traded, and some groups traveled
long distances to obtain them. They were
available in great quantities and were storable enough to serve as winter
provisions. Sutton (1988: 45)
notes that other species of shore flies were probably also used, particularly Ephydra
cinerea Jones (= gracilis Packard) which coexists with H. hians
in the Great Salt Lake and elsewhere.
The presence of two sizes is mentioned in one early ethnographic
reference, and E. cinerea is much smaller than H. hians. Although the larvae were frequently mentioned
as the stage consumed, Ebeling (1986: 103-104) and others have
noted that it is primarily the pupae that wash up on shore where collection
occurs.
Zenas
Leonard, in his narrative of his travels written in 1839 (Wagner 1904:
166-167), writes of the Pai-utes (or Diggers) at Humboldt Lake: "When the wind rolls the waters onto the
shore, these flies [shore flies] are left on the beach - the female Indians
then carefully gather them into baskets made of willow branches, and lay them
exposed to the sun until they become perfectly dry, when they are laid away for
winter provender. These flies, together
with grass seed, and a few rabbits, is their principal food during the winter
season." (Ebeling, 1986:
104, citing E. Strong, 1969, identifies Ephydra subopaca Packard
as the species, and Great Salt Lake as the locality referred to in this
account.)
Fremont (1845: 154
[1988 reprint]) described [what lake?] a windrow 10-20 feet in breadth and 7-12
inches in depth, composed entirely of the "skins of worms, about the size
of a grain of oats, which had been washed up by the waters of the lake." Alluding to this later, Fremont tells of an
old hunter, Mr. Joseph Walker, who informed him that:
. . . wandering with a party of men
in a mountain country east of the great California range, he surprised a party
of several Indian families encamped near a small salt lake, who abandoned their
lodges at his approach, leaving everything behind them. Being in a starving condition, they were
delighted to find in the abandoned lodges a number of skin bags, containing a
quantity of what appeared to be fish, dried and pounded. On this they made a hearty supper; and were
gathering around an abundant breakfast the next morning, when Mr. Walker
discovered that it was with these, or a similar worm, that the bags had been
filled. The stomachs of the stout
trappers were not proof against their prejudices, and the repulsive food was
suddenly rejected. Mr. Walker had
further opportunities of seeing these worms used as an article of food; and I
am inclined to think they are the same as those we saw, and appear to be a
product of the salt lakes.
In the
account of the 1859 expedition of Capt. J.W. Davidson to Owens Valley (Wilke
and Lawton 1976), it is stated (p. 30):
Another very plentiful addition to
their means of subsistence is the Larvae of dipterous insects. These are seen floating upon the surface of
Owen's Lake in masses (agglomerated) about the size of a nutmeg, and the
Indians gather them at this season as they are driven ashore by the winds. They then dry them and separate, by threshing
and winnowing, the shells, or skeletons, of the Larva from the grub, which they
pack away in cakes. I may safely say
that I saw hundreds of bushels of this food, in process of preparation and
prepared. The Indians inform me that
these deposits are of yearly occurrence. . . .
Brewer (1930:
417), who visited Mono Lake in 1863 described it as follows:
No fish or reptile lives in it, yet
it swarms with millions of worms, which develop into flies. These rest on the surface and cover
everything on the immediate shore. The
number and quantity of these worms and flies is absolutely incredible. They drift up in heaps along the shore -- hundreds
of bushels could be collected. They
only grow at certain seasons of the year.
The Indians come far and near to gather them. The worms are dried in the sun, the shell
rubbed off, when a yellowish kernal remains, like a small yellow grain of
rice. This is oily, very nutritious, and
not unpleasant to the taste, and under the name of koo-chah-bee forms a
very important article of food. The
Indians gave me some; it does not taste bad, and if one were ignorant of its
origin, it would make fine soup. Gulls,
ducks, snipe, frogs, and Indians fatten on it.
Browne (1865:
111-113) described encountering a deposit of "worms" [actually the
pupae of Hydropyrus hians Say], about two feet deep and three or four
feet wide, which extended "like a vast rim" around the shores of Mono
Lake, one of several highly alkaline lakes in the California-Nevada area:
I saw no end to it during a walk of
several miles along the beach. . . . It would appear that the worms, as soon as
they attain the power of locomotion, creep up from the water, or are deposited
on the beach by the waves during some of those violent gales which prevail in
this region. The Mono Indians derive
from them a fruitful source of subsistence.
By drying them in the sun and mixing them with acorns, berries,
grass-seeds, and other articles of food gathered up in the mountains, they make
a conglomerate called cuchaba, which they use as a kind of bread. I am told it is very nutritious and not at
all unpalatable. The worms are also
eaten in their natural condition. It is
considered a delicacy to fry them in their own grease. When properly prepared by a skillful cook
they resemble pork 'cracklings.' I was
not hungry enough to require one of these dishes during my sojourn, but would
recommend any friend who may visit the lake to eat a pound or two and let me
know the result at his earliest convenience. . . . There must be hundrds,
perhaps thousands of tons of these oleaginous insects cast up on the beach
every year. There is no danger of
starvation on the shores of Mono. The
inhabitants may be snowed in, flooded out, or cut off by aboriginal hordes, but
they can always rely upon the beach for fat meat.
Palmer (1871: 426)
states that the "ke-chah-re" from Mono Lake are dried and pulverized,
then mixed with meal made from acorns, to be sun-dried or baked as bread, or
mixed with water and boiled with hot stones for soup.
Loew (1876: 189)
states, in describing Owens Lake: "Neither
fish nor mollusks can exist, but some forms of lower animal life are plentiful,
as infusoriae, copepoda, and larvae of insects." Loew continues:
. . . one of the most striking
phenomena is the occurrence of a singular fly, that covers the shore of the
lake in a stratum 2 feet in width and 2 inches in thickness, and occurs nowhere
else in the county; only at Mono Lake, another alkaline lake, it is seen
again. The insect is inseparable from
the alkaline water, and feeds upon the organic matter of the above-named alga
[species not known] that is washed in masses upon the shore. In the larva state it inhabits the alkaline
lake, in especially great numbers in August and September, and the squaws
congregate here to fish with baskets for them.
Dried in the sun and mixed with flour, they serve as a sort of bread of
great delicacy for the Indians.
Hoffman (1878:
465-466) reported as follows, presumably in relation to H. hians:
The Pah-Utes in the southwestern
portion of Nevada, and even across the line into California, consume the larvae
of flies found upon the borders of some 'alkali' lakes. The organic matter
washed ashore is soon covered with flies, where they deposit their eggs; there
being not sufficient nourishment for all the worms, some die, when more eggs
are deposited, and so on ad infinitum, until there is a belt of
swarming, writhing worms from 2 to 4 feet broad, and from an inch to 3 inches
in depth. This was the exact condition
on the shore of Owen's Lake, California, in August, which appears to be the
favorable season. At such localities the
Indians congregate, scoop up and pack all that can be transported for present
and future use. When thoroughly dried,
it is ground into meal, and prepared and eaten as by the Shoshonees.
Williston
(1883)
studied a sample of dipterous larvae and adults sent to him from the Soda Lakes
near Ragtown, Nevada, and found them identical with material from Mono
Lake. Williston described the adult of
the Soda Lakes material under the name, Ephydra californica Packard (the
adult of which was not previously described), while noting that differences are
apparent in the larval stages and the Soda Lakes specimens may in fact
represent E. hians. Williston
quotes from an earlier source: "The
water [Soda Lakes] appears to be wanting in animal life, with the exception of
a minute fly, the larva of which is a small worm, accumulating in such large
quantities as to form a belt a foot wide along the shore. It is occasionally gathered by the Pah-Ute
Indians, and, after drying and pulverizing, made into a sort of meal or
flour." Williston also quotes
extensively from correspondence with Prof. W.H. Brewer whose notes regarding
Mono Lake were later published (see Brewer 1930).
Hutchings
(1888:
427-428) describes the collection of fly larvae and pupae which occurs each
summer along the western edge of Mono Lake:
At such times every available
native, young and old, and of both sexes, repairs to Mono Lake with baskets of
all kinds and sizes, old coal-oil cans, and such articles; and, collecting this
foam with its living tenants, repair to the nearest fresh water stream (Mono
Lake water being impregnated with strong alkalies), and there wash away the
foam, while retaining all the larvae and pupae.
This is spread upon flat rocks to dry; and when cured, is called
'Kit-chavi,' and thenceforward forms one of the luxuries of Indian food, and
becomes their substitute for fresh butter!
Hutchings continues:
"Before participating therefore in the festivities of a morning or
evening meal, this appetizing addition is made to their acorn mush-bread; when
all sit, or kneel, around the unctuous viands, and with his or her two front
fingers, converted for the time being into a spoon, help themselves to this
unique repast, all eating from the same basket."
Kroeber (1925: 592;
vide Sutton 1988: 47) reported that the Panamint exploited the flies from Owens
Lake.
Essig (1931)
discusses earlier reports on use of the larvae of Ephydra hians
Say by the Mono and Koso (Shoshone) and Paiute tribes and known as koo-tsabe
or koo-chah-bee by the latter.
Reagan
(1934a: 54) states that the Goshutes (Shoshone)of Deep Creek country in
Utah were alleged to have made soup of fly larvae, presumably Hydropyrus.
Heizer (1950),
with his customary diligence in searching out the literature on a subject,
cites a number of papers and articles which are not included here, on the use
of kutsavi (H. hians) by the western Indians.
Lawton
et al
(1976) believe that probably the reason the Paiute did not develop
irrigated agriculture in the southern part of their range was that they were
able to obtain large quantities of kutsavi or koochabie from
Owens Lake, thereby exploiting a more nutritive food source than the northern
proto-agriculturists were able to exploit by irrigating their fields of chufas
and grass nuts. They state (p. 42):
One reason irrigation may not have
been practiced near Owens Lake is because of the abundance of kutsavi,
the larvae of a small fly, Ephydra (Hydropyrus =) hians
Say, which formerly occurred in the alkaline waters of Owens Lake. . . .
Irrigation was not practiced at Mono Lake either, according to Steward, nor was
it recorded by Von Schmidt who surveyed that region in 1857. Mono Lake is located at about 7000 feet,
perhaps too high for successful irrigation of yellow nut-grass and
wild-hyacinth. However, here again, the
fly larvae occur in abundance (see Heizer 1950) and would have provided a
reliable winter staple that involved less effort to obtain than irrigating and
harvesting wild plant foods. Steward (1933: 256) indicated that the larvae were
also present in Walker Lake at the terminus of Walker River Valley. Thus, the Indians in all of these regions
would have had a reliable winter food resource lacking in the northern and
central Owens Valley.
According
to Irwin (1980: 47), the Shoshoni called Hydropyrus hians
larvae Bishawa'da and the flies (or pupae?) ing ga'da or ing
ga'ra.
Sutton (1988: 49)
reports (Nancy Peterson Walter, pers. comm. 1985) that Hydropyrus pupae
were apparently collected from Mono Lake in numbers even as late as the late
1970s.
Also
see Chalfant (1922, as food of the Eastern Monos [Owens Valley Piute]), E.
Davis (1963, 1965, food of the Kuzedika Paiute of Mono Lake, Calif.), J. Davis
(1961, as a food involved in trade among tribes), Downs (1966, H. hians
as food of the Washo, who made long trips to collect them), Fowler (1986, as
food of Great Basin tribes), Irwin (1980, food of the Inyo County, California
Shoshoni), Kroeber (1925, food of the Koso or Panamint), Merriam (1979, food of
the Mono Paiute and Panamint Shoshone), Muir (1911, food of the Mono Paiute),
Powers (1877b, as food at Owens Lake), Steward (1933 as food at Owens Valley
and Mono Lake; 1941, food of the Nevada Shoshoni), Stewart (1941, food of the
Northern Paiute), and Strong (1969, food of the desert people).
Oestridae (warble flies, bot flies)
Hypoderma bovis Linn., larva
Oedemagena tarandi (Linn.), larva
Russell (1898: 228)
noted that some Indian tribes in the far north depend almost entirely on the
caribou for survival -- for food and for skins for lodges and clothing. Every part of the animal was utilized,
including the grubs in its back (considered to be Hypoderma lineatum de
Villers by Russell, but now known as H. bovis). The grubs were well-developed by the latter
part of April. Russell states, "The Indians did not remove them from
pieces of meat destined for the kettle," but cites an earlier report by
Hearne that, "They are always eaten raw and alive out of the skin and are
said by those who like them to be as fine as gooseberries." Children were
particularly fond of them. Felt (1918) cites R.M. Anderson (1918)
and says: "He states that the Eskimos pick out the grubs from the hides in
the spring and eat them like cherries and adds, apparently from experience,
that they are very watery and absolutely tasteless."
Harper
(1955: 52, 57) reported that “the larvae of the warble fly (Oedemagena
tarandi), found beneath the skin of the Caribou, are relished by the
Eskimos, being eaten apparently while alive and raw.” Harper cites a 1795 paper
by Hearne reporting the Indians as eating the warbles in his day.
Rhagionidae (snipe flies)
Atherix sp., egg masses with adult females
Aldrich
(1912b)
relates two Indian accounts of harvesting a species of Atherix, a fly
genus in which oviposition sites may become covered with a mass of both flies
and eggs to a depth of several inches.
In the first account, by a Modoc Indian, the flies were called Ha-lib-wah,
and they were gathered early in the summer in the following manner:
The Indians would place logs across
the river in about the same manner that a present-day log or lumber boom is
constructed. Then they would go up
stream and shake the flies off the willow bushes growing along the banks of the
river. The flies falling on the water
would float down stream and lodge against the logs in great quantities. As many as a hundred bushels could be
gathered in this way in a single day.
The Indians used a kind of basket to dip the flies from the water and
carry them to the place where they were to be prepared for food.
Aldrich describes in detail the method of preparing the
flies in a pit lined with hot stones.
The
account given to Aldrich by a Pit River Indian, also referring to Modoc County,
California, was somewhat different:
[The flies would gather] near the
head of a small canyon through which flowed a small stream of water. . . some
time in the month of May, and could be gathered by the tons. The trees, bushes
and rocks were covered with them in places to the depth of five or six
inches. Hence it was no trouble to
gather them, for they could be scraped off the rocks and trees into great
heaps. . . The time of gathering them was in the cool of the morning when they
were all settled and too cold to fly. In the heat of the day the air would be
so filled with them as to exclude the sun and one could see but a short
distance.
The food was called "Why-hauts" by the Pit
River Indians, and a great deal of it was used as part of the winter food
supply. Their method of preparation,
described by Aldrich, was somewhat different from that of the Modoc Indians.
Essig (1931) made
several trips to the Pit River in an attempt to collect specimens and determine
the identity of the Atherix species reported earlier as food by Aldrich,
but he was not successful. Extensive
power developments may have altered the habitat sufficiently that the insect is
no longer abundant. He did find along
the river, however, "the California salmon fly, Pteronarcys californica
Newport, a plecopteran that emerges in enormous numbers during the month of
May" and "fairly swarms on the bushes along the streams" in the
area. "The adults could be shaken
from the bushes and collected in bulk as they readily float on the
water." This insect is used
extensively for trout fishing in the region, but whether it might be the insect
collected earlier as food can not be known with certainty.
Tipulidae (crane flies)
Holorusia rubiginosa Loew, larva
Tipula derbyi Doane, larva
Tipula quaylii Doane, larva
Tipula simplex Doane, larva
Essig (1931)
reported that larvae of Holorusia rubiginosa, which occurs in freshwater
streams, and several Tipula species, T. simplex, T. derbyi
and T. quaylii, are abundant in the late winter and early spring in
California and formed a ready supply of food when most other foods are scarce.
Crane
fly remains comprised 25% of a human coprolite recovered from Bamert Cave in
east-central California (Nissen 1973: 66-68).
Miscellaneous Diptera
Waugh (1916: 139)
cites DuPerron (1638-1639) that the Hurons made a porridge of corn meal and
water to which they sometimes added a handful of small gnat-like
"waterflies"; this they esteemed highly and made "feasts of
them."
Hemiptera
Belostomatidae (giant water bugs)
Lethocerus americanus Leidy, adult
Essig (1949), in
addition to several species discussed in his earlier papers as food for the
western Indians, mentions that the common waterbug, Lethocerus americanus
(Leidy), was and is still eaten by man.
Homoptera
Aphididae (aphids)
Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy) (= H. arundinis
Fabr.), honeydew
The
sweet honeydew exudations of aphids and coccids were called "Indian
honey" by the early whites in California (Essig 1931). It was particularly abundant on willows along
streams and on and under shrubs in the arid regions. Although this crystallized excretion was
widely used in the Great Basin, Sutton (1988: 73-76) considered
it a minor resource. For many years, as
shown by the earlier accounts following, the insect source of the honeydew was
not known.
Palmer (1871: 423)
discussed a sweet substance produced by or on bent grass (Arundo phragmites):
This species of reed, which grows
abundantly around St. Thomas, in Southern Utah, during the summer months,
produces a kind of white, sweet gum. The
Utah Indians cut down the reeds and lay them in piles on blankets or hides, and
let them remain for a short time to wilt, when the bundles are beaten with rods
to release the gum. The small particles
so detached are pressed into balls, to be eaten at pleasure. It is a sweet, manna-like substance.
Powell (1881: 44)
mentions "honey-dew" in discussing Indian mythology:
The next day he met the elder
brother and accosted him thus: 'Brother,
your words were wise; let the U-in-ka-rets work for their food. But how shall they be furnished with
honey-dew? I have thought all night
about this, and when the dawn came into the sky I sat on the summit of the
mountain and did think, and now I will tell you how to give them
honey-dew: Let it fall like a great snow
upon the rocks, and the women shall go early in the morning and gather all they
may desire, and they shall be glad.'
'No,' replied the elder brother, 'it will not be good, my little
brother, for them to have much and find it without toil; for they will deem it
of no more value then dung, and what we give them for their pleasure will only
be wasted. In the night it shall fall in
small drops on the reeds, which they shall gather and beat with clubs, and then
will it taste very sweet, and having but little they will prize it the
more.' And the younger brother went away
sorrowing, but returned the next day and said:
'My brother, your words are wise; let the women gather the honey-dew
with much toil, by beating the reeds with flails.'
Orcutt (1887) was
informed by a local rancher in northern Lower California that the sweet
substance formerly used by the Indians (of which there were now few) was
gathered from a low shrub which proved to be Rhus ovata. As described by Orcutt, "This curious
substance when rolled together in the hand would form little balls of about the
same consistency as the whitest of bees' wax; upon tasting, it was found to be
as sweet and delicious in flavor as the best of refined sugar."
Witherspoon
(1889) described the honey dew harvest by the Nevada Indians as follows:
Early in the morning the squaws and
children cut the tules and brought them to the shore in armfuls. They were then
spread upon blankets, pieces of old canvas or calico, and exposed to the sun.
In time the small drops of ‘dew’ crystallized by evaporation. When in the
proper state the tules were beaten with willow wands from which the bark had
been removed. This beating detached the particles of dew which fell on the
cloth beneath from which it was removed with great care.
Witherspoon notes that the arduous labors of the Indians
for such slight returns was evidence of the high value they placed on this
product. He states that he was informed by white men living near Honey Lake
that the lake derived its name from the honey dew.
Bidwell (1890: 126;
also 1928: 52), a pioneer in the Humboldt Sink area in 1841 stated:
We saw many Indians on the Humboldt,
especially towards the sink. There were
many Tule marshes. The tule is a rush,
large, but here not very tall. It was
generally completely covered with honeydew, and this in turn was wholly covered
with a pediculous-looking [louse-like] insect which fed upon it. The Indians gathered quantities of the honey
and pressed it into balls about the size of one's fist, having the appearance
of wet bran. At first we greatly
relished this Indian food, but when we saw what it was made of -- that the
insects pressed into the mass were the main ingredient -- we lost our appetites
and bought no more of it.
Coville (1892:
355), in describing the customs and foods of the Panamint Indians of Inyo
County, California (part of the Shoshonean family), provides the following:
Phragmites vulgaris, the
common reed, furnishes what is known as 'sugar.' In the early summer, commonly in June, when
the plants have attained nearly their full size, they are cut and dried in the
sun. When perfectly brittle the whole
plant is ground and the finer portion separated by sifting. This moist, sticky flour is moulded by the
hands into a thick gum-like mass. It is
then set near a fire and roasted until it swells and browns slightly, and in
this taffy-like state it is eaten.
Bolton (1919, II:
56), in the account of Father Kino in California, Arizona and Sonora, mentions
honeydew:
In order that sugar, which with so
great artifice and toil is made over here, may not be lacking to the
Californians, heaven provides them with it in abundance in the months of April,
May, and June, in the dew which at that time falls upon the broad leaves, where
it hardens and coagulates. They gather
large quantities of it, and I have seen and eaten it. It is as sweet as sugar to the taste, and
differs only in the refraction, which makes it dark.
Humorous
to this writer is the following excerpt from Father Kino (pp. 58-60):
All this fertility and wealth God
placed in California only to be unappreciated by the natives, because they are
of a race who live satisfied with merely eating. . . by nature they are very
lively and alert, qualities which they show, among other ways, by ridiculing
any barbarism in their language, as they did with us when we were preaching to
them. When they have been domesticated
they come after preaching to correct any slip in the use of their
language. If one preaches to them any
mysteries contrary to their ancient errors, the sermon ended, they come to the
father, call him to account for what he has said to them, and argue and discuss
with him in favor of their error with considerable plausibility; but through
reason they submit with all docility.
Bolton (1927: 153,
219), from the diaries of missionary explorer Fray Juan Crespi in California,
makes brief reference to receiving as gifts from the Indians the sweet dew that
sticks to the reed grass.
Woodward (1934)
draws from an 1859 newspaper article the information that the Chumash Indians
of the Tulare country, who came once a year to the Mission Santa Barbara for
trading, included among their wares "panoche, or thick sugar, made from
what is now called honey dew, and the sweet carisa cane, and put up into small
oblong sacks made of grass and swamp flags."
Concerning
sources of sweets among the California Indians observed during expeditions in
1769 and 1770, Fages (1937: 79) writes: "The juice of the reed grass (carrizo)
is obtained, after it has been harvested in season, by exposure to the sun for
four or five days, when it can be shaken from the leaves, coagulated, and
dried, falling like the manna of the apothecary shops."
Woodward (1938)
reviewed earlier literature relative to the "honey" used by
California Indians and concludes that it "was not the product of bees, but
was rather the exudations of sucking insects gathered by the tribesmen and
formed into cakes or stored in woven bags for home consumption and trade."
Harrington
(1945)
cites correspondence with B.R. Stuart regarding honeydew:
The Southern Paiute also had another
secondary supply of sweets which I have never read anything about. In the spring this native cane, which grows
in the river valleys and near springs, is attacked by a small white species of
Aphis. This aphis brings the sap out of
the cane-stalk and it hardens or crystallizes in small gobs in the air. The Paiute used to scrape these off, aphis
and all -- the more aphis in the gob, the better.
During
correspondence with Stuart, Harrington received a sample of the sugar (which
was somewhat aged) and states that it looked like maple sugar and tasted
something like malted milk. From Stuart,
Harrington learned that the tribal elders used the term pa gymph for the
sugar (literal translation, "water weed") which they took from
carriso cane growing in wet or marshy spots in the Muddy River valley. As related by an elderly Paiute woman, the
cane was cut and the bundles spread out to dry in the sun for a day. Then, while held over a hide, the canes were
beaten with a short stick to dislodge the pa gymph, which was rolled
into balls about the size of a turkey egg.
Early May was usually the time for gathering the sugar. The balls were wrapped in cane leaves and
stored in a basket for later use as needed.
Heizer (1945)
provides a valuable review of the earlier literature on sugar gathering in the
western United States, noting that the methods of gathering were similar even
in widely separated localities. The
common method was to cut the plants, allow them to dry in the sun, then beat or
thresh them to shake off the tiny droplets which were then gathered and pressed
into balls or cakes. According to Heizer's personal notes: "The Humboldt Lake Paviotso cut the cane
off carefully at the base in order not to loosen the sugar grains. Cutting took place in September or October
before the first rains which would dissolve and wash off the honey-dew. The cane was laid on tule mats and
threshed. The sugar fell off and the
resultant product was wind-winnowed to remove the small stem and leaf
particles."
In
researching early Mission records in California on the use of honey-dew by the
Indians and its adoption by the Fathers, Jones (1945) cites Pere
Picola who wrote in 1702: "In the
months of April, May and June there falls with the dew a kind of manna, which
solidifies and hardens on the leaves of reeds from which it is collected. I have tasted some. It is a little less white than sugar, but has
all the sweetness of it." Jones
mentions that some of the Fathers considered this "manna" as a
special dispensation from Heaven and that explorers and missionaries of the
time talked of cakes of sweet paste.
Jones credits Woodward (1938) with showing that the manna was not from
the sky and not from bees.
Jones was the first to report the
specific identity of the insect, the aphid, Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy)
(= arundinis (Fabr.)). It is
called the mealy plum aphid because it spends its winter phase on plum trees
and other species of Prunus (Jones cites Davidson [1919] for details on
the life cycle of the aphid). In the spring
and early summer it migrates to summer hosts, primarily reed grass, Phragmites
(= Arundo) communis, from which it sucks sap and secretes the
honeydew on stems and leaves where it crystallizes. Jones says that the reed grass is a tall reed
or cane that grows along streams and in lake margins and other moist
situations, and it is probable that all of the references to the host plant of
the aphid producing the honeydew used by Indians, whether as "tule,"
"canes," "reeds," or "carrizo," actually refer to
this species.
Jones
summarizes the activity associated with honey-dew collection as follows:
The gathering of the honey-dew seems
to have been one of the annual seasonal rounds of activity of the Indians of
the Great Basin. A family or band might
camp for a short time near a stream or lake when the honey-dew was ready. Piecing together various accounts of the
manner of collection gives a picture about as follows: The collection seems to have been primarily
the work of women and children. The
reeds were cut and carried away from the water.
Stuart suggests that the mescal knife might have been used in the
cutting. Cutting was done just after
sunrise, and the reeds were spread out to dry during the warmer part of the day
to dry the honey-dew and make it brittle.
During the afternoon the reeds were held over a hide and beaten with a
stick to dislodge the deposits of honey-dew which fell on the hide and could be
collected. In recent times blankets and
pieces of canvas cloth have been substituted for hides. The honey-dew was rolled into balls, wrapped
in leaves, and stored in baskets until needed.
According
to Jones, the practice of honey-dew collecting centered among the Paiute and
was delimited roughly by the boundary of the Shoshonean area of the Great Basin
and southern California, although there are some records indicating the
practice extended up the California coast among the Chumash, Salinan, and
Costanoan Indians and also a short distance into the southern Yokuts area. There appear to be no records of its use by
the Pueblos or their neighbors or by tribes of the Gila-Salt drainage. Some of the Yavapai and Cocopa are said to
have used honey-dew from willows and other plants but not from reed grass. Jones notes that saccharine foods were rare
in North America outside the maple-sugar region, and thus, when found, were
eagerly exploited even at great labor.
Thus, the energy exerted in collection of the honey-dew "suggests
that the product was highly prized."
Bye (1972: 91)
notes, relative to the Southern Paiutes and the reed, possibly Phragmites
communis Trin., that the "brownish-sugary substance with various
inclusions possibly represents accumulation of honeydew [earlier investigators
are cited]...The sweet conglomeration was eaten whole and was mixed with water
to make a beverage."
See
also Bolton (1927, gifts of honeydew from southern California Indians, Chalfant
(1922, honeydew as food of the Eastern Monos and Panamints), Drucker (1937, as
food of southern California tribes), Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes),
Gifford (1940, as food of Apache Pueblo groups in southwestern U.S.),
Harrington (1942, food of the Chumash and other groups along the central
California coast), Landberg (1965, food of the Chumash in southern California),
Steward (1933, food of the Owens Valley Paiute), and Voegelin (1938, food of
the Tubatulabal of California).
Cicadidae (cicadas)
Diceroprocta apache (author?), nymph and adult?
Magicicada (= Cicada and Tibicen septendecim
Linn. complex, nymphs. Other periodical
cicadas (Magicicada) in the complex include M. cassini Fisher, M.
septendecula Alexander & Moore, M. tredecim Walsh & Riley, M.
tredecassini A. & M., and M. tredecula A. & M.
Okanagana bella Davis, nymph and adult?
Okanagana cruentifera Uhler, nymph and adult?
Platypedia areolata Uhler, nymph and adult?
Although
there are numerous reports of the use of cicadas by groups in the Great Basin, Sutton
(1988: 53-55) notes that cicada consumption may be underrepresented in
the literature because of the confusion in terminology in which cicadas are
often called locusts. Although specific
species have not been identified in the ethnographic record, Sutton mentions
that species that are sometimes common in the Great Basin include the bloody
cicada (Okanagana cruentifera), the bella cicada (O. bella), the
orchard cicada (Platypedia areolata), and possibly P. lutea. The largest of these is O. cruentifera,
which measures about 32 mm in length.
After emerging from the ground and molting it takes about a day before
the adults are ready to fly. This is a
vulnerable stage for easy harvest.
Sutton concludes that cicadas were a minor resource because they didn't
occur each year and rarely occurred in large concentrations. Cicadas are among the few insect groups reportedly
used as food in the eastern part of the continent (e.g., see Collinson (1764),
Waugh (1916) and Carr (1951)).
Sandel (1715: 71;
vide Bodenheimer 1951: 285) reported on the cicada as a food of the
Indians. Collinson (1764),
in describing the emergence of the cicada in Pennsylvania, included among
general remarks that they are a repast of the Indians, who, after plucking off
the wings, boil and eat them.
Marlatt (1907:
102-104) quotes from correspondence to Dr. Asa Fitch from Mr. W.S. Robertson
that, "the Indians make the different species of Cicada an article of
diet, every year gathering quantities of them and preparing them for the table
by roasting in a hot oven, stirring them until they are well browned." Marlatt also notes that Mr. T.A. Kelcher who
sampled some of the cicada dishes described by Riley and Howard informed him
"that he found the cicadas fried in batter to be most palatable, and that
he much preferred them to oysters or shrimps." Marlatt concludes:
The use of the newly emerged and
succulent cicadas as an article of human diet has merely a theoretical
interest, because, if for no other reason, they occur too rarely to have any
real value. There is also the much
stronger objection in the instinctive repugnance which all insects seem to
inspire as an article of food to most civilized nations. Theoretically, the Cicada, collected at the
proper time and suitably dressed and served, should be a rather attractive
food. The larvae have lived solely on
vegetable matter of the cleanest and most wholesome sort, and supposedly,
therefore, would be much more palatable and suitable for food than the oyster,
with its scavenger habit of living in the muddy ooze of river bottoms, or many
other animals which are highly prized and which have not half so clean a record
as the periodical Cicada.
Marlatt conducted biological studies on Tibicen
septendecim (Linn.), having a 17-year cycle, and T. tredecim (Walsh
and Riley), with a 13-year cycle, but his discussion of cicadas as food does
not necessarily pertain only to those two species.
According
to Wyman and Bailey (1964: 42), cicadas were among
the few insects used as medicine among the Navaho and the only insects that
were ever used as food:
Most informants said that cicadas
were eaten only in 'the old days,' in their grandparents' time, perhaps when
food was scarce, but that children sometimes eat them now, that adults might
eat them because 'it is healthy' or 'for protection for being strong.' Usually the wings and the legs and sometimes
the head were removed and the body roasted in hot ashes. Other methods mentioned were to burn off the
wings and legs and salt the insects, to grind them with salt, to fry them, or
to eat them raw. The taste was likened
to peanuts, popcorn, or crackerjack; 'it has its own sugar.'
Wyman and Bailey (p. 43) provide the species identity of
several Cicadidae of the genera Beameria, Okanagana, and Tibicen
which were distinguished and named by the Navaho, but they do not indicate
which of the species were used as food.
Park
(cited in a 1986 presentation by C.S. Fowler; which is quoted here from Sutton
1988: 54) reported that the Northern Paiute at Pyramid Lake gathered
"Kta" which Fowler identified as a cicada, probably Okanagana
bella. They were gathered in the early
morning or evening, cooked in a small pit, and stored whole (minus the legs and
wings that had burned off) for winter use.
It was stated that the cooked cicadas tasted like "cooked
oysters" and would not spoil.
According
to Ebeling (1986: 368), cicadas, Diceroprocta apache, were
gathered in large quantities from saltbush by the Cahuilla, and were roasted
and eaten.
See
also Bean (1972, cicadas as food of the Cahuilla of southern California), Carr
(1951, as food of the Cherokee in N. Carolina), Chalfant (1922, food of the
Eastern Monos and the Panamints), Cowan (1865, food of North American Indians),
Cushing (1920, cicadas possibly a food of the Zuni), Fowler (1986, food of
Great Basin tribes),Lando and Modesto (1977, food of the Cahuilla), Malouf (1974,
food of the Gosiute), Merriam (1979, food of the Paviotso (Northern Paiute)),
Steward (1941, food of the Nevada Shoshoni; 1943, food of the Northern and
Gosiute Shoshoni of eastern Idaho and northern Utah), Stewart (1941, food of
Northern Paiute; 1942, food of the Ute-Southern Paiute) and Waugh (1916, as
food of the Iroquois).
Hymenoptera
Sutton (1988:
61-67) concluded that consumption of at least several genera of ants was
widespread in the Great Basin. Larvae,
pupae and adults were used; references to "ant eggs" most likely
refer to larvae and/or pupae. Ants were
easily stored and undoubtedly formed an important portion of the winter diet of
some groups. They also had medicinal and
ritual uses (which Sutton describes).
Bee and
yellowjacket larvae/pupae were fairly widely used in the Basin, but they appear
to have been a minor resource that was gathered incidental to other activities
(Sutton, pp. 69-72). Honey also was a
minor resource because the native species of bees do not produce appreciable
quantities.
Anthophoridae (digger bees)
See
Hrdlicka (1908, anthophorid honey a food of Tarahumare children.)
Apidae (honey bees, bumblebees)
Bombus appositus Cresson, larva/pupa
Bombus nevadensis Cresson, larva/pupa
Bombus terricola occidentalis Greene, larva/pupa
Bombus vosnesenskii Radoszkowski, larva/pupa
Essig (1931)
mentions that the larvae of wild bees were eaten raw by the Indians of
northwestern California. According to Palmer
(1871: 423), "The Winnebago and other tribes of the Indian Territory,
near the borders of Texas, gather large supplies of wild honey, which is very
abundant and much esteemed."
Muir (1911)
mentioned bumblebee larvae among the foods of the Digger Indians. Gifford (1940) mentions the use
of bumblebee and black-bee honey. Sutton
suggests several species of bumblebees that, on the basis of their abundance,
might have been eaten: the western
bumblebee, Bombus occidentalis, which is the most common species in the
western United States; the Nevada bumblebee, B. nevadensis; the mountain
bumblebee, B. appositus; and the yellow-faced bumblebee, B.
vosnesenskii, which are also common.
See
also Bean (1972, food of the Cahuilla), Downs (1966, food of the Washo in
California and Nevada), Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes), Myers (1978,
food of the Cato in northwestern California), Olmsted and Stewart (1978, food
of the Achumawi in northeastern California), Steward (1933, food of the Owens
Valley Paiute) and Stewart (1980, food of the Western Shoshone in Nevada).
Cynipidae (gall wasps, etc.)
According
to Carr (1951), the Montauk Indians of Long Island considered the
oak gall produced by a cynipid wasp a food delicacy. The spongy inside fiber
was eaten under the name "sour jigs".
Essig (1931) mentions that the galls of the cynipid wasp, Disholcaspis
eldoradensis (Beutm.), which often occur abundantly on the stems of oak (Quercus
spp.), secrete quantities of honeydew, but it is not known whether the
Indians made use of it.
Formicidae (ants)
Camponotus sp., larva, adult
Formica rufa Linn., larva/pupa/adult?
Lasius niger Linn., larva/pupa/adult?
Myrmecocystus melliger Forel, honeypots
Myrmecocystus mexicanus hortideorum McCook, honeypots
Pogonomyrmex californicus Buckley,
larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex desertorum Wheeler, larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex occidentalis Cresson,
larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex owyheei Cole, larva/pupa/adult?
Pogonomyrmex sp., adult
James (1823: 195-196) provided an account of the use of
ants:
A singular description of food is
made use of by some tribes of Snake Indians, consisting chiefly, and sometimes
wholly of a species of ant, (formica, Lin.) [possibly Pogonomyrmex owyheei,
according to Sutton 1988] which is very abundant in the region in which they
roam. The squaws go in the cool of the morning
to the hillocks of these active insects, knowing that then they are together in
the greatest numbers. Uncovering the
little mounds to a certain depth, the squaws scoop them up in their hands, and
put them into a bag prepared for the purpose.
When a sufficient number are obtained, they repair to the water, and
cleanse the mass from all the dirt and small pieces of wood collected with
them. The ants are then placed upon a
flat stone, and by the pressure of a rolling-pin, are crushed together into a dense
mass, and rolled out like pastry. Of
this substance a soup is prepared, which is relished by the Indians, but is not
at all to the taste of white men.
In New
Brunswick, some Malechites indulged in crushed black ants found in dead trees,
and considered them a medicinally beneficial tidbit in the spring (Carr 1951).
Palmer (1871: 426-427) states that:
This tribe [Diggers of California
and the Plains] also feed upon ants, catching them by spreading a dampened skin
or fresh-peeled bark over their hills, which immediately attracts the
inhabitants to its surface. When filled,
the cover is carefully removed and the adhering insects shaken into a tight
sack, where they are confined until dead, and are then thoroughly sun-dried and
laid away. Bushels are thus gathered
annually, and are not more offensive than snakes, lizards, and crickets, which
the tribe also eat.
McCook (1882:
30-33) sampled the flavor of the honey from honey ants while conducting
biological studies on the species, Myrmecocystus melliger, in
Colorado: "It is very pleasant,
with a peculiar aromatic flavor, suggestive of bee-honey, and quite agreeable
to me. Dr. Loew describes it as having
'an agreeable taste, slightly acid in summer from a trace of formic acid, but
perfectly neutral in autumn and winter.'"
McCook discusses the uses and commercial potential of the ants as
follows:
The uses to which the Mexicans and
Indians put this ant-honey are various.
That they eat it freely, and regard it as a delicate morsel is beyond
doubt. Prof. Cope, when in New Mexico,
had the ants offered to him upon a dish as a dainty relish. The Mexicans (Loew) press the insects, and
use the gathered honey at their meals.
They are also said to prepare from it by fermentation an alcoholic
liquor. Again, they are said (Edwards)
to apply the honey to bruised and swollen limbs, ascribing to it great healing
properties. Dr. Loew's suggestion to bee-keepers to test the commercial value
of these ants as honey-producers is wholly impractical. The difficulties of farming the colonies,
gathering the supply, and the limited quantity of the product, would prevent a
profitable industry. The greatest number
of honey-bearers in a large colony, taking my observations as a standard, will
not exceed six hundred, which counting six grains of honey to the ant, would be
little more than one-half pound avoirdupois.
Besides, the sentiment against the use of honey thus taken from living
insects, which is worthy of all respect, would not be overcome. The Mexicans and Indians will therefore
probably not be disturbed in their monopoly of the honey-product of the nests
of Melliger.
McCook,
in weighing six average-sized honey-bearers, found an average body weight
(without honey) of 0.048 g and an average weight of honey per ant of 0.394 g,
thus the weight of the honey was 8.2 times the weight of the body. Thus, it would require nearly 12 hundred
(1,166) ants to yield a market or avoirdupois pound.
Wheeler (1908)
quotes (pp. 371-372) from an 1875 publication by Saunders of observations made
by a Mr. Krummeck on the biology of Myrmecocystus mexicanus var. horti-deorum
McCook in the mountains around Santa Fe:
He does not think that the honey is
deposited by these honey ants in cells, as has been stated, but that they keep
the fluid in their bodies, and the workers feed from them, and that when the
honey in the sac of an individual is exhausted, it dies. In reference to the uses made of this honey
in New Mexico, he says that the natives make a very pleasant drink of it, which
is made in the proportion of three or four drachms of the honey to six ounces
of water. It has not commercial value,
is not brought to market, but simply made for their own use. They use this drink among themselves in the
mountains in cases of fever, where medical attendance cannot be obtained. The honey is also used by them as a cure for
eye diseases, especially for cataract.
Muir (1911:
45-46) describes how the Digger Indians of California are fond of both the
larvae and adults of a large (about 3/4 inch long), jet-black, woodboring ant [Camponotus
sp.?]. "They bite off and
reject the head, and eat the tickly acid body with keen relish."
Egan (1917:
228-229) described how an Indian woman collected ants and ant "eggs"
from a large ant-hill:
. . . taking a large flat basket
arrangement, pushed the top of the hill to one side and then scooped up about a
peck of ants, gravel, dirt and all.
Taking it to one side she spread on the ground a piece of flour sack,
then taking the pan or basket in her hands, gave it an up and down motion at
the side opposite from her. You ought to
see those ants roll over the side and fall on the cloth! But not a bit of gravel or speck of dirt went
with them. I have often seen the Squaws
cleaning grass seed or wheat the same way, only the wheat or seed was left on
the pan, and the chaff and dirt went over the edge.
In two or three trips to the ant-hill she had collected
about a quart of ants and "eggs."
Essig
(1934) mentions the use of ant larvae in California for food rather than for
medicinal purposes.
Reagan (1934a: 54)
states that "In the Deep Creek
country there is a large red ant [possibly Pogonomyrmex occidentalis,
according to Sutton 1988, p. 64] that makes a large bushy mound for a
home. In the old times the Goshutes used
to go to these ant hills and collect the ants and the ant eggs [larvae?] in a
basket, take them home and boil them into a soup which the people assured the
writer was a delicious dish."
Reagan
(1934b: 60) reports that the Indians in Wintey River country (Utah) had
been known, when pressed with hunger, to gather up crickets and ants, dry them
in the sun, pound them and make bread of them.
Peter
Skeene Ogden (Rich and Johnson (1950: 133, 139) observed ants
being eaten by Northern Paiute in Idaho in February, 1826; the ants were
collected early in the morning before thawing. According to Ogden, ants were
preferred over locusts as food because they were fatter. In March, 1826, when 10 inches of snow
covered the ground, Ogden encountered Northern Paiute who had nothing in their
hut but a small stock of ants and a few wild prickly pears.
Euler (1966:
113), citing from Thomas Brown's unpublished journal, notes that Southern
Paiute were observed eating matted and boiled ants in the mid-1800s. Stewart (1966:53) cites the
earlier report by Father deSmet on the eating of ants and grasshoppers by the
Ute.
Burgett
and Young (1974) analyzed repletes of Myrmecocystus mexicanus and
M. mimicus collected in Arizona and found sugars in the following
proportions: fructose 47-49%, glucose 42-44%, and maltose 7-8%.
Blackburn
(1976-1977) presents evidence that the Kitanemuk of California ingested ants
(accompanied with fasting) to produce hallucinogenic or mind-altering
effects. Ants were apparently used
similarly in some neighboring Indian groups, and a number of potentially
mind-altering substances have been isolated from ant toxins.
Hall (1977)
reported recovery of body parts of ants (probably Formica sp.) from two
coprolite specimens from Zone One (p. 7, Table 1) at Dirty Shame Rockshelter,
dated to between 400 B.P. and 1100 B.P.
Conway
(1977) studied repletes of the honey ant Myrmecocystus mexicanus
hortideorum McCook dug from nests in Colorado and found that color varies
from clear to a very dark amber, with the latter forming about 96%. Analyses of crop fluid showed that the dark
nectar contained more dissolved solids (53.6%) with glucose (18.7%) and
fructose (11.9%) predominant among identifiable solids. Only a trace of sucrose was found. Clear repletes, on the other hand, contained
only 1.0% of solids with sucrose (0.58%) predominant. The nectar from both clear and dark repletes
was acidic, with a ph of 4.5 in the former and 3.6 in the latter. In weight, dark amber repletes averaged 0.19
g, while a single clear replete weighed only 0.07 g. Dark amber nectar has the taste, smell and
coloration of cane molasses, according to Conway, while clear replete syrup has
no detectable taste or smell.
Considering the arid environment in which these ants live, it is a
reasonable assumption that the clear repletes serve simply as water-storage
vessels.
Honey
ant repletes are modified workers with greatly distended abdomens that hang
from specially constructed domed chambers.
In the case of M. mexicanus, the "conventional" workers
forage for nectar on summer evenings, return to the colony and regurgitate it
to the repletes. Conway observed workers
collecting nectar from reddish-brown galls on scrub oaks (Quercus gambellii)
and from the surface of green yucca (Yucca glauca) capsules, and
occasionally sipping honeydew from aphis on yuccas. The ants also brought dead arthropods to the
nest. Conway found the first repletes in
chambers 17-51 cm below the surface, but more commonly between 20 and 35
cm. The number of replete chambers per
nest ranged from 7-21 and they were found at depths down to 1.8 m.
A
species of honey ant that was probably eaten although there are no reports of
it is Myrmecocystus mimicus. The
abdomens of the repletes are "the size of blueberries," and there may
be 2,000 repletes in a colony of 15,000 ants, according to Holldobler (1984;
vide Ebeling 1986: 28-30), who studied the species in Arizona.
Ebeling (1986:
28-30) gives a brief summary of the life history of Myrmecocystus and
amount of honey produced, and reports (p. 180) that the Atsugewi "ate the
eggs of a red ant they called sinosita" which they dug from the
anthills and shook into a basket.
Sutton (p. 61) speculates
that genera and species which, from ecological considerations, were probably of
importance as food in the Basin included the red harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex
occidentalis, P. owyheei, P. desertorum, and P.
californicus, the former two of which are much larger than the latter
two. Other ants endemic to the Basin
include the red ant, Formica rufa, carpenter ants, Camponotus
spp., and the American black ant, Lasius niger. The honey ant, Myrmecocystus mexicanus
hortideorum occurs throughout the Basin and may have been used as food.
The
newspaper, The Sunday Oregonion of June 27, 1993, reported that
Paiute-Shoshone tribal members were considering whether to let the government
store its radioactive nuclear waste on their reservation, creating badly needed
jobs and economic growth. The reservation
is in a remote area along the Oregon-Nevada border. Ernestine Coble, 46, tribal council
chairwoman, who was quoted at length, believes that the old values are slipping
away and she would like to save the ones that remain. For instance, her grandmother would say,
"Well, we're going to have ant pudding.
You'd better get ready. We're
going to have to leave when the sun comes up." Eight-year-old Ernestine's job was to put on
warm clothing and to carry an empty coffee can.
They would hike around the res (short for reservation). Her grandmother would spot a mound, lift the
top like an old straw hat, and scoop out balls of cold-numbed ants. They were put into the coffee can and cooked
on the old wood stove. Ernestine said
that the ant pudding was not her favorite food, but it was a tradition and an
anchor to a world of power and solidarity.
From the article it can be calculated that the older generation of
Paiutes in Oregon were still eating at least some of their insect foods as
recently as about 1955.
From
ethnographic accounts, it appears that adult ants consumed were primarily the
workers (e.g., Kelly 1932, Reagan 1934, Steward 1941, 1943, Stewart 1942,
Voegelin 1942). The author has seen no
accounts from North America suggesting that winged males and females were
harvested, which is the case with many of the ants harvested on other
continents.
See
also Bean (1972, ants as food of the Cahuilla of southern California), Bequaert
(1922, food of N. American Indian tribes), Davis (1965, food of the Kuzedika
Paiute), Downs (1966, food of the Washo of California and Nevada), Elliot
(1909, food of the "Snake Indians" in Utah), Fladung (1924, food of
Shoshones), Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes), Frison (1971, Pogonomyrmex
charred fragments in late prehistoric Shoshonean lodges), Harris (1940, food of
the White Knife Shoshoni of Nevada), Heizer (1954, food of the Utah Utes),
Kelly (1932, food of the Surprise Valley Paiute; 1938, Northern Paiute tale of
ants), Lowie (1909a, food of northern Shoshone, 1924, food of the Lemhi
Shoshone), Malouf (1974, food of the Gosiute), Olmsted and Stewart (1978, food
of the Achumawi of northeastern California), Ray (1933, ants not eaten by the
Southeast Salish), Ross (1956, food of the Snake Indians), Shimkin (1947, food
of the Wind River Shoshone), Steward (1933, food of the Owens Valley Paiute;
1941, food of the Nevada Shoshoni; 1943, food of the Northern and Gosiute
Shoshoni), Stewart (1942, food of the Ute-Southern Paiute; 1980, food of the
Western Shoshone in Nevada), Strong (1969, food of the desert people), Voegelin
(1942, food of northeastern California Indians) and Waugh (1916, food of the
Iroquois).
Vespidae (paper wasps, yellowjackets, hornets)
Vespula diabolica Saussure, larva/pupa
Vespula pennsylvanica Saussure, larva/pupa
Vespula spp., larvae/pupae
According
to Daguin (1900: 14; vide Bodenheimer 1951: 292), wasp grubs and
pupae were eaten in South Carolina.
According
to Essig (1931), the larvae of yellow jackets, hornets and other wasps
were readily eaten raw by the Indians of northwestern California. To collect them, the nests were smoked to
subdue the adults.
To
obtain yellowjacket larvae, Garth (1953) reports, as summarized by
Ebeling (1986: 182), that:
The Atsugewi attached a white flower
to the leg of a dismembered grasshopper and used the leg as a bait. The flower helped them follow the flight of
any yellowjacket (Vespula) when it carried the bait away, thereby
locating its nest, which was in the ground.
The insects in the nest were killed by smoke from burning pine
needles. The nest, with its thousands of
larvae and pupae, was dug out and roasted over coals, first on one side and
then the other.
Sutton (p. 71) notes that
the most common yellowjacket in the Basin is Vespula pennsylvanica, with
V. diabolica also common.
See also
Barnett (1937, vespids as food of Indians on the Oregon coast), Beals (1933,
food of the Nisenan), Callaghan (1978, food of the Lake Miwok in California),
Carr (1951, food of the Cherokee in N. Carolina), Dixon (1905, food of the
Northern Maidu in the southern Sierra region), Driver (1937, food in the
southern Sierra Nevada; 1939, food of the Wiyot in northwestern California),
Drucker (1937, food of southern California tribes; 1941, food of Yuman-Piman
groups), Essene (1942, food of Round Valley, California groups), Fowler (1986,
food of Great Basin tribes), Gifford (1940, food of the Apache-Pueblo), Gifford
and Kroeber (1937, food of the Pomo in California), Harrington (1942, food of
the Chumash), Heizer (1954, food of the Utah Utes), Landberg (1965, food of the
Chumash), Levy (1978a, food of the Eastern Miwok; 1978b, food of the Coastanoan
in California), Muir (1911, food of Digger Indians), Myers (1978, food of the
Cahto in northwestern California), Olmsted and Stewart (1978, food of the
Achumawi), Powers (1877a, food of the Yokuts of California), Riddell (1978,
food of the Maidu and Konkow), Steward (1933, food of the Owens Valley Paiute;
1941, food of Nevada Shoshoni; 1943, food of Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni),
Stewart (1942, food of the Ute-Southern Paiute) and Voegelin (1942, food of
northeast California Indians).
Isoptera
Rhinotermitidae (subterranean termites)
Reticulitermes tibialis Banks
A
coprolite from Zone III and one from Zone IV of Dirty Shame Rockshelter in
southeast Oregon yielded parts of termites, possibly Reticulitermes
tibialis; the termites made up 78.3% of the coprolite from Zone IV (Hall
1977; 7).
Miscellaneous termites
Essig
(1934) mentions the use of termites from decaying wood in California.
Lepidoptera
The use
of caterpillars as food has been widely reported throughout the great Basin,
with the specific identity best established for two species of moths, the
pandora moth, Coloradia pandora (Family Saturniidae), and the
white-lined sphinx, Hyles lineata (Family Sphingidae). The food use of the pandora moth is
well-documented in California and much is known about its ecology. Populations
in Arizona have been estimated as high as 100,000 per hectare. The caterpillars were known as piagi, Pe-ag'-gah
(big fat ones, good to eat), and similar spellings, depending on the tribe, and
they were widely traded. Several
investigators have concluded that the pandora moth provided a significantly
greater return for effort expended than did plant resources.
Arctiidae (tiger moths, etc.)
Arctia caja americana Harris, larva
See Powers
(1877a). Powers reported two species
of "Arctia," but according to Arnett (1985: 605), A. caja
americana is the only North American representative of the genus.
Lasiocampidae (tent caterpillars)
Malacosoma spp., larvae
According
to Essig (1949), the hairy tent caterpillars of North America,
especially California, which were abundant in the spring, "were singed to
remove the hairs and roasted before the fire by the Indians." These caterpillars belong to the genus Malacosoma.
Megathymidae (giant skippers)
Megathymus yuccae Boisduval & Leconte, larva
According
to Ebeling (1986: 364-365), the fat larvae of giant skipper
butterflies, which develop in agave and yucca and are up to 2 inches long, were
often roasted and eaten as a delicacy.
The best known California species is Agathymus stephensi which
burrows in leaves of Agave deserti and pupates in a chamber near the
base of the leaf, after constructing a "trap door" through which the
adult can later escape. Throughout the
Southwest, giant skipper larvae were roasted and eaten by the Indians, and
Ebeling notes that one of the wide-ranging species in mountains and deserts is
the Navajo giant skipper, Megathymus yuccae navaho. Ebeling cites one use of agave which, though
not relevant to food, shows the intimate knowledge and ingenuity with which the
Indians made use of their resources:
"At the end of each agave leaf was a hard, needlelike thorn. If it was carefully detached, it came out of
the leaf with several feet of fiber attached to it. This made a natural needle and thread. Set into wooden handles with asphaltum, the
thorn could be used as an awl to facilitate basket making."
Noctuidae (noctuids)
Heliothis zea Boddie, larva
Homoncocnemis fortis Grote, larva
Spodoptera frugiperda Smith, larva
Barrett
(1936) describes an "army worm" used as food by the Pomo of
California. It's about 2 1/2 inches
long, almost hairless, feeds exclusively on ash, and appears in vast numbers
once every several years. The Indians
harvest the caterpillars by digging an ingenious and intricate system of pits
and trenches, the top edges of which they line with sand. The sand both helps to cause the caterpillars
to tumble in and then prevents them from crawling back out. According to Barrett, "It was really a
red-letter day in any Pomo community when this little caterpillar made his
appearance, and the Indians made this the occasion not only for an immediate
feast but they stored for winter use as large quantities as possible of the
dried caterpillars." The
caterpillars are killed by placing them in a vessel of cold water, where they
quickly drown. They are then roasted in
hot ashes or are boiled and are devoured on the spot or spread out to dry in
the sun for winter use. The male
caterpillars are called li'baiya, the females li'mata. Several hundred pounds could be gathered in a
day. The Northern Pomo apparently
collected this same species with great ceremony and solemnity, but that was not
the case with the central Pomo studied by Barrett.
Swezey (1978)
deduces that the armyworm reported earlier by Barrett (1936) was probably the
noctuid, Homoncocnemis fortis (Grote).
Swezey states, based on earlier accounts, that this species causes
outbreaks with attendent defoliation of ash trees (Fraxinus latifolia)
every 6-10 years. The Indians relished
these almost hairless larvae which they dried and roasted. One Indian woman was quoted: "And when they were good and dry, I used
to grab them and eat them. Gee, that was
good."
Ebeling (1986: 26) includes the larvae of the corn earworm, Heliothis
zea, and the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, among the insects
used as food by Indians of the arid areas of the West.
Saturniidae (giant silk moths)
Coloradia pandora Blake, larva, pupa
Hyalophora (= Platysamia; = Samia) euryalus
Boisduval, larva (See Essig 1958, Arnett 1985)
Aldrich (1912a) was
the first to call attention to the larva of Coloradia pandora as a food
of the Paiute Indians of California (although the species had not been
taxonomically described at that time).
Aldrich spent several days at Mono Lake, California, and the following
is extracted from his account:
While I was at the Mono Lake
post-office awaiting the departure of my stage, the postmaster, Mr. John
Mattley, an old Swiss pioneer of the basin who had taken a very intelligent
interest in my work, asked me, 'Have you seen the worms the Indians eat?' I
replied that I had not, but very much wished to do so. . . . He had two Indian
women working in his hay-field, both of them at the time standing about in the
road by the residence. 'Come with me,'
he exclaimed, and approached one of the women, asking her the question, 'Have
you got any of those worms on hand?' The woman grinned rather sheepishly, as if
expecting the subject to be a matter of ridicule, and said, 'No, all
gone.' 'But you had a lot yesterday,'
persisted Mr. Mattley. 'All gone,' was
all she would reply, so Mr. Mattley took me along to the other woman. She began with the same reply, but finally
admitted that there were some of the cooked ones still on hand. 'Show them to us,' demanded Mr. Mattley, and
she led us to her camp near by, where she laid back an old cloth and disclosed
a much-smoked three-quart tin bucket, nearly full of a yellowish,
greasy-looking stew. Considerably excited by the prospect, I picked up a little
stick and began to fish in the stew. It
was half full of large caterpillars, blackened by drying, resembling dried and
stewed prunes as much as anything. One of them I pulled in two and thrust a
half in my mouth to see what sort of food it was. I found it tough and flavorless, with an
insipidity beyond expectation on account of the absence of salt in the stew. .
. .
Aldrich
was informed to the effect, regarding harvest, that:
The caterpillars feed on the leaves
of the yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa), but not on the one-leafed pinon (Pinus
monophylla) which is much more abundant about Mono Lake. The Indians
collect the caterpillars by making a smudge under the tree, for which purpose
they make a trench rather close about the base of the tree; this is presumably
to guard against the spread of the fire.
As the thick smoke rises and envelopes the caterpillars, it causes them
to let go and drop to the ground, where they are collected by the Indians,
killed and dried. The preserved material
is called Papaia.
A Forest Service official in the San Francisco office
later informed Aldrich that, while inspecting a national forest at some
distance southeast of Mono Lake, he had observed a considerable area of
hillside in which every pine was surrounded by a trench in which there had been
a fire. From these observations, Aldrich
concluded that "the collection of this caterpillar for food is an industry
of considerable importance in the territory along the Nevada-California
line."
Aldrich (1921)
identifies the food called Pe-aggie by the Indians around Mono Lake,
California, as the caterpillar of Coloradia pandora Blake. The caterpillars are regarded as a great
delicacy by the Indians, and Aldrich reports (pers. comm. from G.S. Way) that
one multifamily group put up 1.5 tons of cured caterpillars during the summer
of 1920. Collection and preservation is
described as follows:
The first step in the collection of
the caterpillars is to make a trench about the base of each tree, the outer
edge of the trench as nearly vertical as possible. This is to keep the caterpillars from
straying away when they come down the tree.
The Indians go from tree to tree in the collecting season and pick them
up out of these trenches. The next
process is to kill and dry them. A large
mound of dry earth is made and a fire built about it. When it is thoroughly heated, the fire is
removed, the mound opened, the caterpillars thrown in and mixed with the hot
dirt. Here they remain an hour, until
partly cooked and dried. The Indians
then sift them out of the mixture with a specially made, cone-shaped sieve, so
that the insects are free from dirt. The
drying is finished by spreading them on the ground in bark huts for two days,
after which they are sacked and keep indefinitely in a cool, dry place.
The
life cycle of C. pandora requires two years, according to Aldrich, so pe-aggie
can be collected only every other year.
The foodplant is Pinus jeffreyi.
The eggs are laid in sheltered places in the bark in the latter part of
April. The larvae overwinter as
"balls" of caterpillars among the pine needles in the tops of the
trees. In the following summer, feeding
is completed by late June; the larvae descend the tree trunks, and, if they
escape the Indians, pupate in the soil.
In
describing serious injury to the yellow pine forests of eastern Oregon by the
larvae of Coloradia pandora, Engelhardt (1924) mentions
reports that "parties of Indians [Klamath] were assembling in parts of the
infested regions for the purpose of harvesting the living pupae which is done
by women and children armed with hoes and rakes." He continues:
"After gathering the pupae by bushels they are roasted and
pulverized and in that shape represent a welcome addition to the menu of Indian
food."
Engelhardt
reports that the lumberjacks were well-acquainted with the "pine-tree
worms," and "they related that during the feeding period in June and
early July the constant dropping of excrement made a noise like a sleet storm
and that a few weeks previous the tree trunks were literally alive with the
worms descending to enter the ground."
Ordinarily, the caterpillars are fairly common only every other year,
while large outbreaks occur at about 20-year intervals. Engelhardt continues:
Being too late to search for larvae,
we began to look for pupae in the ground below the trees and soon discovered
that these could be found easily and in untold numbers by simply combing with
one's fingers the loose, volcanic ash of which the soil was composed just below
the cover of pine needle mould. A scoop
of the hand was likely to produce 3 or 4 and in a short time we had an ample
supply. About 50 percent of the pupae
had been killed by parasites and bacterial diseases. A large mortality among the fully-grown
larvae was also indicated by the windrows of shrivelled-up specimens around the
base of trees. Chipmunks and other small
rodents and insectivores also no doubt account for a large amount of the pupae,
for their shallow excavations could be observed everywhere under the trees.
Engelhardt
describes a life cycle that is somewhat at variance with that described by
Aldrich:
The moths are not due to emerge
until August or early September of the next year following pupation; the eggs
are laid in masses, usually encircling twigs; the young larvae, hatching in
September, construct a slight webb, one for each colony, from which they issue
to feed but return daily and remain in it for hibernation when frost sets in;
this communal life is continued in the spring until the larvae are about
half-grown, when they scatter and become vagabonds; pupation takes place in
late June and during July.
Miller and Hutchinson (1928:
158-160), described harvest and processing of pandora caterpillars by the Monos
and Paiutes, relying mainly (as did Aldrich earlier) on first-hand observations
made by Forest Ranger G.S Way of the Inyo National Forest, California. The
authors state: "The Indians use them in stews, mixing them with potatoes
[a late introduction, as noted by Sutton] well seasoned with salt and pepper
[also a late addition], and serving them with bread made from pine nuts [Pinus
spp.] and sunflower [Helianthus sp.] seed." Note is made by the authors that, although
the practice has almost disappeared, it is the pandora pupae, not the larvae,
that are harvested by the Klamath and Modoc in southern Oregon. The pupae are known as
"bull-quanch."
Keen (1929: 78)
describes the use of C. pandora as follows:
The Pai-Ute Indians of the Mono Lake
region encircle the infested trees with a trench in which the caterpillars are
caught when they descend from the trees.
The caterpillars are then collected by the Indians, dried and ground
into a paste which is called Pe-aggie and is used as food. The pupae are egg shaped, over an inch in
length and of a dark red color; they are called "Bull Quanch" by the
Klamath Indians, who dig them out of the ground and relish them as food. During years of bountiful harvest, the young
Indians often become ill from a too hearty indulgence in the rich diet. Fortunately for the Indians and for the pine
trees as well, the heavy epidemics only occur at intervals of about thirty
years.
Spier (1930: 160,
227) states that insects are probably not a regular item of diet among the
Klamath, but that Gatschet records that women gather moth chrysalids [probably C.
pandora] in late August and September.
The ground is scraped up with a paddle to gather the chrysalids and they
are pit-roasted between layers of grass, with a covering of bits of bark and
earth.
Essig (1931)
states that many caterpillars were used as food by the California Indians, but
those of Coloradia pandora were the most extensively used. The moth occurs throughout the yellow and Jeffrey
pine belts of the West. Essig confirms
the two-year life-cycle reported by earlier writers. Eggs are laid in clusters on the bark in May,
June and July, and the young caterpillars appear in August, feeding on the
needles and often defoliating large areas of standing timber. They do not attain full growth until the
following June or July when they crawl or drop to the ground to pupate in the
soil. The adult moths emerge the
following spring. Harvest methods
described by Essig are similar to those described earlier, and Essig mentions
that the reservation Indians are still using this food.
Gifford
(1932:
22-23) notes that the acorns used by the Northfork Mono were more than 50%
wormy, but the wormy meats were not thrown out.
Earlier workers are cited relative to chrysalids (piagi) of the pandora
moth (Coloradia pandora) being eaten, after parching with coals in a
winnowing basket. Gifford states that
the Eastern Mono are reported to eat the caterpillars, while the Klamath Lake
Indians and Western Mono eat the chrysalids.
Regarding
the taste of pe-ag-gie, the stew made from larvae of C. pandora, Essig
(1934) says that hungry whites who tasted the food claimed that
boarding with the early Californians on the "American plan was not so
good."
Emma
Davis
(1964: 261; vide Sutton 1988: 38-39) suggested that small structures for
drying and storage were used to dry roasted piagi (pandora moth larvae),
although this interpretation has been questioned (see Weaver and Basgall 1986:
169).
Carolin
and
Knopf (1968) mention that, in collecting pandora moth larvae (the
Paiute tribe) and pupae (the Modoc and Klamath), the Indians must have effected
some direct control of this damaging pest in localized areas. The Paiute smoked the larvae out of trees
with smudge fires and caught them in trenches.
They were dried and cooked with vegetables in a stew called
"peage". The pupae were called
"bull quanch" and considered a delicacy.
Furniss and Carolin
(1977: 195), in discussing the biology and outbreaks of the pandora moth,
note its sporadic abundance limits its use as a food staple.
Bettinger (1982: 55)
discusses the nature of archaeological evidence of pandora moth harvesting
sites. Bettinger (1985:
43) states that insects were a useful supplementary source of food for the
Owens Valley Paiute and illustrated a loosely twined basket for caterpillar
collecting.
In
June, 1981, at Bishop, California, Fowler and Walter (1985)
observed elderly Paiute harvesting and processing pandora moth larvae, Coloradia
pandora lindseyi, or piagi. The larvae were harvested by hand that
season rather than by the frequently described trenching method. The authors accompany their report with a
series of excellent photographs. Their
description of the two-year life cycle is similar to the summary by Blake and
Wagner (1987) (see below). Their
description of harvesting and processing is the most detailed available and is
quoted nearly in full below:
Caterpillars are ordinarily
collected in trenches (odiabi) dug around the bases of trees selected
for their accumulations of caterpillar frass (Fig. 2). According to the elders, old trenches were
cleaned and new ones dug when the people first arrived at the harvesting
grounds. Old trenches take a person
roughly ten minutes to clean, 'if you get right at it.' The trenches were approximately one-third
meter deep and roughly one-third to one-half meter from the tree, and totally
encircled it. Cleaning takes the trenches
to the level of the old soil or just below.
All litter such as pine needles and twigs...was removed. The elders noted that trenches had either
vertical or back-cut walls to prevent the caterpillars from climbing out.
New trenches were made in the same
manner [as the old]. In former times a
wooden digging stick (woobi) was used for excavating the trenches. . .
The only social restriction placed on excavation of new trenches was that they
must be located in one's own family area.
Trenches were private property, usually inherited through the female
line.
None of the Owens Valley elders felt
that building fires around the bases of trees, as reported by [earlier
investigators] to smoke the caterpillars would necessarily bring them down
faster. 'They come down on their own,'
the elders said, and indeed in June, 1981, they were observed descending the
trees in large numbers.
Trenches were cleaned of
caterpillars twice daily and processing took place coincidently. During the 1981 harvest, caterpillars were
merely gathered from the ground at a rate of roughly 100 per 30 minutes (Fig.
3). In the past, the caterpillars were kept in the shade in open-twined
globular baskets (Fig. 4) or in a 'large pit'. . . while awaiting
processing. Today, plastic buckets serve
as well, as the caterpillars are prevented from climbing out by the slick
sides.
Processing begins in a sandy area
with the construction of a roasting pit about one meter in diameter. In the past, larger pits may have been used
depending on the catch. A conical mound
of sand is first made and then hollowed in the center. A fire is built to heat the surrounding
sand. The coals are removed and the live
caterpillars are then placed in the hollowed center of the pit (Fig. 5). They are mixed with the hot sand at the
bottom of the pit, covered, and left to roast for 30 minutes to one hour,
depending on what additional processing is planned.
After roasting, the caterpillars are
removed from the pit and sifted to remove the sand. An open-twined parching basket (paco)
was formerly used, now replaced by the ingenious device of willow, reinforcing
rod, and hardware cloth. . . (Fig. 6).
The roasted caterpillars are then washed and sorted. Any 'flat' (possibly diseased), overcooked,
or discolored caterpillars are discarded, in favor of nice, plump, yellow ones
(Fig. 7). Piagi to be eaten
immediately are boiled for roughly one hour in either salted or unsalted water,
depending on individual taste. Boiled
caterpillars are taken from the water and their heads removed. The results are enjoyed by all (Fig. 8). Caterpillars are eaten plain or made into a
stew with other meat and/or vegetable products.
The skins of the caterpillars are rather tough and they retain their
shape when cooked.
Caterpillars to be dried for storage
are placed in the shade for two or three days to two weeks. In former times, pole-and-bark drying sheds
were used, at least in some areas.
According to the elders, if the caterpillars are sun-dried they will
rapidly become rancid. In the opinion of
one individual, caterpillars boiled in salted water also would taste 'old' by
sometimes being cached at the harvesting grounds in the pole-and-bark sheds or
in pits. They kept well through the
winter, and with care into the spring and early summer.
The
authors conducted a proximate analysis of prepared piuga (roasted,
washed, boiled with non-iodized salt):
moisture 71.8%, protein 11.8%, fat 10.9%, ash 1.1%, and carbohydrates
4.3%. Calories/100 grams was estimated
at 163, and cal/hour worked at 1,848 - 2,753.
The authors consider the estimates of cal/hour returned for collecting
and processing to be probably low, but still nearly twice those of pinyon nuts
and considerably above values reported for most plant foods studied by Simms
(1984).
Data by
Schmid (1984) indicate the great abundance of the C. pandora
food resource. Schmid studied the
emergence and post-emergence behavior of the moth in Arizona, and estimated
that more than 100,000 adults emerged per infected hectare in 8,000 hectares
that had been moderately to severely defoliated by the preceding generation of
larvae. Miller and Wagner (1984)
reported that pandora moth larvae pupate beyond the dripline of the tree, where
the litter or duff layer is thinner. The
investigators speculate that pupation under open canopies where fuel loads are
light may be an adaptation that permitted higher survival during the frequent
low-intensity fires that were typical of the presettlement ponderosa pine
forest.
Ebeling (1986:
155-157) identifies several insects used or probably used by Indians. He notes that large outbreaks of pandora
moths occur only in areas of loose mineral soils, and gives a tip on how to
find pupae: "Likely areas for
digging for Pandora moth pupae are where one sees little tufts of pine needles
at the ends of otherwise defoliated twigs high in the larger trees. The larvae devour the needles and presumably
the tufts are growth that develops subsequent to their departure."
Noting
that many accounts of pandora caterpillar collecting and processing were not
based on firsthand observation and that misleading and often conflicting
information has accumulated, Weaver and Basgall (1986)
present a critical evaluation of discrepancies relating to collection trenches,
roasting hearths, storage structures, and smudge fires. Relative to the latter, the authors point out
that none of the first-hand accounts mentioned the use of smudge fires;
furthermore, modern collectors consistently express the opinion that smoke
would be of no help in bringing the caterpillars down. The authors conclude that systematic use of
smudge fires was unlikely.
Weaver
and Basgall also assessed the importance of pandora caterpillars relative to
regional subsistence strategies. It is
apparent that both the Mono Lake and Owens Valley Paiute regarded piagi
as a highly prized foodstuff. Based on
the fact that piagi has been shown to be fully competitive with
virtually all vegetal resources from the standpoint of energy (compare the data
of Fowler and Walter [1985] with those of Simms [1984]), piagi were more
predictable in terms of availability than originally thought (see discussion by
the authors), timing of caterpillar availability did not conflict with
scheduling of other important subsistence resources, they were storable and
collection territories were owned by particular family groups, the authors
conclude that piagi meet the criteria of a significant dietary
component. Finally, the authors discuss
temporal dimensions of piagi use and conclude that caterpillar
exploitation has considerable antiquity.
Blake
and
Wagner (1987) state that, "There are modern Indian people in
the United States, living within walking distance of major grocery and
fast-food chains, who choose to collect and eat larvae of the pandora moth, Coloradia
pandora lindseyi Barnes & Benjamin." Piuga is the Paiute name for the
larvae. The moth has a two-year life
cycle in east-central California, summarized as follows by Blake and Wagner:
Adults emerge from late July to
early August, mate, and the females lay their pale blue eggs indiscriminately
on bark surfaces, needles, and undergrowth.
Tiny first instars emerge from the eggs in late August and immediately
crawl to the tips of the branches and begin to feed in colonies. They overwinter at the base of the needles,
feeding only on warm days. Larvae resume
full-time feeding on the needles of their hosts in the spring when temperatures
are consistently warmer. The larvae grow
rapidly and consume an enormous quantity of needles (Carolin and Knopf 1968) of
all ages and can defoliate their hosts completely during an outbreak. Mature larvae are ca. 5.5 - 6 cm in length
and as big around as an adult's finger.
Blake
and Wagner cite recent research in saying:
"Pandora moth larvae pupate in the loose mineral soil beyond the
dripline of the tree...though pupae are sometimes found beneath the litter or
duff layer near the base of the tree. . . . Larvae crawl down the trees in late
June to early July and seek pupation sites.
Pupae remain in the soil until the following July, when adults emerge
and begin the cycle anew."
Piuga is regarded by the
Paiute Indians "as a tasty, nutritious food that is especially good for
sick people, much like our chicken soup," according to Blake and Wagner,
and many Paiutes said they "would eat piuga every day if it were
available." The authors also
describe collecting and processing, drawing largely, however, from Fowler and
Walter and Weaver and Basgall (see above).
Peigler (1994)
doubts that pupae of Hyalophora euryalus were eaten, at least routinely
(as reported earlier by Essig) "because of the power most groups
associated with the rattle made from these cocoons."
See
also Chalfant (1922, food of the Eastern Monos and the Panamint), E. Davis
(1963, 1965, food of the Kuzedika Paiute), J. Davis (1961, Eastern Mono trade
in C. pandora), Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes), Johnston
(1995, harvest and preparation of "peaggies"), Merriam (1979), Muir
(1911), Steward (1933, 1941), Stewart (1941), Strong (1969, food of the desert
people) and Zigmond (1986, food of the Kawaiisu). For Hyalophora euryalus
see Powers (1877a).
Sphingidae (sphinx or hawk moths)
Hyles lineata Fabr., larva
Manduca sexta Johannsen (= Macrosila carolina (author?)),
larva
Among
the Pimos Indians, tobacco worms, which are the caterpillars of Macrosila
carolina, are gathered and made into soup, or fried until crisp and brown (Palmer
1871: 426-427). Vegetables, meal, or
seeds are usually added if made into pottage. Palmer says that he has seen this
tribe gather bushels of the worms for immediate consumption, or to be dried and
pounded up for winter stores.
Wright (1884: 238;
vide Sutton 1988: 39) observed
"vast armies of caterpillars. . . huge worms three and four inches
long," which according to Feninga and Fisher (1978) were the white-lined
sphinx moth, Hyles lineata.
Wright describes their use as follows:
[A] small army of Indians [men,
women, and children] are out gathering them as though they were huckleberries,
for use as food. Seizing a fat worm,
they pull off its head, and by a dexterous jerk the viscera are ejected, and
the wriggling carcass is put into a small basket or bag, or strung in strings
upon the arm or about the neck, till occasion is found to put them into a large
receptacle. At night, these Indians
carry their prey home, where they have a great feast. Indians from a long distance came to these
worm feasts, and it is a time of great rejoicing among them. The larvae that are not consumed at the time
(and they eat incredible quantities), are put upon ground previously heated by
a fire, and thoroughly dried, when they are packed away whole, or pulverized
into a meal.
Simmonds
(1885:
355-356, 360-366, 370) discusses a number of insects used as food by North
American Indians, for only some of which he cites sources of information. The only insect use mentioned by Simmonds
that is not referred to under the appropriate authors in this chapter is the
use of what he called "tobacco worms," Macrosila carolina, by
the Pimos Indians. According to Simmonds
(p. 355), the caterpillars "are gathered and made into soup, or fried
until crisp and brown. Vegetables, meal,
or seeds are usually added to the composition when made into pottage. A writer in the official agricultural reports
of the United States records having seen this tribe gather bushels of the worms
for immediate consumption, or to be dried and pounded for winter use."
Russell (1908: 81)
states that the Pima (southern Arizona) gather large quantities of a
"worm" called ma'kum.
After removing the head and intestines, the worms are put into cooking
pots lined with saltbush branches and boiled.
The skins are braided together while soft, and allowed to dry for a day
or two in the sun. These dry, brittle
"sticks" can then be eaten at any time without further
preparation. Pima women claim that their
hands become swollen and sore if they come into contact with the skin of the
worms.
Spier (1933: 65,
73) mentions honey and caterpillars among the foods of the Maricopa, one of the
Yuman tribes of the Gila River. The
following is excerpted from page 73:
A worm, called 'ame' (more probably
a caterpillar, since it was said to have a horn on each end) was caught,
boiled, dried, and eaten. They caught
them in their hands in the spring and late autumn. There was a peculiar way of catching
them: with one hand they caught the
beast, broke off the end with the thumb nail, squeezed it out, and inserted it
between the other fingers of the same hand.
In some fashion they braided long strings of these, perhaps because the
'worm' coiled around its fellows. Then
they boiled and dried them. They were
eaten dried or boiled. Dried 'worms'
were also heated in warm water and fried.
The finger tips got sore gathering them.
Spier mentions that the caterpillars are said to travel
rapidly. He considered this to be the
same as the Pima ma'kum.
Feninga and Fisher
(1978), by analyzing earlier reports, confirm the identity of one of the
insects used by the Cahuilla as the caterpillar of the white-lined sphinx moth,
Hyles lineata. These authors
state that, “In researching this subject, it has become apparent to us that the
relatively uncharted field of ethnoentomology has considerable potential for
adding to existing knowledge of California Indian life.”
See
also Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes), Kelly (1964, food of the
southern Paiute), Lando and Modesto (1977, H. lineata), Powers (1877a,
food of California Indians).
Miscellaneous Lepidoptera
Childs (1953: 35)
mentioned that in living with and around the Sand Papago (along the U.S. --
Mexican boundary toward the Gulf of Mexico) and eating what they had to give,
there were two kinds of grubs which he "could not go." He describes only one: "One is those large army worms with a
large horn on their hind end. They get
very fat just before they bury up to become a butterfly. They roast them between two ollas, and cover
them with hot coals. They have a
beautiful smell as they are very fat when eaten, and there is considerable oil
that comes out of them. But to swallow
one I could not. . . ."
For
miscellaneous "caterpillars," see also Aginsky (1943, food of Central
Sierra Indians), Barnett (1937, food of Indians along the Oregon coast), Bean
and Theodoratus (1978, food of Western and Northeastern Pomo), Downs (1966,
food of the Washo), Driver (1937, food in the southern Sierra Nevada; 1939,
food in northwestern California), Drucker (1937, food of southern California
tribes; 1941, food of the Yuman-Piman), Essene (1942, food of Round Valley,
California groups), Fladung (1924, as food of Pai-Ute Indians), Fowler (1986,
food of Great Basin tribes), Gifford (1940, food of the Apache Pueblo groups),
Gifford and Kroeber (1937, food of the Pomo), Harrington (1942, food of groups
along the central California coast), Kelly (1932, food of the Surprise Valley
Paiute; 1964, food of Southern Paiute), Landberg (1965, food of the Chumash),
Levy (1978b, food of the Castanoan), Merriam (1979, food of Western Mono),
Myers (1978, food of the Cahto), Olmsted and Stewart (1978, food of the
Achumawi), Powers (1877a, food of California tribes), Steward (1943, food of
Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni), Stewart (1942, food of Ute-Southern Paiute),
and Voegelin (1942, food of the Modoc).
Odonata
Aeshnidae (darners)
Aeshna multicolor Hagen, nymph
Ebeling
(1986:
26) lists the nymph of the common blue darner, Aeshna multicolor, among
the insects used as food by the Indians of the arid regions of the West.
Miscellaneous Odonata
See
Hrdlicka (1908, food of the Tarahumare).
Orthoptera
Acrididae (short-horned grasshoppers)
Arphia pseudonietana Thomas, adult
Camnula pellucida Scudder, adult
Melanoplus bivittatus Say, adult
Melanoplus devastator Scudder, adult
Melanoplus differentialis Thomas, adult
Melanoplus femurrubrum DeGeer, adult
Melanoplus sanguinipes Fabr. (= M. mexicanus mexicanus
Saussure; reported as M. atlanis Riley by Essig 1931), adult
Melanoplus sp.
Oedaloenotus enigma Scudder, adult
Schistocerca shoshone Thomas (= S. venusta Scudder),
adult
One
needs only to briefly scan the numerous reports to concur with Sutton's
conclusion (1988: 11-22) that grasshoppers and locusts were widely used
throughout the Great Basin and were a very important resource.
Pattie (1831: 100)
encountered a group of "Grasshopper Indians" [apparently Ute,
according to Sutton] at the headwaters of the Arkansas River in east-central
Colorado. The Indians were said to
"derive their name from gathering grasshoppers, drying them, and
pulverizing them, with the meal of which they make mush and bread; and this is
their chief article of food."
Taylor (1859:
205-206) states:
The Indians take the grasshoppers in
great numbers by sweeping them into holes or piles, or by surrounding them with
fire and driving them into the centre, and afterwards roasting and pounding
them for food. But this is always found
to sicken the Indians -- a fact which has been noted by the pioneer settlers
and natives of old, as also by many travellers and voyagers who have visited
California and the Rocky Mountain country, and also by the Jesuits of Lower
California.
Taylor mentions (p. 209) "But the good counsels of
the missionaries, after their appearance in 1722, when this species of food
occasioned among them a great sickness, caused them to leave off using them,
though some of the neophytes still would eat them in the years when food became
scarce from their ravages in the sowings."
Essig (1931, p. 24) says, "There seems to be no foundation for the
supposition that grasshoppers sickened the Indians as related above, because not
only the American Indians but many other primitive races regularly consumed
quantities of these insects."
When Peter
Simmonds (1859; vide Ebeling 1986: 28) sampled grasshoppers that had
been prepared by "Digger" Indians by dipping them in salt water and
then pit-baking them for 15 minutes, he concluded, ". . . if one could
divest himself of the idea of eating an insect as we do an oyster or shrimp,
without other preparation than simple roasting, they would not be considered
very bad eating, even by more refined epicures then the Digger Indians."
Palmer (1871:
426-427) describes the collection of grasshoppers as follows:
By the Diggers of California and the
Plains grasshoppers are caught in great numbers. When the insect attains its best condition,
the Indians select some favorable locality and dig several little pits, in
shape somewhat like inverted funnels, the aperture being narrower at the
surface than at the base, the object being to prevent the insect which chances
to tumble in from hopping out again. The
pits being ready, an immense circle is formed, the surrounding grass is set on
fire, and the Indians, men, women, and children, station themselves at proper
intervals around the fiery belt, keeping up a continual ring of flame, until
the luckless grasshoppers are corraled in the pits or roasted at the
brink. They are eaten after being mixed
with pounded acorns, and constitute one of the national dishes. Grasshoppers are sometimes gathered into
sacks saturated with salt, and placed in a heated trench, covered with hot
stones, for fifteen minutes, and are then eaten as shrimps, or they are ground
and put into soup or mush. . . . Grasshoppers are pounded up with service,
hawthorn, or other berries. The mixture
is made into small cakes, pressed hard, and dried in the sun for future use.
Powell (1875; vide
Fowler and Fowler 1971: 48; vide Sutton 1988: 18-19) noted that grasshoppers
and crickets [probably Anabrus] were very important foods of the Utes:
Soon after they [grasshoppers] were
fledged and before their wings were sufficiently developed for them to fly
[late spring or summer], or later in the season when they are chilled with
cold, great quantities are collected by sweeping them up with brush brooms, or
they are driven into pits, by beating the ground with sticks. When thus collected they are roasted in trays
like seeds and ground into meal and eaten as mush or cakes. Another method of preparing them is to roast
great quantities of them in pits filled with embers and hot ashes, much in the
same manner as yant [Agave deserti or A. utahensis,
according to Sutton] is prepared for consumption. When these insects are abundant, the season
is one of many festivities. When
prepared in this way these insects are considered very great delicacies.
Powell (1875: 133
[1957 abridged edition]), referring to the Shivwits on the Rio Virgen, a
tributary of the Colorado River, wrote:
During the autumn, grasshoppers are
very abundant. When cold weather sets
in, these insects are numbed, and can be gathered by the bushel. At such a time, they dig a hole in the sand,
heat stones in a fire near by, put some in the bottom of the hole, put on a
layer of grasshoppers, then a layer of hot stones, and continue this, until
they put bushels on to roast. There they
are left until cool, when they are taken out, thoroughly dried, and ground into
meal. Grasshopper gruel, or grasshopper
cake, is a great treat.
Several
of the men with Edward Kern in 1845 near the headwaters of the Kern River in
the southern Owens Valley, after putting three Indians to flight, returned with
a small sack containing a dark chocolate-colored substance, which was
"very palatable with coffee." Kern
(1876: 483) states: "I have
seen the same dish among the Indians of California; it is prepared from roasted
grasshoppers and large crickets, pounded up, and mixed with, when procurable,
some kind of animal grease."
Hoffman (1878:
465-466) states:
Some of the tribes will adhere to
the most disgusting varieties of food, in spite of the partial advantages of
civilization with which they come in contact. . . . Some of the Shoshonees
obtain some food from settlements, but subsist chiefly upon what game and fish
they can secure in addition to lizards, grasshoppers, etc....Their mode of
preparing grasshoppers is in this wise:
a fire is built covering an area of from 20 to 30 feet square, and as
the material is consumed to coals and ashes, all the Indians start out and form
an extensive circle, driving the grasshoppers with blankets or bunches of brush
toward the centre, where they are scorched or disabled, when they are
collected, dried, and ground into meal.
With the addition of a small quantity of water this is worked and
kneaded into dough, formed into small cakes, and baked in the sand under a
fire. Generally ground grass seed is
mixed with water, baked, and eaten alone, but frequently it is mixed with this
insect flour, giving it a better consistence.
The Pah-Utes on the banks of the Colorado River use this sort of food
more generally than the Shoshonees. The
latter raise some corn, melons, and musk-melons, and store great quantities of
pinon nuts, when in season. . . .
Of the
Seviches and Hualpais, who "are as filthy in their tastes as the
Pah-Utes," Hoffman says: "The
fruit of several species of Opuntia, grass-seed, gophers, dried lizards,
grasshoppers, and other large insects are eaten with apparent relish."
Hutchings
(1888:
428-429) states that grasshoppers were considered a great food luxury by the
Indians: "These are eaten as meat
and cooked in various ways. Sometimes
they are caught, threaded on a string, and hung over a fire until they are
slightly roasted, then eaten from the string.
At others the grass is set on fire, which both disables and cooks them;
when they are picked up and eaten, or stored for future use." Hutchings continues:
The most effectual method for
securing grasshoppers, when they are abundant, is to dig a hole sufficiently
deep to prevent their jumping out; then to form a circle of Indians, both old
and young, with a bush in each hand, and commence driving them towards it until
they fall in, and are there caught. They
are thence gathered into a sack, and saturated with salt water [doubtful,
according to Essig (1931), except near saline lakes]; after which a trench is dug,
in which a good fire is built, and when it is sufficiently heated, the ashes
are cleaned out, a little grass put upon the bottom, when the grasshoppers are
put in, and covered with hot rocks and earth until they are sufficiently
cooked. They are then eaten in the same
manner as we eat shrimps; or are put away to mix with acorn or seed mush, when
they are ground into a kind of paste.
Mooney (1890:
259-260) reported that the Cosumnes tribe of California gathered grasshoppers
and cooked them in pits.
The grasshopper hunt was a great event
in Digger society, and was conducted in a very systematic manner. A whole
settlement would turn out and begin operations by starting a number of small
fires at regular intervals in a circle through the woods, guiding the flame by
raking up the pine needles, and stamping out the fire when it spread too far.
When the fires burned out there was left a narrow strip of bare ground
enclosing a circular area of several acres, within which the game was confined.
A large fire was then kindled at a point inside of the circle, taking advantage
of the direction of the wind, and allowed to spread unchecked. The men, armed
with bows and arrows and accompanied by their dogs, kept to the windward in
front of the fire and shot down the rabbits and other small animals as the heat
drove them from cover, while the women, with their conical baskets on their
backs, followed up the fire to gather up the grasshoppers, which merely had
their wings singed by the fire, but were not killed. As a squaw picked up a
hopper she crushed its head between her thumb and finger to kill it, and then
tossed it over her shoulder into the basket.
When the hunt was over, a hole about
two feet deep was dug in the earth and filled with bark, which was then set on
fire. When the heat was most intense the coals were raked out and the
grasshoppers thrown in and thus roasted. . . .
The Indians
sometimes ate grasshoppers alive, but first pulled off the legs.
From
Chittenden and Richardson's account (1905, III:
1032-1033), the famous French missionary, Father Pierre-Jean De Smet did not
regard the grasshopper-eating Soshocos too highly:
The Soshocos are the most degraded
of the races of this vast continent...They roam over the desert and barren
districts of Utah and California, and that portion of the Rocky Mountains which
branches into Oregon. I have sometimes
met with families of these wretched Soshocos; they are really worthy of pity. .
. . While the Indians of the plains, who live on the flesh of animals, are tall,
robust, active and generally well-clad with skins, the Soshoco, who subsists
chiefly on grasshoppers and ants, is miserable, lean, weak and badly clothed;
he inspires sentiments of compassion in the minds of those who traverse the
unproductive region which he occupies.
Chittenden
and Richardson describe the Soshoco grasshopper hunt (circa 1850) as follows:
The principal portion of the Soshoco
territory is covered with wormwood [sagebrush], and other species of artemisia,
in which the grasshoppers swarm by myriads; these parts are consequently most
frequented by this tribe. When they are
sufficiently numerous, they hunt together.
They begin by digging a hole, ten or twelve feet in diameter by four or
five deep; then, armed with long branches of artemisia, they surround a field
of four or five acres, more or less, according to the number of persons who are
engaged in it. They stand about twenty
feet apart, and their whole work is to beat the ground, so as to frighten up
the grasshoppers and make them bound forward.
They chase them toward the centre by degrees -- that is, into the hole
prepared for their reception. Their
number is so considerable that frequently three or four acres furnish
grasshoppers sufficient to fill the resevoir or hole.
The Soshocos stay in that place as
long as this sort of provision lasts.
They, as well as other mortals, have their tastes. Some eat grasshoppers in soup, or boiled;
others crush them, and make a kind of paste from them, which they dry in the
sun or before the fire: others eat them en appalas -- that is, they take
pointed rods and string the largest ones on them; afterward these rods are
fixed in the ground before the fire, and, as they become roasted, the poor
Soshocos regale themselves until the whole are devoured.
As they rove from place to place,
they sometimes meet with a few rabbits, and take some grouse, but seldom kill
deer or other large animals.
The contrast between the Indian of
the plain and the destitute Soshoco is very striking; but poor as he is, like
the Hottentot, he loves devotedly his native soil.
Lewis (1905-1907?:
181), cites De Smet in saying, "The Shoshone of the more arid regions
lived largely on grasshoppers and other insects, with a few rabbits, grouse,
and deer, and do not seem to have been averse to eating any kind of animal that
came their way."
Fynn (1907: 87)
makes passing reference to locusts as among the foods of the American Indian.
Fladung (1924: 6)
states that some North American tribes were in the habit of eating large
quantities of Rocky Mountain locusts.
In a
letter to the 1924 Pathfinder weekly paper, A.L. Gillis of Mt.
Pleasant, Iowa, wrote:
I saw an article in your magazine
about Indians eating grasshoppers. About
70 years ago my grandfather was agent for the Pawnee Indians on their reservation
in what is now western Nebraska. I have often heard my father, who was then a
boy, tell of those Indians eating grasshoppers and the interesting way in which
they caught them. They would dig a deep
hole in the ground and then, choosing a time when there was no wind and when a
fire would burn on the prairie slowly and could be kept under control, they
would encircle several acres around this hole with a ring of fire and drive the
hoppers into the hole and capture them by the bushel. They were then dried and ground into meal to
be mixed with their corn meal and made into bread.
Jensen (1930; vide
Madsen and Kirkman 1988) makes no reference to insects as food, but relative to
the Great Salt Lake, he states, "at times shifts of the wind blew clouds
of the grasshoppers out upon the lake, where they were drowned and washed in
upon the shores in great windrows, in some cases, pickled by the brine,
remaining several years" (see below under Madsen and Kirkman).
Essig (1931)
states that: "Grasshoppers were
held in the greatest and most universal favor.
They were always abundant in many parts of the state every year. They constituted a clean, nutritious, and
healthy food. The common method of
preparation was to roast them in the hot coals and ashes and then grind them
into a meal which could be made into a gruel or mixed with acorn meal into a
combination mush-gruel, or baked into a bread." According to Essig, the most abundant species
in the high mountain meadows throughout California is "the yellow-winged"
or "pellucid grasshopper," Camnula pellucida (Scudder), and
associated with it in northern California and the Sacramento Valley in large
numbers, were "the lesser migratory locust," Melanoplus atlanis
(Riley); "the red-legged locust," M. femur-rubrum (DeGeer);
"the two-striped locust," M. bivittatus (Say); and "the
valley grasshopper," Oedaloenotus enigma (Scudder). The dominant species in the western Sierra
foothills and the Sacramento Valley was "the devastating
grasshopper," Melanoplus devastator Scudder, while in the lower San
Joaquin Valley "the differential grasshopper," M. differentialis
(Thomas), occurred in abundance along the rivers and in marsh areas. In the more arid areas of southern California
and the foothills, "the large green valley grasshopper," Schistocerca
venusta Scudder, was abundant.
According to Essig, all of these species, and, probably, others, were
consumed.
Essig
relates as follows the observations of a relative of his who lived in the
Sacramento Valley during the early 1850s:
The method then used in that place
was to build a large fire which was reduced to a bed of coals. The Indians then formed a large circle and
drove the grasshoppers into the coals where they were soon roasted, removed and
eaten at once or preserved for the future.
In other places pits were dug in which the fire was built and into which
the grasshoppers were driven or deposited.
At times the insects were captured and killed and dried in the sun,
after which they were ground into a meal.
According to Reagan
(1934a: 54) it was alleged that the Goshute of Deep Creek country in
Utah “dried grasshoppers for eating."
Steward (1938: 34),
in his study of the Basin-Plateau tribes of eastern California, Nevada, Idaho
and Utah, mentions that grasshoppers and Mormon crickets were extremely
abundant in some years and could be taken in quantities that would last for
months.
Lowie (1939: 327)
reported the Washo boiled grasshoppers in baskets, and also cooked locusts in
the ground and dried them. A long-legged
insect also served as food. Lowie gives the Washo terms for these insects.
Morgan (1947: 255;
vide Sutton 1988: 13) described repeated grasshopper infestations in the Salt
Lake area in the 1850s and 1860s, many of the grasshoppers falling into the
lake and being washed up in long windrows on the shore (see Madsen and Kirkman
1988 for the food relevance of this).
Volney
H. Jones, in Burgh and Scoggin (1948: 94-99) reported that insect
remains recovered from a storage cist along the Yampa River on the Utah-Colorado
border were grasshoppers. The material, from a cache recovered during
excavations of Mantles Cave in northwestern Colorado, and dated to roughly
post-A.D. 650, were analyzed and found to be partly sand and partly insect
remains in a fairly comminuted state with a few scattered parts of leaves and
plant stems. Jones reports:
The insect remains are almost wholly
composed of grasshoppers of the first, second, third and fourth instars. All of those that could be identified belong
to the genus Melanoplus, and appear to be mostly of one species, though
there may be more than one. Most of them
are adult, and the majority are in the second and fourth instars. The bodies are finely divided, and the parts
are jammed together in the greatest confusion, legs sticking into heads, legs
clumped together, etc., as if they had been mashed or chopped or ground up into
a solid mass.
Other types of insects in the sample included
unidentified fly pupae, an ant, and a few beetles that were considered
intrusive. Jones concluded that the
material from the cache was a stored food supply.
Ogden (Rich
and Johnson 1950: 133-134), in February of 1826, observed Northern Paiute
in Idaho with grasshoppers and ants gathered and stored the preceding summer,
and which provide food for nearly four months of the year.
Orr (1952; vide
Madsen and Kirkman 1988) described a cache of grasshoppers that was recovered
from Crypt Cave along the lower Humboldt River.
Garth's (1953)
account is summarized as follows by Ebeling (1986: 182):
To gather grasshoppers, the Atsugewi
tied willows together to make a strip 30-40 feet long and tied dry grass to it
at intervals. They then set the dry
grass on fire, and two men ran across a grasshopper-infested field, carrying
the flaming line of willows between them.
Grasshoppers jumped into the flames and died; they were then easily
gathered. In the early morning when
grasshoppers were inactive because of the low temperature, they were knocked
off bushes into a burden basket with a stick.
Whichever way they were captured, the Atsugewi prepared them for eating
by cooking them in an earth oven for about an hour, then putting them away to
dry for two days. If stored, the dried
insects were ground up to prepare them for eating.
Gudde
and Gudde (1961) furnish a translation of Heinrich Lienhard's 1846
account of his westward trek from St. Louis to Sutter's Fort, including an
encounter with an Indian on the South Fork of the Humboldt River. Leinhard had requested the Indian to dig some
edible roots for him and he thoroughly enjoyed the yellowish parsnip-tasting
roots that were presented (pp. 132-133):
The Indian seemed to be pleased with
my confidence in him, especially since I seemed to enjoy the roots which he had
dug for me. Taking my stick away from me
again, he walked away quickly and dug diligently for more roots. As soon as he had a small quantity, he jumped
eagerly after some big grasshoppers, a few of which he brought back with him. He pressed one of the largest with its long,
leaping legs against a piece of root, opened his mouth, and moved his jaws as
though he were eating, although he wasn't.
Then he offered both grasshopper and root to me, just as one would offer
a piece of bread and butter to a child.
The Indian seemed surprised that this time I did not want to accept what
he offered. To convince me that he
wasn't expecting anything unusual of me, he himself bit off a piece of the
upper body of the forked grasshopper together with the head and a part of the
root. He chewed this meat vigorously
with the vegetable side dish, gesturing to show me how good it tasted. When he thought he had convinced me entirely,
he again offered this marvelous delicacy to me.
But in spite of his persuasive words without the use of words, I couldn't
be induced to follow his good example.
The expression on his face seemed to show that he felt sorry for me, and
I should not be at all surprised if he thought to himself that these white men
were quite stupid and didn't know what was really good. The remaining roots, however, I enjoyed
thoroughly, and since Thomen, who had just joined us, also found them good, the
Indian walked off once more and brought back quite a supply of them.
Graham (1965: 167) reported that
grasshopper parts were recovered from a human coprolite from Wetherill Mesa in
Colorado.
Bryant (1967
[1848]: 162-163, 168) describes, among encounters with the Utah Indians, an
occasion when three women appeared,
. . . bringing baskets containing a
substance, which, upon examination, we ascertained to be service-berries,
crushed to a jam and mixed with pulverized grasshoppers. This
composition being dried in the sun until it becomes hard, is what may be called
the 'fruitcake' of these poor children of the desert. No doubt these women regarded it as one of
the most acceptable offerings they could make to us. We purchased all they brought with them,
paying them in darning needles and other small articles, with which they were
much pleased. The prejudice against the
grasshopper 'fruitcake' was strong at first, but it soon wore off, and none of
the delicacy was thrown away or lost.
At the nearby Indian encampment, Bryant's party saw
large numbers of the grasshoppers, or crickets, being prepared for
pulverization.
Bryant
continues:
The Indians of this region, in order
to capture this insect with greater facility, dig a pit in the ground. They then make what hunters call a surround;
- that is, they form a circle at a distance around this pit, and drive the
grasshoppers or crickets into it, when they are easily secured and taken. After being killed, they are baked before the
fire or dried in the sun, and then pulverized between smooth stones. Prejudice aside, I have tasted what are
called delicacies, less agreeable to the palate. Although the Utahs are a powerful and warlike
tribe, these Indians appeared to be wretchedly destitute.
Further on, Bryant mentions that the Digger Indians had
a mixture of parched sunflower seeds and grasshoppers for exchange.
John
Wesley Powell (Fowler and Fowler 1971) provided a description of insect
collecting by the Ute/Southern Paiute:
Grasshoppers and crickets form a
very important part of the food of these people. Soon after they are fledged and before their
wings are sufficiently developed for them to fly, or later in the season when
they are chilled with cold, great quantities are collected by sweeping them up
with brush brooms, or they are driven into pits, by beating the ground with
sticks. When thus collected they are
roasted in trays like seeds and ground into meal and eaten as mush or
cakes. Another method of preparing them
is to roast great quantities of them in pits filled with embers and hot ashes.
. . . When these insects are abundant, the season is one of many
festivities. When prepared in this way
these insects are considered very great delicacies.
Smith (1974: 50-51) reported that the Uintahs, but not the
White River or Uncompaghres, ate grasshoppers, using willow sticks to knock
them to the ground after which they were put into a basket or sack. The legs were removed and the grasshoppers
were baked in a fire on the sand. After being cooked and cooled they were
ground on a flat rock. “They were so rich they would just eat a little bit at a
time. Take a pinch between your fingers and eat it. It was good.” Another
method was to cook them in a pit with hot stones.
Bitten
and Wilcox (1978), in summarizing grasshopper outbreaks in territorial
Utah make no mention of insects as human food, but they cite early reports of
grasshoppers being washed ashore in huge numbers along the shores of the Great
Salt Lake (pp. 344, 348). These
windrows, sometimes reported as two to six feet high, were in fact tapped as a
food resource by the Indians (see Madsen 1989 below). Bitten and Wilcox also mention (p. 347) that
chickens were helpful in eliminating pest insects in gardens and to a limited
extent on the farmlands.
Goldschmidt (1978)
mentions (p. 347) that the Nomlaki harvested grasshoppers by driving them into
a concentrated area and firing the grass.
Riddell (1978)
gives an excellent account of the foods of the Wadatkut Paiute in the Honey
Lake region of Lassen County, California, including their use of insects (pp.
51-52):
Late in the summer nishu (apparently
Mormon crickets) and kua (locusts), when they occurred in great numbers, were
gathered for food. Good places to
collect nishu were Secret Valley and in the vicinity of Doyle. They were collected by being scraped into a
container with the hands, or by being picked from sagebrush where they would be
clustered in great numbers. The
gathering had to be done early in the morning before the insects became warm
and active. After they had been gathered
a pit would be dug into the ground and a fire built in the pit. When the fire was reduced to a quantity of
hot coals, the insects were dumped into the pit and immediately covered with
earth. From time to time they were
sampled to see if they were done. When
cooked, the insects were uncovered and removed from the pit, and laid in the
sun to get perfectly dry. After drying
they were sacked for future use. Before
they were eaten, however, their heads and legs were pulled off and
discarded. The body was ground into a
flour with a mano and metate and eaten dry, or made into a soup which had a
flavor somewhat like that of dried deer meat (deer meat also could be ground
into a flour coarser than acorn flour, and made into soup). Flour made from nishu could be salted to
taste when eaten.
Kua were caught and their legs torn
off immediately, and then prepared in the same manner as nishu. The kua were caught wherever they were found
in sufficient quantities, and were simply picked from the brush, apparently
while cold and inactive in the morning.
Bryan (1979:
228), working in Smith Creek Cave in eastern Nevada, found grasshopper parts (Melanoplus
sp.) in dung layers dating back to about 2,100 years.
Noting
that Southern Paiute informants had told Kelley (1971) that they gathered
grasshoppers from rabbit brush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus), Ebeling
captured three species resting on this plant in October near Bishop in Owens
Valley, i.e., Melanoplus femurrubrum, M. devastator and Arphia
pseudonietana. Although these seemed
to be the only species readily evident at the time, Ebeling notes that there is
a seasonal succession that would have been available to the Paiute. Rabbit brush is abundant there, covering
miles of the valley floor.
Madsen
and Kirkman (1988) reported evidence from Lakeside Cave on the shore of
Great Salt Lake, that salted, sun-dried grasshoppers (Melanoplus sanguinipes)
that had washed up on the beaches were collected, then winnowed in the cave to
remove the sand before consumption.
Grasshopper parts, estimated from samples to be in the millions, were
concentrated in the lower five cultural units, strata deposited about 4500
years ago. Human fecal deposits were
associated with all strata where grasshopper parts were found and contained
oolitic sand and hopper parts as their principal components.
According
to the authors, the connection between beach and cave became obvious in the
summer of 1985, a grasshopper plague year, when they investigated a report of
"millions" of grasshoppers washed up on a nearby beach:
Windrows of grasshoppers that had
flown or been blown into the lake and which had been formed by wave action of
varying intensity into lines of salted and sun-dried grasshoppers stretched for
tens of kilometers along the beach. Up
to five separate windrows were identified in any one place and ranged in size
from a few centimeters wide to over 1.5m wide by 20 cm thick. Based on counts of two 1-liter samples, the
number of individual hoppers in these windrows ranged from an estimated 1,800
to 34,000 per meter. The windrows were
well sorted and contained virtually nothing but grasshoppers coated with a thin
veneer of oolitic sand. . . .
The
authors conducted several tests to determine the caloric return rate of
collecting grasshoppers from the windrows compared to collecting other local
food resources, principally plant resources.
Proximate analysis showed the sun-dried grasshoppers to contain 3,010
kcal/kg. The authors state:
Based on these figures, we believe the
return rates for grasshopper procurement around the Great Salt Lake greatly
exceed any other known 'collected' resource.
Return rates ranged from 41,598 kcal/hour for the smallest sample to
714,409 kcal/hour for the largest sample, with an average of 272,649 kcal/hour
for the five samples. Put more descriptively and assuming a daily caloric
requirement of 2,000 kcal, this means that, on the average, one person, in one
hour, could feed four people for more than a month. . . .
In view
of several uncertainties, to be conservative in comparing the caloric return
from collected grasshoppers to other collected Great Basin resources, Madsen
and Kirkman used only 1/10th the experimental grasshopper return; even at this
reduced rate, the grasshopper return for labor expended (27,265 kcal/hr of
work) was 16 times higher than the highest-ranking seed resource, 1,699 kcal/hr
for bulrush seeds.
Many
other observers have described the use of grasshoppers: see Aginsky (1943, food of the Central Sierra
tribes), Barnett (1937, food of Oregon coastal Indians), Beals (1933, food of
the Nisenan), Bean (1972, food of the Cahuilla), Bean and Theodoratus (1978,
food of the Pomo), Callaghan (1978, food of the Lake Miwok), Camp (1923, food
of the Paiute in southwestern Utah), Carr (1951, food of the Cherokee), Cowan
(1865, food of the California Digger Indians), E. Davis (1965, food of the
Kuzedika), J. Davis (1961, Chumash involved in grasshopper trade), DeFoliart
(1989, acridid species used), De Quille (1877, food of Northern Paiute), Dixon
(1905, food of the Northern Maidu), Downs (1966, food of the Washo), Driver
(1937, food in the southern Sierra Nevada; 1939, food in northwestern
California), Drucker (1937, food of southern California tribes), Elliot (1909,
food of the "Snake Indians"), Essene (1942, food of the Round Valley,
California groups), Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes), Gifford (1940,
food of the Apache-Pueblo), Gifford and Kroeber (1937, food of the Pomo),
Harrington (1942, food of the Chumash), Heizer (1954, food of the Utah Utes),
Hrdlicka (1908, food of the Tarahumare), Johnson (1978, food of the Yani),
Kelly (1932, food of the Surprise Valley Paiute; 1964, food of the southern
Paiute), Landberg (1965, food of the Chumash), Lando and Modesto (1977, food of
the Cahuilla), Lapena (1978, food of the Wintu), Levy (1978a, food of Eastern
Miwok; 1978b, food of the Costanoan), Lowie (1909a, food of the Northern
Shoshone), Malouf (1974, food of the Gosiute), Muir (1911, food of the Digger
Indians), Myers (1978, food of the Cahto), Olmsted and Stewart (1978, food of
the Achumawi), Powers (1877a, food of the Yokut and Konkau; 1877b, food of the
Northern Paiute), Ray (1933, not eaten by the Southeast Salish), Riddell (1978,
food of the Maidu and Konkow), Ross (1956, food of the "Snake
Indians"), Shimkin (1947, food of the Wind River Shoshone), Silver (1978,
food in Shasta territory), Steward (1933, food of Owens Valley Paiute; 1941,
food of Nevada Shoshoni; 1943, food of Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni), Stewart
(1941, food of Northern Paiute; 1942, food of Ute-Southern Paiute), Strong
(1969, food of the desert people), and Voegelin (1942, food in northeast
California).
Gryllacrididae (wingless long-horned grasshoppers)
Stenopelmatus fuscus Haldeman
Ebeling
(1986:
26) lists the Jerusalem cricket, Stenopelmatus fuscus Haldeman, among
the insects used as food by the Indians of the arid areas of the West.
Gryllidae (crickets)
Gryllus assimilis Fabr., complex
Essig (1931)
believes that Power's statement in 1877 that hallih or crickets were
used as food by the Nishinam of Placer County was in error as crickets are
scarce there while grasshoppers are abundant.
According to Essig, the black field cricket, Gryllus assimilis
Fabr., is very abundant, however, along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
Sutton (1988: 23)
notes that winged gryllid crickets of the genera Nemobius, Miogryllus
and Gryllus (= Acheta assimilis) are common in the Great Basin
and probably were used although none have been mentioned in the ethnographic
literature.
See also De Quille
(1877, food of Northern Paiute), Fladung (1924, food of Shoshones), Lowie (1909a,
food of northern Shoshone).
Tettigoniidae (long-horned grasshoppers)
Anabrus simplex Haldeman, nymph, adult
The
Mormon cricket, Anabrus simplex (actually a wingless tettigoniid
grasshopper), was a resource of major importance and was probably used by
virtually every group in the Basin (Sutton, pp. 23-32). Sutton cites historical accounts of the
plague proportions of this insect, frequently lasting for years on end, notes
the organized manner by which they were harvested (involving large numbers of people),
and concludes that it provided huge returns for the labor invested. Ethnographic accounts of groups (men, women
and children) spending days and considerable labor in the harvest preparation
certainly suggest that crickets were not an ephemeral resource taken on an
"encounter basis." The
crickets probably constituted a formal part of the seasonal round, and Sutton
states, "Hundreds or thousands of pounds of very high quality food for a
few days of labor would have been a wise investment, especially since the
resulting food was storable."
A
number of early writers make it evident that the Mormon cricket, Anabrus
simplex Haldeman (Orthoptera:
Tettigoniidae), was widely used as food by Indian tribes in the western
states. Domenech (1860, 2:
64; vide Sutton 1988: 30) noted collection and preparation of [Mormon] crickets
by the Ute Indians. Palmer (1871:
426-427) reported that various berries collected by the tribes in Oregon are
sometimes mixed, for variety, with the dried eggs of salmon or with crickets
[probably Anabrus], dried and pulverized. Glover (1872: 75) reported that
the Indians in Utah eat the crickets, generally roasted and pounded into a
course-grained meal. Parkman (1873: 208) stated that the
"Root-Diggers" turn the crickets "to good account by making them
into a sort of soup, pronounced by certain unscrupulous trappers to be
extremely rich." Thomas (1875: 904) reported that,
"This is the species eaten by the Indians.
Not only do they eat them after roasting, but often without any other
preparation than simply pulling off their legs and head."
Gottfredson (1874: 15),
in Thistle Valley (August, 1864) in the Sevier River drainage in the east
central Basin, described a relatively labor-efficient method of collecting
Mormon crickets by driving them into a stream:
"The squaws [placed] baskets in the ditch for the crickets to float
into. The male Indians with long willows
strung along about twenty feet apart whipping the ground behind the crickets
driving them towards the ditch. . . . [The crickets] tumbled into the ditch and
floated down into the baskets. . . .They got more than fifty
bushels." The crickets were
prepared as follows:
They had a lot of berries that they
had gathered before which they crushed with the crickets and made into loaves
the size of a persons head. They then
dug holes in the ground about eighteen inches deep and buried the loaves and
left them for about a month. . . . The berries they used were service berries
which were plentyful in the hills, and wild currants, both black and red that
grew along the creek, and some squaw berries and chokecherries.
(These cakes were widely known as "desert
fruitcake" according to Madsen and Kirkman [1988: 595].)
Around
the Great Salt Lake, about the time the first settlements were constructed in
1847, Lorenzo Young reported:
"The ground was black with black crickets; millions of them. . . .
an unusual number of Indians . . . gathered together . . . . were harvesting
them. . . . [they depended upon this food as one of their principle [sic]
supplies for winter use.]" (Anonymous
1884: 3-4; vide Madsen and Kirkman 1988).
In
Utah, Bancroft (1889: 262) states that: "The ground was covered with millions of
black crickets [Anabrus simplex] which the Indians were harvesting for
their winter food. An unusual number of
natives had assembled for this purpose."
Bancroft quotes from a manuscript (1847) by Lorenzo Young to describe
how the crickets were harvested:
The Indians made a corral twelve or
fifteen feet square, fenced about with sage brush and grease-wood, and with
branches of the same drove them into the enclosure. Then they set fire to the brush fence, and
going amongst them, drove them into the fire.
Afterward they took them up by the thousands, rubbed off their wings [?]
and legs, and after two or three days separated the meat, which was, I should
think, an ounce or half an ounce of fat to each cricket.
Young slightly overestimated the amount of fat per
cricket, as a whole dried Mormon cricket weighs only a little more than 1.0
gram, which is 1/28th of an ounce.
Coville (1897: 104)
reported that: "One curious use of
the plant [blueberry elder, Sambucus glauca], now rarely resorted to,
but formerly common among the Snake [Northern Paiute] Indians, consists of
punching out the pith from sections of the stem, ramming them full of large
crickets, Anabrus simplex Hald., and plugging the ends. The contents of the stems were used for food
in the winter."
Dried
crickets were observed as food in the Humboldt Sink in 1846 by Aram (1907:
628): "We came to an Indian
village, they came out in strong force but finding us friendly, they treated us
kindly. They were digging roots on a
creek bottom. They looked like a small
red carrot. They gave us some that were
cooked, they tasted like a sweet potato.
They also offered us some dried crickets but those we declined, thinking
they would not relish well with us."
Egan (1917:
228-233), in delightfully written first-person accounts of experiences in the
early West, confirms the use of ants by the Indians, and describes in detail a
Mormon cricket drive. The procedure was
basically to dig a series of trenches, each about 30 to 40 feet long and in the
shape of a new moon, cover the trenches with a thin layer of stiff wheat grass
straw, drive the crickets into the grass covering the trenches, and then set
fire to the grass. Egan mentions that he
thought they were going to a great deal of trouble for a few crickets. As the drive began, "We followed them on
horseback and I noticed that there were but very few crickets left behind. As they went down, the line of crickets grew
thicker and thicker till the ground ahead of the drivers [men, women and
children] was black as coal with the excited, tumbling mass of
crickets." After the grass had been
fired, Egan observed that in some places the trenches were more than half full
of dead crickets. "I went down
below the trenches and I venture to say there were not one out of a thousand
crickets that passed those trenches."
Once
the drive was over, the men and children had done their part and were sitting
around while the women gathered the catch into large baskets which could be
carried on their backs. Egan says, in
obvious admiration:
Now here is what I saw a squaw doing
that had a small baby strapped to a board or a willow frame, which she carried
on her back with a strap over her forehead:
When at work she would stand or lay the frame and kid where she could
see it at any time. She soon had a large
basket as full as she could crowd with crickets. Laying it down near the kid, she took a
smaller basket and filled it. I should
judge she had over four bushels of the catch.
But wait, the Indians were leaving for their camp about three or four
miles away. This squaw sat down beside
the larger basket, put the band over her shoulders, got on her feet with it,
then took the strapped kid and placed him on top, face up, picked up the other
basket and followed her lord and master, who tramped ahead with nothing to
carry except his own lazy carcass. There
were bushels of crickets left in the trenches, which I suppose they would
gather later in the day.
Egan
learned that the crickets were used to make a bread that was decidedly black in
color. They were dried, then ground on
the same mill used to grind pine nuts or grass seed, "making a fine flour
that will keep a long time, if kept dry."
His Indian companion said "the crickets make the bread good, the
same as sugar used by the white woman in her cakes."
Clayton (1921: 335)
reported that Brigham Young advised the company against giving guns and
ammunition to the Indians [the Utes?] because they would be used to shoot the
cattle, advising them instead to "let them eat crickets, there's a plenty
of them."
Henderson (1931:
13-14), in Utah, quoted from several earlier references to the Mormon cricket
as food, including from John Young who reported: "They (the Indians) kept on hand baskets
made purposely to put in the creeks to catch the loathsome insects as they
floated down the streams, and they caught them by the tons, sun-dried them,
then roasted them and made them into a silage that would keep for
months." Several authors are quoted
relative to the use of crickets and grasshoppers by the tribes in the Salt Lake
Valley. Henderson also quotes from an
article titled "Feasting on Crickets" in the September 1904 issue of
"The Improvement Era":
An echo of early times is reported
from Rush Valley. It appears that
millions of black crickets have appeared, coming from Death Canyon and Skull
Valley. Near Harker's Canyon the
mountains for miles about have been denuded of every vestige of green. The pests are headed towards Vernon. The Indians are gathering them to eat,
preserving them for winter use, while the coyotes have stopped killing sheep
and are feasting on crickets upon which, like the prairie chicken, they are
growing sleek and fat.
Leechman (1944:
451), drawing on an earlier report by Coville (1897), suggests that the tubes
described by Drews were used as receptacles for Mormon crickets or other food
stored for winter use.
Chamberlin (1950: 8-9)
gives a description by John R. Young of how the Indians collected Mormon
crickets when they were attacking Mormon farms in 1848 and the irrigation
ditches were often full of the insects:
"Baskets purposely made to put in the creeks to catch the loathsome
insects as they floated down the streams, and they caught them by the tons,
sun-dried them, then roasted them and made them into a silage that would keep
for months. Their skill in this
convinces me that the coming of the crickets had been continuous for
ages."
Whiting (1950:
17-19) reported that the Harney Valley, Oregon, Paiute gathered crickets: "About the fifteenth of July, families
began to congregate at Cow Creek, about five miles east of Harney. Families
from all over the valley and from the Hunibui Eater band to the north came to
gather crickets. The women went out
early in the morning and caught them, were back by sunrise, and spent the rest
of the day roasting, drying, and pounding them and putting them in bags to be
cached for the winter." Whiting
continues: "In the fall some of the
families went up to Canyon City, the men to hunt elk and the women to pick
huckleberries. During these wanderings
they were technically within the terrain of the Hunibui Eaters and Elk Eaters,
but inasmuch as these people wandered to the south to get crickets and
sometimes to get wada there was reciprocal exchange."
Wakeland (1959: 4)
relates that in 1890, northwest of Reno, Nevada, S.B. Doten (pers. comm. to
Wakeland, 1952) "stumbled onto a number of burlap bags filled with dried
Mormon crickets. He later saw Indians
grind these with dried grass seed in stone grinders and then make a paste which
they baked and ate."
Dillon (1966: 40)
mentions that the Indians near Mary's River (later called the Humboldt) brought
dried crickets into the camp, which they tried to trade for food.
Frison
and Huseas (1968: 22) found evidence of insect utilization in Leigh Cave
on the west flank of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. Charcoal from a hearth or roasting pit
produced a radiocarbon date of about 2220 B.C.
The authors state: "In and near this fire were the cooked remains
of several hundred large insects of the order Orthoptera and more commonly
known as the Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex). The context suggests that the cave occupants
were roasting these insects for food."
Olmsted
and Stewart (1978) reported that in northern California the Achumawi
Indians remembered the periodic plagues of Mormon crickets as times of
plenty. They roasted the insects and
formed them into cakes for storage.
Lanner (1981: 148)
quoted a Northern Shoshoni consultant on the historical collection of
unidentified crickets: "In the
spring we would collect lots of young crickets when they are young. We used to mash them and dry them between
stones and eat them in pine-nut soup.
That's very rich food."
Madsen (1989:
22-25) gives a more popular account of the grasshopper studies reported by
Madsen and Kirkman, and adds information from studies on the rate of return per
unit of effort expended in collecting Mormon crickets in the same area: Crickets were collected from bushes, grass,
etc., at rates of 600 to 1,452 per hour, an average of nearly two and one-third
pounds or, at 1,270 calories per pound, an average of 2,959 calories per
hour. The crickets often reached
greatest densities along the margins of streams or other bodies of water which
lie in their line of march and which they will attempt to cross. In two such situations, they were collected
at the rates of 5,652 and 9,876 per hour, an average of nearly 18 1/2 pounds of
crickets or 23,479 calories per hour.
The first number (2,959 calories per hour) surpasses the return rate
from all local resources except small and large game animals, while the latter
compares favorably even with deer and other large game.
Madsen
places cricket collecting in a modern context by saying, "One person
collecting crickets from the water margin for one hour, yielding 18 and
one-half pounds, therefore accomplishes as much as one collecting 87 chili
dogs, 49 slices of pizza, or 43 Big Macs."
He concludes, "Our findings thus showed that the use of insects as
a food resource made a great deal of economic sense."
According
to Jones and Madsen (1991), ethnographic and ethnohistoric data
suggest that A. simplex was the most commonly collected insect resource
in the eastern Great Basin. Collection strategies varied, but included driving
the crickets into trenches, brush corrals, or streams, or less efficiently,
picking them by hand. To determine the
range in return rates that might apply to the Mormon cricket, Jones and Madsen
conducted experiments in which two collecting methods were compared, picking
them from the ground and vegetation in mid-day when they were most active, and
collecting them in shallow water where they had concentrated in a 3 m wide band
of low Juncus along the margin of a small reservoir. The crickets were in a "near-adult
instar" and migrating in bands. Average weight per cricket was found to be
2.77 g, and analyses yielded energy values of 1212 cal/kg (live weight) and
3450 cal/kg (dry wt.). The lower energy
value was used in subsequent calculations.
In the
experiment involving picking crickets from the ground and vegetation, the average
return rate was 2245 cal/hour; in picking crickets from the water's edge, the
average return rate was 20,869 cal/hr.
In applying their experimental data to published reports pertaining to
quantities of crickets, the authors estimate that return rates sometimes may
have exceeded 100,000 cal/hr when mass-collection techniques were used. The above return rates did not include
processing time for consumption or storage, but they still place Mormon
crickets well above most other gathered food resources.
Many
other observers have also described the use of Anabrus: see E. Davis (1965, food of the Kuzedika
Paiute), Dixon (1905, food of the Northern Maidu), Fowler (1986, food of Great
Basin tribes), Frison (1971, food of the late prehistoric Shoshoni), Harris (1940,
food of the White Knife Shoshoni), Kelly (1932, food of the Surprise Valley
Paiute), Lowie (1909, food of northern Shoshone), Malouf (1974, food of the
Gosiute), Napton and Heizer (1970, in human coprolites, Nevada), Olmsted and
Stewart (1978, food of the Achumawi), Powers (1877a, food of the Nishinam;
1877b, food of the Northern Paiute), Ray (1933, not eaten by the Southeast
Salish), Reagan (1934b, food of the Utes in Utah), Riddell (1978, see under
Acrididae), Ross (1956, food of the "Snake Indians"), Shimkin (1947,
food of the Wind River Shoshone), Silver (1978, food in the Shasta territory),
Steward (1933, food of the Owens Valley Paiute; 1941, food of the Nevada
Shoshone; 1943, food of the Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni), Stewart (1941, food
of the Northern Paiute; 1942, food of the Ute-Southern Paiute), Strong (1969,
food of the desert people), and Voegelin (1942, food of northeast California
Indians).
Plecoptera
Ebeling (1986:
182-183) notes that some Indians used adult and nymphal salmonflies or
stoneflies as food: "In the spring
the Atsugewi picked up adult salmonflies from the banks of streams in the early
morning, before the wind arose. They
removed the wings and boiled the insects for eating. . . ."
Perlodidae
Isoperla sp., nymph, adult
Ebeling (1986: 26)
lists Isoperla (= Isoperia) sp. nymphs and adults among the
insects used by Indians in the arid regions of the West. The nymphs are aquatic, living in rivers, and
are omnivores or predatory.
Pteronarcidae (giant stoneflies)
Pteronarcys californica Newport, nymph,
adult
Sutton (1985, 1988:
50-51) suggests that the California salmonfly, Pteronarcys californica
Newport, may have been an important food resource for the Modoc, Wintu, and
Achumawi Indians along the Pit River in Northeastern California (see also
Aldrich [1912b] and Essig [1931] under Diptera:
Rhagionidae). Ebeling (1986:
26) indicates that P. californicus was eaten in both the nymph and adult
stages. Other species of the genus may
also have been eaten, such as the giant stonefly, P. dorsata Say, which,
according to Arnett (1985: 109) has a wing expanse of 70-106 mm. The eggs are laid in water, and the nymphs
are found in small brooks, streams and rivers where they live under stones or
other debris and feed on plant material for as long as three years. They then ascend emergent vegetation where
the molt to the adult stage occurs. The
adults are nocturnal, poor fliers, and do not feed. Sutton provides references to the biology and
distribution of the group.
DuBois (1935; vide
Sutton 1985) reported that the Wintu gathered salmonflies in the morning before
their wings were strong enough to permit flight. They were either boiled, or if plentiful
enough, dried for winter use. Sapir
and Spier (1943; vide Sutton 1985) reported that salmonflies were
washed up in great numbers from the river onto the willows along the bank,
where the Yana gathered, cooked and used them as food. Garth (1953; vide Sutton 1985)
reported that salmonflies were plentiful along the Pit River and Lost Creek,
and the Atsugewi obtained them in the spring, picking them by hand from the
banks in the early morning before the wind arose. The wings were removed, and the body was
boiled and eaten.
See
also Johnson (1978, food of the Yani), Lapena (1978, food of the Wintu), and
Olmsted and Stewart (1978, food of the Achumawi).
References Cited (An * denotes reference not seen in
the original)
Aginsky, B.W.
1943. Culture element
distributions: XXIV - Central
Sierra. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.
Rec. 8(4): 393-468.
Aginsky
studied the Central Sierra Indians including the Miwok, and more northerly
Yokut and Mono settlements. Grasshoppers
and caterpillars were widely used (pp. 397, 452). Methods used on grasshoppers by different
groups included: "Large basket,
sometimes more than 1, placed in clearing.
People circle and close in on basket, making noise and stamping on
ground to cause grasshoppers to jump into basket. Also build fence, toward which women chase
grasshoppers. Also soak in warm water and
eat"; "Driven into creek, picked up with basket and placed in hot
water"; "Catch by putting water in trench"; "Just burned
over ground and picked them up."
Caterpillars were: "Knocked
off of branches with sticks, and caught in baskets"; "Caught in trench";
"Picked off tree"; "Placed in hot water, boiled and, after water
squeezed out, eaten."
Aldrich, J.M.
1912a. Larvae of a saturniid moth used
as food by California Indians. J. New
York Entomol. Soc. 20: 28-31. (See
under Saturniidae)
Aldrich, J.M. 1912b.
Flies of the leptid genus Atherix used as food by California
Indians (Dipt.). Entomol. News 23:
159-163. (Rhagionidae)
Aldrich, J.M.
1921. Coloradia pandora Blake,
a moth of which the caterpillar is used as food by Mono Lake Indians. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 14: 36-38. (Saturniidae)
Ambro, R.D. 1967. Dietary-technological-ecological aspects of
Lovelock Cave coprolites. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Archaeol. Surv. Rpts. No.
70: 37-47.
The
author makes brief reference (pp. 39, 45) to insects in coprolite studies
related to those of Roust (1967) and suggests that insects were probably rarely
eaten in the vicinity of Lovelock Cave and Hidden Cave which are located in
western Nevada.
Aram, J. 1907. Reminiscences of Captain Joseph Aram. J. Am. Hist. 1: 623-632. (Tettigoniidae)
Arnett, R.H.
1985. American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico.
Florence, Kentucky: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 850 pp. (Arctiidae, Pteronarcyidae)
Bancroft, H.H.
1889. The works of Hubert Howe
Bancroft. Vol. XXVI. History of Utah, pp. 262, 279-281. San Francisco: The History Co., Publ. (Tettigoniidae)
Barnett, H.G.
1937. Culture element
distributions: VII - Oregon Coast. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol. Rec.
1(3): 155-219.
Barnett
reports (pp. 165-166) the use of parched grasshoppers, parched yellow-jacket
larvae, boiled caterpillars, and honey.
Barnett, H.G.
1939. Culture element
distributions: IX - Gulf of Georgia
Salish. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.
Records 1(5): 221-295.
The
author reports (pp. 236, 277) no use of insects as food by the Gulf of Georgia
Salish in British Columbia. All
informants denied the use of caterpillars or yellowjacket larvae as food. The latter were used, however, as a
"salve" and to "train" warriors.
Barrett, S.A.
1936. The army worm: a food of the Pomo Indians. In R.H. Lowie (ed.), Essays in
Anthropology Presented to A.L. Kroeber, pp. 1-5. Berkeley:
Univ. Calif. Press. (Noctuidae)
Beals, R.L.
1933. Ethnology of the
Nisenan. Univ. Calif. Publ. in Am. Arch. and Ethnol. 31: 346-347. [What is the total pagination of this
article?]
Beals
(pp. 346-347) reports that the Nisenan ate nearly all available foods, but,
although some mammals, birds and reptiles were avoided, no insect or
invertebrate was mentioned as having been avoided, nor any edible plant. Beals summarized invertebrate use as follows:
All classes eaten, including grubs,
earthworms. Latter brought to surface of
damp spots at certain seasons by pounding ground with club. Roasted by shaking on trays with hot rocks.
Yellowjacket (Epen, P) larvae
roasted similarly. Nests found by men or
boys with unusually keen eyesight who followed insects on clear, cloudless
days. Lizard meat exposed to attract
yellowjackets and leg of grasshopper, colored white, inserted in their jaws
while eating to make it easier to follow them to nests. Hunter waited until all insects in nest at
twilight, placed ignited tuft of pine needles in hole, blowing smoke down. When insects stupified, nest dug up. Sometimes whole nest roasted over coals,
eaten with acorn soup. Some specialized
in this work.
Hornet nests burned at night with
pine-needle brush on stick. Man near
Forest Hill attempted by daylight; died of stings.
Grasshoppers, E.ni (P) caught by
driving toward narrow-mouthed pits dug in open place. Each man dug own. Around each, straw or pine needles scattered
for 6-8 ft. Grasshoppers driven by beating up brush; hide in grass and pine needles. These ignited. Some grasshoppers killed and roasted by fire;
others fly in holes, removed in fine mesh bags, each handful squeezed to kill
insects. When roasted at home in basket
with hot rocks, turn red. Dried, usually
saved until winter when pounded fine, mixed with acorn soup.
In mountains large area sometimes
covered with about 3 in. pine needles in which insects hid, which then fired,
killing, cooking them.
Grasshoppers considered healthful
food, acquiring virtues of medicinal plants eaten. As more plentiful in valley and foothills,
traded to mountain people for black oak acorns.
Bean, L.J. 1972. Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern
California. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press, 201 pp.
Bean
(pp. 61-62), without referencing earlier literature, states that a large number
of insect and "worm" species were important foods of the Cahuilla of
southeastern California. Ant (?anet)
hills were dug up and the swarming ants were pushed into pits where they
roasted instantly on very hot rocks.
They were also boiled or parched.
Grasshopper (wi?it) swarms were common, and to harvest them, the
Cahuilla dug long trenches which they filled with heated rocks and sand. The grasshoppers were then scooped up and
pushed into the trenches. "Cricket
pupae [?] and cicadas (taciqal) also came in large numbers at times, and
were eagerly gathered and roasted as they, too, were considered
delicacies. After roasting they were
dried and stored for future use, to be eaten without further preparation or as
a condiment with other foods like acorn mush."
Bean
also mentions a worm called piyatem, "possibly an army worm,"
as a favorite treat of the Cahuilla. The
worms "appeared at the surface of the ground in abundance after warm
spring rains, and were collected in large quantities, prepared by parching, and
stored for future use." Their
arrival was celebrated by a first-fruit ritual as were those of other insects
and worms. Bean mentions that: "Wild bee larvae and honey were eaten in
historic times. The beehives of imported
honey bees were tended by the men and were individually owned. The honey was collected regularly, some
always being left for the continuation of normal beehive activity."
Bean, L.J.; Theodoratus, D. 1978.
Western Pomo and Northeastern Pomo.
In W.C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians
(R.F. Heizer, Vol. Ed.), 1978, pp. 289-305.
Grasshoppers,
caterpillars and larvae were among the animal foods of these Indian groups (pp.
290-291).
Bell, W.H.; Castetter, E.F. 1937. The utilization of mesquite and screwbean by
the aborigines in the American Southwest.
Univ. New Mex. Ethnobiol. Studies in the Am. Southwest Bull. 5,
pp. 22-23.* (Bruchidae)
Bequaert, J.C.
1922. The predaceous enemies of
ants. In: Ants of the American Museum Congo
Expedition. A contribution to the
myrmecology of Africa, W.M. Wheeler. Bull.
Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 45: 271-331.
Bequaert
(pp. 329-331) cites a number of references to the use of insects as food,
including the use of ants and other insects by certain North American Indian
tribes.
Bettinger, R.L.
1982. Archaeology East of the Range
of Light: Aboriginal Human Ecology of
the Inyo-Mono Region, California.
Monogr. Calif. and Great Basin Anthropol., No. 1, p. 55. (Saturniidae)
Bettinger, R.L.
1985. Native life in desert
California: the Great Basin and its
aboriginal inhabitants. The Masterkey
59: 42-50. (Saturniidae)
Bidwell, J. 1890. The first emigrant train to California. Century Mag. 19: 106-130.
(Ephydridae)
Bidwell, J. 1928. Echoes of the Past about California. (M.M. Quaife, ed.). Chicago, p. 52. (Aphididae)
Bitton, D.; Wilcox, L.P.
1978. Pestiferous ironclads; the
grasshopper problem in pioneer Utah. Utah
Hist. Quart. 46(4): 336-355. (Acrididae)
Blackburn, T.
1976-1977. A query
regarding the possible hallucinogenic effects of ant ingestion in south-central
California. J. Calif. Anthropol. 3(2): 78-81.
(Formicidae)
Blake, E.A.; Wagner, M.R. 1987.
Collection and consumption of pandora moth, Coloradia pandora
lindseyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae),
larvae by Owens Valley and Mono Lake Paiutes.
Bull. Entomol. Soc. Am.
33: 23-27. (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)
Bodenheimer, F.S.
1951. Insects as Human Food. The Hague:
W. Junk, 352 pp. (A source of
several references.)
Bolton, H.E.
1919. Kino's Historical Memoir of
Pimeria Alta. 2 vols. Cleveland:
Arthur H. Clark Co., Vol II, pp. 56, 58-60. (Aphididae)
Bolton, H.E.
1927. Fray Juan Crespi, Missionary
Explorer on the Pacific Coast 1769-1774.
New York: Ams Pres, 402 pp.
Among
the gifts presented by the Indians in
southern California was the honeydew from reed grass (pp. 153, 219).
Brewer, W.H.
1930. Up and Down California in
1860-1864. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, p. 417. (Ephydridae)
Brooks, G.R.
1977. (See under J.S. Smith.)
Browne, J.R.
1865. Washoe Revisited. Notes on the Silver Regions of Nevada. Oakland, Calif.: Biobooks, pp. 111-114. (Also in Harpers' Monthly 31: 274-284; 411-419.) (Ephydridae)
Bryan, A.L. 1979.
Smith Creek Cave. In The
Archaeology of Smith Creek Canyon, Eastern Nevada (D.R. Tuohy; D.L. Rendall,
eds.), pp. 162-253. Anthropol. Papers
No. 17. Nev. St. Mus., Carson City. (Acrididae)
Bryant, E. 1967. What I Saw in California...in the Years 1846,
1847. Palo Alto, Calif.: Lewis Osborne, pp. 162-163, 168. (Acrididae)
Burgett, D.M.; Young, R.
1974. Lipid storage by honey ant
repletes. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am.
67: 743-744. (Formicidae)
Burgh, R.F.; Scoggin, C.R. 1948.
The Archaeology of Castle Park, Dinosaur National Monument. Appndix III, Univ. Colorado Studies, Ser. in
Anthropology No. 2. Boulder: Univ.
Colorado Press, pp. 94-99.
See
Jones, V.H. (1948) under Acrididae.
Bye, R.A., Jr.
1972. Ethnobotany of the Southern
Paiute Indians in the 1870's: with a
note on the early ethnobotanical contributions of Dr. Edward Palmer. In Great Basin Cultural Ecology: A Symposium (Fowler, D.D., ed.), pp.
87-104. Reno: Desert Res. Inst. Publs. Soc. Sci., No. 8. (Bruchidae, Aphididae).
Callaghan, Catherine A.
1978. Lake Miwok. In W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 264-273.
The
Lake Miwok in California "considered roasted yellow jacket grubs a
delicacy, and grasshoppers were roasted and eaten" (p. 266).
Camp, C.L. 1923. The chronicles of George C. Yount. Calif. Hist. Quart. 2(1):
3-66.*
George
Yount noted (Camp, p. 39) that the Paiute in southwestern Utah ate
"grasshoppers and insects such as flies, spiders and worms of every
kind."
Carolin, V.M.; Knopf, J.A.E. 1968.
The pandora moth. U.S. Dept.
Agric. For. Surv. Pest Leafl. 114, pp. 1-7.
(Saturniidae)
Carr, L.G. 1951. Interesting animal foods, medicines and omens
of the eastern Indians, with comparisons to ancient European practices. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 41: 229-235.
Carr
reports that Cherokees living in the shadows of the Great Smoky Mountains of
North Carolina have a high regard for a number of animal foods including
locusts, grubs and other insects. Lottie
Jenkins provided the information that grubworms were formerly employed and that
they can be made into a delicious thick soup:
"She told that her husband once sat down to a meal of grubworm
soup, but had no knowledge of what he was eating. He thought the soup very good until his
Indian host advised him to 'dig deep and get grubs.' When he pulled up a fat grub, the thought of
it was too much; he was unable to finish the meal." The cicada, Tibicen septendecim, also
was a "choice delicacy" among the Cherokee who dug them up just when
they were ready to emerge from the ground.
The legs were removed, then they were fried in hot fat. They were so highly prized that during years
of abundance they were salted down and pickled for canning. The Cherokee even made pies from them. Roasted cornworms were another insect
delicacy of the Cherokee.
"Young" wasps and yellowjackets [grubs] were also eaten.
Also
see under Hymenoptera: Cynipidae.
Chalfant, W.A.
1922 [1933]. The Story of
Inyo. Copyright W.A. Chalfant, pp.
80-84.
Chalfant's
discussion refers primarily to the Eastern Monos (Owens Valley Piutes) and to a
lesser extent to the Panamints which were desert Indians. Among the foods of the latter:
Sugar substitute was secured from a
common reed, either by scraping a parasitic covering from the stems and leaves
and using it in crude form, or by cutting the plants, drying them in the sun,
crushing the material and sifting out the finer product. This was ground into a gum-like mass and
partially roasted. White men who saw it
say that the crude sugar was filled with small green bugs, a detail not
objectionable to the aborginal user.
According
to Chalfant:
. . . animals of all edible kinds
and some insects helped the larder, and very little of each was wasted. . . . A
favorite food was a large caterpillar known as pe-ag-ge. This delicacy is the larva of the Pandora moth,
Coloradia pandora. The moth is
brownish gray, each wing bearing a small black spot. Its eggs are laid in early summer in tree
bark; while the yellow pine is sometimes used for the purpose, forest men who
have observed the point say that the Jeffrey pine is almost exclusively chosen,
usually in a stand of its own species and not in a mixed collection of
trees. Egg laying is on the sunny side
of the tree, or on the side away from prevailing winds. Hatching occurs in August or September. The young caterpillars feed on leaves, moving
upward until in October they gather in clusters like bees on the higher
branches. Remaining dormant during cold
weather, they continue to grow when spring comes, and move earthward. They are from 1 1/2 to 3 inches long, and
half an inch or more in diameter. When
not destined to become food for Indians, birds or animals, they reach the
ground, burrow into it and there produce hard cocoons, and in the second year
of the life cycle they become moths.
The Indians prepare to receive the
caterpillars by surrounding each tree with a trench ten to sixteen inches deep
and approximately two feet wide, with an almost vertical outer wall. The caterpillars collect in quantities and
are scooped up, a single camp sometimes gathering a ton or more. The harvest was sometimes hastened by
building a fire under the tree, the smoke causing the caterpilalrs to drop.
Fires were made and earth and
peagges mixed with the coals in a mound.
When the mass cooled off, the caterpillars were sifted out and stored in
cool places for later use. When not
eaten in this baked condition, they were mixed in stews and eaten with pinenuts
and sunflower seeds.
. . . It is said that one of the
wars between Indians east of the Sierras and those on the western slope arose from
an expedition made by Piutes to secure breeding stock from worm orchards across
the summit. This credits them with a
foresight unusual in their affairs.
Some of the inland lakes, notably
Mono and formerly Owens, contain countless millions of the pupa of a fly, Ephydra
hians. The small shells cling to
rocks under water until they loosen and are driven ashore in great windrows,
where the women gathered them. They were
dried in the sun and the shells rubbed off, leaving a small yellowish kernal of
worm, which was used as food. This is termed "cozaby" by Indians with
whom the author has talked. . . .
Chalfant
also notes that, "Occasional invasions of the seventeen-year locust were
not unwelcomed, for plenty of quick-lunch material was thus made available."
Chamberlin, R.V.
1911. The ethno-botany of the Gosiute
Indians. Memoirs Am. Anthropol.
Assoc. Vol. 2, Part 5 (1964):
331-405.
Writing
of the Gosiute Indians of Utah, Chamberlin states (pp. 336-337):
An abundance of food was furnished
at times by the black cricket (Anabrus simplex), several species of
locusts, and the cicada. The crickets
often occurred in vast swarms, or 'armies.'
They were not only eaten in season, but were dried and preserved for winter
use in baskets or other receptacles covered in pits. A favorite method of cooking fresh crickets
was to place them in pits lined with hot stones in which they were covered and
left until thoroughly roasted. This dish
is really very palatable and is compared by the Indians to the shrimp, which
they accordingly term the 'fish cricket.'
Locusts were similarly prepared and preserved for winter use. The cicada was eaten not only after cooking,
but also fresh. Indian children may
still often be seen catching these insects, deftly removing head and
appendages, and eating them at once with evident relish.
Chamberlin, R.V.
1950. Life Sciences at the University
of Utah. Background and History. Salt Lake City: Univ. Utah, pp. 8-9. (Tettigoniidae)
Childs, T. 1953. Sketch of the "Sand Indians." The Kiva 19(2-4): 27-39. (Miscellaneous Lepidoptera)
Chittenden, H.M.; Richardson, A.D. 1905.
Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J.,
1801-1873. New York: Harper, pp.
1032-1033. (Acrididae)
Clayton, W.
1921. [1973 reprint]. William Clayton's Journal. A Daily Record of the Journey of the Original
Company of "Mormon" Pioneers from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Valley of
the Great Salt Lake. New York: Arno Press, p. 335. (Tettigoniidae)
Collinson, P. 1764.
Some observations on the cicada of North America. Philosoph. Trans.
54: 65-68. (Cicadidae)
Conway, J.R.
1977. Analysis of clear and dark
amber repletes of the honey ant, Myrmecocystus mexicanus hortideorum. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 70: 367-369.
(Formicidae)
Coon, C.S. 1948. A Reader in General Anthropology. New York:
Henry Holt and Co., pp. 46-49, 58-59, 267.
Contains
reprints in part of Dixon (1905), Egan (1917) and Steward (1938).
Coville, F.V.
1892. The Panamint Indians of
California. Am. Anthropologist 5
(o.s.): 351-361 (New York: Kraus Reprint Corp., 1964 reprint). (Aphididae)
Coville, F.V.
1897. Notes on the plants used by the
Klamath Indians of Oregon. Contrib.
U.S. Nat. Herbar. 5(2), p. 104. (Tettigoniidae)
Cowan, F. 1865. Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including
Spiders and Scorpions. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., pp. 99, 255.
Cowan
quotes (p. 99) Simmond’s Curios of Food, p. 304, which quoted the Empire
County Argus regarding the harvest and preparation of grasshoppers as food
by the California Digger Indians. Cowan cites (p. 255) Collinson regarding the
use of Cicada septendecim by North American Indians
“who plucked off the wings and boiled
them.”
Cowan, R.A. 1967. Lake-margin ecologic exploitation in the Great
Basin as demonstrated by an analysis of coprolites from Lovelock Cave,
Nevada. Rpts. Univ. Calif. Archaeol.
Surv. No. 70: 21-35.
Cowan
reports (pp. 24, 31, 33) that prehistoric dried human feces in Lovelock Cave
contained "insects," but they were of less importance in the diet
than in post-contact times.
Cushing, F.H.
1920. Zuni Breadstuff. Indian Notes and Monogr. 8, pp. 562-563.
Cushing,
who lived with the Zuni for five years and is sometimes quite euphoric in his
descriptions of Zuni foods and their preparation, mentions insects as follows:
Finally, most curious of all the
eatables of these motley meals, are parched locust-chry, or chum'-al-li. These insipient, though active insects are
industriously dug in great numbers from the sandy soil of the canon woodlands,
by the women, who go forth to their lowly chase, like berry-pickers, in merry
shoals. They are then confined in little
lobe-shaped cages of wicker, brought home toward evening, and at once both
cleaned and 'fattened,' by immersion over night in warmish water, of which, if
they be a lively lot, they absorb so much as to increase in individual bulk
before morning to more than twice their natural size. Then they are taken out and treated to a hot
bath in melted tallow, which causes them to roll up and die, after which they
are salted and parched as corn is, in an earthen toasting-pot, over a hot -
very hot - fire.
Cushing
continues: "Such a meal as this,
eaten as promiscuously as it has been described, is not to be seen every day;
but if one eliminate from it the locusts and other fancy dishes, retaining the
meat and bean-stews, he'-we, and some other varieties of breadstuff, he
will have the representative dinner, or evening meal, of every well-to-do Zuni
household almost every day (except during melon and green-corn time) throughout
the year." The mention of digging
by Cushing suggests that these "locusts" may actually have been
cicadas.
Daguin, E. 1900. Les insectes comestibles dans l'antiquite et
de nos jours. Les Naturaliste
(reprint), 27 pp.* (Vespidae)
Davidson, W.M.
1919. Life history and habits of the
mealy plum aphis. U.S. Dept. Agric.,
Professional Paper, Bull. No. 774.*
(Aphididae)
Davis, E.L. 1962. Hunter-gatherers of Mono Lake. The Masterkey 36(1): 23-28.
(Introduction)
Davis, E.L. 1963. The desert culture of the western Great
Basin: a lifeway of seasonal transhumance.
Am. Antiquity 29(2):
202-212.
Davis
emphasizes that "each local enclave exploited the full range of available
food products, hunting when possible, but concentrating on collecting and
processing of more reliable vegetal and insect crops. . . . Paiute who lived
near Mono Lake relied on pinyon nuts, on biennial harvests of pine-tree
caterpillars, and particularly on lake-fly larvae which washed ashore in
windrows along the margins of the lake."
Davis continues: "The Mono
Lake families took their group name, the Kuzedika or Fly-larva-eaters, from this
particular crop." She notes that,
in a good season, hundreds of pounds of caterpillars of Coloradia pandora
were collected, dried, and stored. After
the fly larvae, called kutsavi, had been collected, they were sun-dried,
husked, and stored in baskets.
According
to Davis, before the coming of the Europeans disturbed the varied ecosystems of
the highland area in the vicinity of Mono Lake, a great variety of animals was
found in meadow, wood and grassland, including rodents, hares and rabbits,
deer, antelope and mountain sheep.
Although the Paiute hunted, big game was not their staff of life. Relative to ethnological confusion occasioned
by the fact that different types of artifact assemblages occur at different
types of sites, Davis notes that:
"Projectile points are numerous on pinyon-grove sites where the
game moved seasonally, but are seldom found in the climax Jeffrey-pine forest
where caterpillar harvesting was a brief but full-time activity."
Davis, E.L. 1965. An ethnography of the Kuzedika Paiute of Mono
Lake, Mono County, California. Misc.
Papers No. 8, Univ. Utah Anthropol. Papers No. 75, pp. 1-55.
Davis
(pp. 12, 26, 29-33, 35) reiterates many of the points covered in her 1962 and
1963 papers, and adds more detailed information. She states, regarding the harvesting of Coloradia
pandora (p. 32):
When the 'hatch' began, families
went into concerted action. Trenches
were dug in circles around the bases of selected trees. . . to trap the
caterpillars, and the families worked together very much like Vermonters
sugaring off in a maple grove.
After the caterpillars started migrating
down the trunks, smudge fires were built under the trees to stupify the larvae
remaining in the branches. These were
picked up as they fell to the ground.
Meantime, the trenches, which had under-cut sides, filled with
caterpillars, which were also collected from time to time. Some were barbecued on willow sticks and
eaten at once. The rest were tossed into
hot ashes to kill them, then sun-dried and stored in fiber bags in the shade of
bark shelters. . . where they kept cool and dry. The caterpillars, being the feeding instar of
the creature, were very rich and greasy and therefore subject to spoilage. If the weather was favorable and the
gathering went well, a hard-working family could garner bushels of sun-dried
worms, shriveled and hard as twigs. Later on, these were added to soups and
stews, where the hot water plumped them out again. . .
Regarding
the harvest of the shore fly, Ephydra hians, Davis says (p. 33):
These kutsavi were a staple,
a delicacy and an important item of trade.
We were able to observe some of the process of preparing this food. The larvae, which are about the size of
grains of brown rice, had been dried on a canvas, the husks rubbed off between
the palms and then winnowed out by tossing in a tray in the breeze. The kutsavi were then more thoroughly
sun dried and stored in bags or baskets.
They have a novel but not unpleasant taste, like shrimp flavored with
Epsom Salts (the flavor of the lake water).
Like the caterpillars, they are extremely rich and required similar care
(and good luck) to prevent spoiling.
They were added to all manner of dishes -- berries, pa:pi or
pinenut gruel, soups and stews. Whether
the supply of this staple fluctuated in the past is impossible to say. Today,
the flies have disappeared almost entirely from the shores and only a scraping
of larvae are to be found.
Other
insects mentioned by Davis as foods of the Mono Lake Paiute include locusts,
[Mormon] crickets and ant brood.
Davis, J.T. 1961. Trade routes and economic exchange among the
Indians of California. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Archaeol. Surv. Rpts. No.
54, pp. 21, 28. (Need several pages
prior to p. 21 and also the first page of Table 1)
Davis
reports that the Chumash received grasshoppers from the "Interior"
(possibly the Mojave Desert or the San Joaquin Valley, according to Sutton
(1988), suggesting that these insects were involved in trade. Also, the Eastern Mono apparently conducted a
lively trade in pandora moth caterpillars and pupae, trading them to the
Central Miwok, the Tubatulabal, and the Western Mono. According to Davis, the Eastern Mono also
traded kutsavi (Hydropyrus hians) to the Central Miwok, the
Tubatulabal, the Western Mono, and the Washo.
DeFoliart, G.R. 1989. The identity of grasshoppers used as
food by Native American tribes. Food Insects Newslet. 2(3): 3, 5, 8.
Drawing
from the literature, primarily Essig (1931), the author lists eight species in
four genera.
DeFoliart, G.R. 1991. Toward a recipe file and manuals
on "How to Collect" edible wild insects in North America. Food
Insects Newslet. 4(3): 1, 3-4, 9.
(Acrididae)
DeFoliart, G.R. 1994.
Some insect foods of the American Indians: and how the early Whites
reacted to them. Food Insects Newslet. 7(3): 1-2, 10-11. (Acrididae)
De Quille, D. 1877. History of the Big Bonanza: An Authentic Account of the Discovery,
History, and Working of the World Renown Comstock Silver Lode of Nevada. . .
. Hartford, Conn.: American; San
Francisco: Bancroft, p. 284.
De
Quille describes an encounter with a Northern Paiute in Virginia City who
opined that grasshoppers and crickets are pretty good food but stated that
scorpions make him sick.
Dillon, R. (ed.).
1966. California Caravan: The 1846 Overland Memoir of Margaret M.
Hecox. San Jose, Calif.: Harlan-Young,
p. 40. (Tettigoniidae)
Dixon, R.B. 1905. The Huntington California Expedition. The Northern Maidu. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 17 (part
III): 183-184, 190. (Reprinted by Coon
1948).
Dixon,
reporting the results of ethnological studies on the Northern Maidu in the
lower Sierra region, says of their food habits:
Of animal food there was an
abundance. In the mountains, deer, elk,
mountain-sheep, and bear were plenty; while in the Sacramento Valley there were
great herds of antelope. Of smaller
game, rabbits, racoons, and squirrels were numerous. In addition to the animals mentioned, nearly
all others known in the region, such as the badger, skunk, wildcat, and
mountain-lion, were eaten. Only the
wolf, coyote, and dog were not used as food, and in the southern section the
grisly bear was also exempt. All birds
practically, except the buzzard, were eaten, ducks and geese in particular
being caught in hundreds at the proper seasons.
Lizards, snakes, and frogs were not eaten. Yellow-jacket larvae were, however, eagerly
sought, as were also angle-worms.
Grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets were highly esteemed, and in their
dried condition were much used in trade.
Fish of many kinds were to be had, salmon being caught in considerable
quantities in the early days. Eels were
a favorite food, and, dried, formed an indispensable part of the winter's
food-supply for the foot-hill and valley people. Shell-fish, such as mussels, were to be had
in some abundance, particularly in the Sacramento River. Salmon-bones and deer vertebrae were pounded
up and used for food; the salmon-bones being eaten raw, whereas the
deer-vertebrae, after pounding, were made into little cakes and baked.
The
above-described animal food abundance in the land of the Northern Maidu,
coupled with their esteem for insect foods, does little to support Hoffman's
suggestion that the Menomini did not use insects because of the food abundance
in which they lived. Dixon says further
of the insect foods:
Grasshoppers and locusts were eaten
eagerly when they were to be had. The
usual method of gathering them was to dig a large, shallow pit in some meadow
or flat, and then, by setting fire to the grass on all sides, to drive the
insects into the pit. Their wings being
burned off by the flames, they were helpless, and were thus collected by the
bushel. They were then dried as they
were. Thus prepared, they were kept for
winter food, and were eaten either dry and uncooked or slightly roasted.
Domenech, E.
1860. Seven Years Residence in the
Great Deserts of North America, 2 vols. London, Vol. II, p. 64.* (Tettigoniidae)
Dorsey, J.O.
1884. Omaha sociology. Bur. Ethnol., Smithson. Inst., 3rd Ann. Rpt.,
pp. 303-304.
Dried
fish, slugs, dried fish-spawn, dried crickets, grasshoppers and other insects,
among other things, were not eaten by the Omaha. If, however, "worms" infested the
corn they would be collected and pounded up with a small quantity of corn that
had been heated and the mixture used as a soup to drink.
Downs, J.F. 1966. The Two Worlds of the Washo. An Indian Tribe of California and
Nevada. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., p. 35.
Downs
mentions several kinds of insects in his discussion of the animal foods of the
Washo, a tribe centered around Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada. Periodically, when the locusts swarmed,
"The Washo always rallied to gather as many of them as possible. Sometimes the insects would be gathered in
baskets and roasted in the coals of a camp fire. At other times brush and grass was set on
fire and the insects driven by the flames into a ditch where they could be
gathered more easily. Dried and ground,
they produced a nutritious and long lasting flour to be mixed with other foods." Also, Downs says, "At certain times of
the year the common grasshopper appeared in great numbers. If a gatherer began early in the morning
before the hoppers became active in the growing warmth of the day, he could
pick them from the grass and bushes with ease.
These were usually roasted in pits.
The grasshopper could also be dried and ground into flour to be stored
against the winter."
According
to Downs, caterpillars were eaten whenever they appeared in sufficient numbers
to justify gathering them, and bee larvae were cooked and eaten. The Washo also often made long trips to Mono
Lake to collect the matsibabesha (the larvae of Hydropyrus hians). Although ants and "ant eggs" were
eaten by all of the neighboring tribes, the Washo stubbornly insisted that they
never used ants as food.
Drews, R. 1940. Peculiar wooden tubes from southeastern
Oregon. Am. Antiquity 6(1):
75-76.
Drews
describes hollow wooden tubes found during excavations. The tubes ranged up to
10 cm in length and up to 1.2 cm in diameter, but most were smaller. Leechman (1944) offers a possible explanation
as to their use.
Driver, H.E.
1937. Culture element
distributions: VI - southern Sierra
Nevada. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.
Rec. 1(2): 53-154.
Driver
(p. 62), working in the San Joaquin Valley region, found grasshoppers and
caterpillars "collected in trenches," yellowjacket larvae and
caterpillar pupae mentioned, but less frequently than in the area worked by
Drucker (1937).
Driver, H.E.
1939. Culture element
distributions: X - northwest California.
Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol. Rec. 1(6): 297-433.
Driver
(pp. 310, 376) records several insect foods from northwestern California,
including caterpillars (widespread), grasshoppers and yellow-jacket larvae
(somewhat less widespread), and caterpillars caught in trench. The Wiyot also ate wild-bee honey. The Matt smoked yellow-jackets out of the
nest with wormwood.
Drucker, P. 1937. Culture element distributions: V - southern California. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol. Rec.
1(1): 1-52.
Drucker,
using the cultural elements method of questioning (originated by Gifford in
1934), reports (pp. 9-10) widespread consumption of yellow-jacket larvae,
grasshoppers, dried caterpillars, and honey dew among southern California
tribes.
Drucker, P. 1941. Culture element distributions: XVII - Yuman-Piman. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol. Rec.
6(3): 91-230.
Drucker
(pp. 99, 165, 171) reported caterpillars and yellowjacket eggs as eaten by
several of 11 Yuman-Piman groups in western Arizona, extreme southern
California, and northwestern Mexico. All
informants denied that grasshoppers were eaten.
Drucker says of the Pima, "The ritual name of the caterpillars
means 'Shaman's ornaments,' suggesting some ritual importance of the
creatures." Said of the Yavapai,
"Big caterpillars were not so plentiful as in the regions in the west of
the Verde Valley," and of the Shivwits Paiute, "The people of the
tacai district got more caterpillars than other Shivwits."
Dubois, Cora.
1935. Wintu ethnography, Univ.
Calif. Pubs. Am. Archaeol. Ethnol. 36(1): 15.* (Pteronarcyidae)
Ebeling, W. 1986. Handbook of Indian Foods and Fibers of Arid
America. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press, pp. 5, 25-30, 79, 98-105,
154-157, 179-183, 364-368, 400.
(Miscellaneous Coleoptera, Cicadidae, Megathymidae, Saturniidae,
Acrididae and Tettigoniidae)
Egan, W.M. (ed).
1917. Pioneering the West
1846-1878: Major Howard Egan's
Diary. Richmond, Utah: Howard Egan Estate, pp. 228-233. (Formicidae, Tettigoniidae). The account of a Mormon cricket drive is reprinted
in Coon (1948: 46-49).
Elliott, T.C. (ed.).
1909. The Peter Skene Ogden
Journals. Quart. Oregon Hist. Soc.
10(4): 331-365.
In an
entry dated February 1826 (Elliott, pp. 354-355), Ogden refers to the
"Snake Indians" from north of the Great Salt Lake:
I had often heard these wretches
subsisted on ants, locusts and small fish, not larger than minnies, and I
wanted to find out if it was not an exaggeration of late travelers, but to my
surprise, I found it was the case; for in one of their dishes, not of small
size, was filled with ants. They
collected them in the morning early before the thaw commences. The locusts they
collect in Summer and store up for their Winter; in eating they give the
preference to the former, being oily; the latter not, on this food these poor
wretches drag out an existence for nearly 4 months of the year; they live
contented and happy; this is all they require. . . . [This account can also be
found in Rich and Johnson 1950: 133-134.]
Engelhardt, G.P.
1924. The saturniid moth, Coloradia
pandora, a menace to pine forests and a source of food to Indians in
eastern Oregon. Bull. Brooklyn
Entomol. Soc. 19: 35-37.
(Saturniidae)
Essene, F. 1942. Culture element distributions: XXI - Round Valley. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol. Rec. 8(1):
1-97.
Essene
(p. 4) studied the Round Valley, California groups, but his results regarding
insects are not clear. Caterpillars,
yellowjacket larvae, and grasshoppers are included in the list of animal foods
not eaten by anyone, but under the section of various hunting methods Essene
shows positive responses to the following categories: Caterpillar caught in trench; Leaves tied
around tree, which caterpillars feed on, and from which they are picked off by
hand; Caterpillars knocked off tree with stick; Only small hairless
caterpillars that feed on 'ash' trees are eaten; Yellowjackets smoked to stun
them; Grasshoppers killed by burning grass.
Essig, E.O. 1931. A History of Entomology. New York:
Macmillan, pp. 23-41. (Most
orders and families)
Essig, E.O. 1934. The value of insects to the California
Indians. Sci. Month. 38: 181-186.
Essig
mainly repeats in more general terms the information provided in his 1931
paper, although there is mention of the use of termites from decaying wood and
of ant larvae for food rather than for medicinal purposes. Also see Essig under the Introduction, and
under Saturniidae.
Essig, E.O. 1949. Man's six-legged competitors. Sci. Month. 69: 15-19. (Belostomatidae and Lasiocampidae)
Euler, R.C. 1966. Southern Paiute Ethnohistory. Univ. Utah Anthropol. Papers, No. 78,
pp. 112-113.
Euler
summarizes a long list of Southern Paiute foodstuffs reported in the previous
literature (including several insect references not consulted by this bibliographer. Insects included "cane grass candy"
or honeydew from Phragmites communis, grasshoppers, ants, fly larvae,
and honey. The Southern Paiutes also
engaged in agriculture in some areas, growing corn, squash, beans and
potatoes. Also see Euler under Formicidae.
Fages, P. 1775
[1937]. A Historical, Political and
Natural Description of California.
Transl. by H.I. Priestley.
Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press, pp.
22, 60, 79. (Aphididae)
Felger, R.S.
1977. Mesquite in Indian cultures of
southwestern North America. In
Simpson, B.B. (ed.), Mesquite. Its
Biology in Two Desert Scrub Ecosystems.
Stroudsburg, Pa.: Dowden,
Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., p. 163.
(Bruchidae)
Felt, E.P. 1918. Caribou warble grubs edible. J. Econ.
Entomol. 11: 482. (Oestridae)
Fenenga, G.L.; Fisher, E.M. 1978. The Cahuilla use of Piyatem, larvae of
the white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata), as food. J. Calif. Anthropol. 5(1): 84-90. (Sphingidae)
Fladung, E.B.
1924. Insects as food. Maryland Acad. Sci. Bull., Oct. 1924, pp.
5-8.
Fladung
mentions insects used as food by a number of North American tribes, including
grasshoppers, crickets, ants and miscellaneous caterpillars.
Fowler, Catharine S. 1986. Subsistence. In
Handbook of North American Indians. Vol.
11, Great Basin (W.L. d'Azevedo, ed.), pp. 64-97 (Table 5).
Fowler
(pp. 88, 90-91) reported that among insects, the most widespread use was of
caterpillars, cicadas, Mormon crickets and “ant eggs”; specific technologies
were developed for harvesting some of the insects. Fowler (p. 92, Table 5)
lists tribes known to use the different insects or insect groups:
Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex): Washoe, Nev.
Northern Paiute,Western Shoshone, Northern Shoshone, Bannock, Utah
Southern Paiute, Western Ute, Southern
Ute, Northern Ute
Grasshoppers: Washoe, Western Shoshone, Northern Ute,
Southern Ute
Pandora moth larvae (Coloradia Pandora): Owens
Valley Paiute, Nev. Northern Paiute
White-lined sphinx moth larvae (Hyles lineata): Washoe,
Nev. Northern Paiute, Nev. and Utah Southern Paiute, Western
Shoshone, Western Ute
Caterpillars: Nev. Northern Paiute, Washoe, Western
Shoshone, Northern Shoshone?, Utah Southern
Paiute,Western Ute, Northern Ute, Southern Ute
Bee larvae, often Vespula diabolica (yellow
jacket [a wasp actually]): Washoe, Nev. Northern Paiute, Western Shoshone, Northern Shoshone,
Southern Ute
Ants and ant larvae: Nev. Northern Paiute, Western
Shoshone, Nev. Southern Paiute, Northern Shoshone, Bannock, Northern
Ute, Western Ute
Cicada (Diceroprocta spp.): Panamint, Nev.
Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi
Cicada (Okanagodes spp.): Washoe, Nev. Northern
Paiute, Owens Valley Paiute, Panamint, Western Shoshone, Nothern Shoshone, Bannock,
Nev. and Utah Southern Paiute, Northern
Ute, Western Ute, Southern Ute
Mealy plum aphis honeydew (Hyalopterus pruni):
Washoe, Nev. Northern Paiute, Owens Valley Paiute, Panamint, Western Shoshone, Nev. and Utah Southern Paiute,
Western Ute
Brine fly larvae (Ephydra hians): Washoe, Nev.
Northern Paiute, Owens Valley Paiute, Panamint
Fowler, C.S.; Walter, N.P. 1985.
Harvesting pandora moth larvae with the Owens Valley Paiute. J. Calif. & Great Basin Anthropol.
7(2): 155-165. (Saturniidae)
Fowler, D.D.; Fowler, C.S. 1971.
Anthropology of the Numa: John
Wesley Powell's Manuscripts on the Numic Peoples of Western North America,
1868-1880. Contrib. to Anthropol. No.
14. Smithson. Inst., Washington, D.C.,
p. 48. (Acrididae)
Fremont, J.C.
1845 [1988 reprint]. The Exploring
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Inst. Press,
p. 154. (Ephydridae)
Frison, G.C.
1971. Shoshonean antelope procurement
in the upper Green River Basin, Wyoming.
Plains Anthropologist 16: 258-284.
Frison
(p. 261) reported charred fragements of the Mormon cricket, Anabrus simplex,
and large red ants, Pogonomyrmex sp., in late prehistoric or
protohistoric Shoshonean lodges at the Eden-Farson Site in the upper Green
River Basin.
Frison, G.C.; Huseas, M.
1968. Leigh Cave, Wyoming, Site 48 WA
304. The Wyo. Archaeol. 11(3): 21-33. (Tettigoniidae)
Fry, G.F. 1976. Analysis of prehistoric coprolites from
Utah. Anthropol. Papers No. 97. Salt Lake City: Univ. Utah Press, pp. 1-45.
Fry
reported "insect parts" in coprolites.
Furniss, R.L.; Carolin, V.M. 1977.
Western forest insects. U.S.
Dept. Agric. For. Serv. Misc. Publ. No. 1339, pp. 193-197. (Saturniidae)
Fynn, A.J. 1907. The American Indian as a Product of
Environment. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p. 87. (Acrididae)
Garth, T.R. 1953. Atsugewi ethnography. Univ. Calif. Anthropol. Recs. 14(2):
129-212.* (Acrididae, Pteronarcyidae)
Ghesquièré, J.
1947. Les insectes palmicoles
comestibles. In: Les Insectes des Palmiers, P. Lepesme, pp. 791-793.
Paris: Lechevalier. (Curculionidae)
Gifford, E.W.
1932. The Northfork Mono. Univ.
Calif. Publs. Am. Archaeol. and Ethnol.
31(2): 15-65. (Saturniidae)
Gifford, E.W.
1940. Culture element
distributions: XII - Apache-Pueblo. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol. Rec. 4(1):
1-208.
Gifford
(pp. 10, 90) found little use of insects as food among the Apache Pueblo groups
in the Southwest, mainly Arizona and New Mexico. Of 20 groups studied, positive responses were
obtained in only two for caterpillars, one for yellowjacket grubs, one for
parched grasshoppers, (surprisingly) from 15 for bumble-bee honey from the
ground, seven for black-bee honey from (split) sotol stalks, 5-8 for white
man's bee honey, and three for honeydew.
One informant, when asked about insects as food, contemptuously replied,
"Why ask foolish questions?"
Yellowjacket grubs and roasted grasshoppers were primarily consumed by
children. Caterpillars are described as
follows: "brown caterpillar with
black stripes, about 4 in. long, in summer after heavy rains. Head pinched off, entrails pulled out; bodies
'braided,' boiled in pot, dried on sun or branch or timber to preserve for
short time; or ate at once." Also,
"black and green caterpillars."
Gifford, E.W.; Kroeber, A.L. 1937.
Culture element distributions: IV Pomo.
Univ. Calif. Pubs. Am. Archaeol. Ethnol. 37: 117-254.
Information
is furnished on 20 autonomous communities of the Pomo in California, with data
on 16 of them obtained in this study. Supplementary comments from the different
communities are given for each of the four insect groups consumed (pp. 137-138,
176, 178). Grasshoppers were eaten in at
least 12 of the communities: "Grass
burned to kill grasshoppers."; "Taken by burning grass.";
"Not pulverized."; "Grasshoppers taken by burning grass. Eaten without further cooking." Yellowjacket larvae were eaten in all 20
communities: "Yellowjackets killed
in burrow by fanning smoke. Nest then
dug out."; "Yellowjacket called go'o."; "To force smoke
into yellowjackets' burrow they blew or fanned with pepperwood leaves.";
"after sundown." Caterpillar
chrysalids were eaten in at least eight communities: "Smooth caterpillar (li), brown color,
found on maple trees; eaten.; Hairy species (tsimeli) not eaten.";
"Caterpillars from 'ash trees' (prob. Fraxinus oregona, possibly dipetala)
eaten whole, raw or boiled. Went to
Ukiah region for them as no ash trees near Cloverdale."; "Black and
green caterpillars taken when came down from 'ash trees.' Available for 4 days only. Cooked in earth oven." Honeydew (from leaves) was eaten in only two
communities: "From white-oak
leaves; made into ball and eaten."
In addition, angleworm soup was eaten in at least 11 of the Pomo
communities: "Worms driven to
surface of ground by inserting and churning a stick."
Glendening, G.E.; Paulsen, H.A. 1955. Reproduction and establishment of
velvet mesquite. USDA Tech. Bul. 1127. Washington: Govt. Print. Off.* (Bruchidae)
Glover, T.
1872. Entomological
record. U.S. Dept. Agric. Monthly Rpt.
(Febr.), pp. 74-76. (Tettigoniidae)
Goldschmidt, W.
1978. Nomlaki. In:
W.C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians (R.F. Heizer,
Vol. Ed.), Vol. 8., 1978, pp. 341-349.
(Acrididae)
Gottfredson, P.
1874. Journal of Perter Gottfredson,
From the Gottfredson Family History. Ms.
on file, Utah State Hist. Soc., Salt Lake City, pp. 15-16. (Tettigoniidae)
Graham, S.A.
1965. Entomology: an aid in archaeological studies. In
Contrib. of the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project, D. Osborne, Assembler,
pp. 167-174. Mems. Soc. Am. Archaeol.,
No. 19, p. 167. (Acrididae)
Gudde, E.G.; Gudde, E.K. (eds.). 1961.
From St. Louis to Sutter's Fort, 1846. [by Heinrich Lienhard]
Norman: Univ. Okla. Press, p. 133. (Acrididae)
Hall, H.J. 1977. A paleoscatological study of diet and disease
at Dirty Shame Rockshelter, southeast Oregon.
Tebiwa: Misc. Papers Idaho State
Univ. Mus. Nat. Hist., No. 8: 1-14, Table 1.
(Formicidae, Rhinotermitidae)
Harper, F. 1955. The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin. Univ.
Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Misc. Pub. No. 6, pp. 1-164. (Oestridae)
Harrington, J.P.
1942. Culture element
distributions: XIX - central California
coast. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.
Rec. 7(1): 1-46.
Harrington
reported (pp. 8-9) several insects used as food by the Chumash and other groups
along the central California coast.
These included yellowjacket larvae, grasshoppers, caterpillar pupae, and
the collection of honeydew.
Harrington, J.P.
1986. Ethnographic Field Notes, Vol.
3, Southern California/Basin.
Washington: Smithson. Inst., Nat.
Anthropol. Arch. (Microfilm edition, Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Internat. Publs.*
Harrington, M.R.
1945. Bug sugar. The Masterkey (Southwest Mus.) 19:
95-96. (Aphididae)
Harris, J.S. 1940. The White Knife Shoshoni of Nevada. In Acculturation in Seven American
Indian Tribes (R. Linton, ed.), pp. 39-118. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co, Inc. Reprinted by
permission, 1963, Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith.
Harris
(pp. 40-41), in discussing the White
Knife Shoshoni, states that:
"Insects such as crickets and ants formed a substantial item of the
diet, but the bulk of the food consisted of numerous roots, seeds, plants and
berries.” Women gathered the insects,
and dried insects were cached. Harris states (p. 80): “Always poor in the meat
of the larger animals, they were forced now more than ever [because of
activities of the Whites] to live on rats, ants, crickets, grubworms and other
insects.”
Heizer, R.F.
1945. Honey-dew sugar in western
North America. The Masterkey 19:
140-145. (Aphididae)
Heizer, R.F.
1950. Kutsavi, a Great Basin Indian
food. Kroeber Anthropol. Papers
2: 35-41. (Ephydridae)
Heizer, R.F.
1954. Notes on the Utah Utes by
Edward Palmer, 1866-1877. Univ. Utah Anthropol.
Papers, No. 17.
Heizer
(pp. 7, 8) cites Palmer that the Utes ate "ants eggs." Pah Ute boys
fastened small lighted straws to wasps so as to follow them to their holes;
with a bundle of lighted straw, they smoked out the adult wasps, then cooked
the nest with the eggs and ate them.
During autumn when grasshoppers were numbed with cold, they could be
gathered by the bushel. A hole was dug
in the sand while stones were heated in a nearby fire. Hot stones were placed in the bottom of the
hole, covered with a layer of grasshoppers, then another layer of hot stones,
another layer of grasshoppers, etc., until bushels could be roasted at one
time. When cooled, the grasshoppers were
removed, thoroughly dried and ground into meal.
Heizer, R.F.
1967. I. Analysis of human coprolites
from a dry Nevada cave. Univ. Calif.
Archaeol. Surv. Rpts. No. 70: 1-20.
Heizer
(pp. 5, 6) makes brief reference to insects in coprolite studies related to
those of Roust (1967) and suggests that insects were probably rarely eaten in
the vicinity of Lovelock Cave and Hidden Cave in western Nevada.
Heizer, R.F. 1978. Trade and Trails. In: W.C.
Sturtevant 1978, pp. 690-693. (Introduction)
Heizer, R.F.; Napton, L.K. 1969.
Biological and cultural evidence from prehistoric human coprolites. Science 165 (3893): 563-568.
The
authors report body parts of Anthrenus sp. (Dermestidae) and Ptinus
sp. (Ptinidae) from human coprolites in Lovelock Cave in west-central
Nevada. As both of these genera are
scavengers on plant and animal products, 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 determining
ancient dietary patterns and food-preparation practices," and briefly
mention coprolite rehydration techniques that 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, but consider 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, and Arizona. 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 Year 1876.
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 on the Menomini:
The Menomini Indians are not
addicted to eating all kinds of reptiles, insects, and other loathsome food, as
was common to many of the tribes of the Great Basin and of California. This form of diet may result from having
always lived in a country where game, fish, and small fruits were found in
greater or lesser abundance, and the evident relish with which the so called
Diggers, the Walapai, and others, devour grasshoppers, dried lizards, beef
entrails, and bread made of grass-seed meal mixed with crushed larvae of flies,
would appear as disgusting to the Menomini as 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 States and 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 of larvae are among the "small animal" food
occasionally eaten by the Tarahumare in the Southwest. Mentioned also (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 dug up 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 Press Publs
Archaeol., Ethnol, Hist., No. 15, pp. XVII + 1-92.
Irwin
provides the following footnote on p. 47: “Bishawa’da a yellowish or
cream colored larva measuring approximately one-quarter-inch long. The species
proliferated in Owens Lake. This food should not be confused with ing ga’da,
ing ga’ra, the lake flies, which were also collected and eaten. However,
the two foods are derived from the same species, Hydropyrus hians Say,
one being comprised of larvae and the other of pupae, representing two life
phases of the insect (Wilke and Lawton 1976: 30, 48; Fenenga and Fisher 1978:
87).”
James, E. 1823. Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to
the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819, 1820. 3 vols. London. Vol. I, pp. 195-196. (Formicidae)
Jensen, A. 1930. History of Tooele Stake. Ms. on file, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, Historian's Office. Salt
Lake City.* (Acrididae)
Johnson, J.J.
1978. Yana. In: W.C.
Sturtevant 1978, pp. 361-369.
Among
the animal foods of the Yani in north-central California were grasshoppers,
salmon fly (Plecoptera), and earthworms.
Johnston, Verna R. 1995. Pinyon pine -
juniper woodland. Fremontia 23(2): ?
The
author provides (p. 19) a brief account of the harvest and preparation of
"peaggies" (Coloradia pandora). Tribes prepared them in
different ways; “the Paiutes cooked and dried them and mixed them with
vegetables in a stew.” The larvae were regarded as choice morsels.
Jones, K.T.; Madsen, D.B. 1991. Further experiments in native food
procurement. Utah Archaeol. 1991: 68-77.
(Tettigoniidae)
Jones, V.H. 1945. The use of honey-dew as food by Indians. The Masterkey 19: 145-149. (Aphididae)
Jones, V.H. 1948. Prehistoric plant materials from Castle
Park. In The Archaeology of
Castle Park, Dinosaur National Monument, by R.F. Burgh and C.R. Scoggin,
Appendix III, pp. 94-99. Boulder: Univ. Colo. Ser. Anthropol., No. 2. (Acrididae)
Keen, F.P. 1929. Insect enemies of California pines and their
control. Calif. St. Dept. Nat. Res.,
Div. Forestry, Bull. No. 7, pp. 76-78.
(Saturniidae)
Kelly, Isabel T.
1932. The ethnography of the Surprise
Valley Paiute. Univ. Calif. Publs.
Am. Archaeol. Ethnol. 31(3): 67-210.
Kelly
(pp. 90-91, 93) reported as follows on the insects eaten by the Surprise Valley
Paiute:
Crickets (ni su) [Mormon crickets]
were found in late summer on the slopes of hills. They were collected early in the morning when
cold and bunched. Women usually did the
gathering, but men occasionally assisted.
The insects were picked up in the hand and dumped into the carrying
basket. All informants explicitly denied
beating the brush and driving the crickets into a pit. One informant stated that 'the whites did
that when they wanted to kill them.'
Grasshoppers (hu adada) were never eaten, but an unidentified insect
similar to the grasshopper was considered edible. Ants (a ni) were gathered early in the
morning when they were bunched on the top of the hill. Ant eggs (a ninoho) were also gathered. 'Worms' or larvae of some sort, probably
caterpillars (called biu gu) [they were described as black with yellow stripes
and about 4 inches long], were gathered early in the morning. They did not come every year and nowadays are
never found in this vicinity. My
interpreter saw some this summer near Gerlach, Nevada.
On page
93, Kelly states:
Crickets were gathered early in the
morning. A fire was built in a hole some
three feet in diameter and two feet deep.
If many women participated in the gathering, the hole might be five or
six feet in diameter with the piles belonging to different individuals
separated in the pit by a few handfuls of grass. The live crickets were dumped on the coals
and roasted from a few minutes to several hours, time varying with
informants. After cooking they could be
dried. Biu gu (caterpillars, larvae?)
were poured on the coals and covered for two or three minutes, then eaten
immediately. Ants were gathered,
parched, and ground on the metate. Ant
eggs were likewise parched.
Kelly, I.T. 1938. Northern Paiute tales. J. Am. Folk-lore
51: 364-468.
The
tale about "Coyote and Bear" begins as follows (p. 420):
"Coyote was living with his wife and son. Coyote went rabbit hunting. His wife and little boy were hunting
ants. They found an ant nest, and
Coyote's wife was gathering those ants.
She sent her little boy to hunt more nests. Bear was in an ants' [sic] nest. He was cleaning it. When the ants got on his paw, he licked them
off. The little boy came to the spot
where Bear was standing, and that Bear killed the little boy." The story continues.
Kelly, I. 1964. Southern Paiute ethnography. Univ. Utah Anthropol. Papers No. 69,
Glen Canyon Ser. No. 21, pp. 37, 54, 158, 182,
Using
informants, Kelly studied the Southern Paiute, who live in southern Utah and
adjacent Arizona and southern Nevada.
Among the Kaibob, one of the included groups, locusts and "green
caterpillars" were, according to Kelly, "welcome, but certainly not
basic in the diet": "In spring
ate locusts (?) (kivi) and 'green caterpillars' (probably what is known locally
as tomato worm). Formerly gathered in
baskets by both sexes; picked from Chrysothamnus nauseosus. Dry rabbit-brush stacked; locusts poured on
top; pile fired, stirred; locusts eaten when blaze died down (Sapir: locusts parched in tray). 'Caterpillars' found in desert and along
hills. Gathered in basket; head twisted
off; body squeezed between fingers to clean.
Twisted into sort of braid, bodies crossing one another, with new
caterpillar inserted each time. Roasted
between 2 flat stones that were 'red hot.'" The Kaiparowits used yellow caterpillars
(piiagi) that were found "everywhere." They were pulled, head down, between thumb
and first finger to clean, then "braided" into "rope" two
to three feet long and roasted between two heated stone slabs. Grasshoppers, ants and ant larvae were among
the game not eaten by the Kaiparowits.
Kelly doesn't mention any insects eaten by the Panguitch, but states
that ant larvae were not eaten.
Kern, E.M. 1876
[1983 reprint]. Journal of Mr.
Edward M. Kern of an exploration of the Mary's or Humboldt River, Carson Lake,
and Owens River and Lake, in 1845. In
Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah...in
1859, by Capt. J.H. Simpson, pp. 477-486.
Washington: Govt. Print. Off.
[reprint Reno: Univ. Nevada Press]. (Acrididae and Tettigoniidae)
Kingsolver, J.M.; Johnson, C.D.; Swier, S.R.; Teran,
A. 1977. Prosopis fruits as a resource for
invertebrates. In: Simpson, B.B. (ed.), Mesquite. Its Biology in Two
Desert Scrub Ecosystems. Stroudsburg, Pa.: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc.
pp. 108-122. (Bruchidae)
Kroeber, A.L.
1925. Handbook of the Indians of
California. Bur. Am. Ethnol. Bull. 78,
995 pp.
Kroeber
writes regarding the Koso or Panamint (p. 592), “On the shores of Owens Lake
countless grubs of a fly [Hydropyrus] were scooped out of the shallow
water and dried for food.”
Landberg, L.C.W.
1965. The Chumash Indians of southern
California. Southwest Mus. No. 19:
11-157.
According
to Landberg (p. 81), insects were probably used mainly as condiments by the
Chumash. They were probably collected by
the women when they were out collecting plants.
Grasshoppers, yellowjacket larvae, "caterpillar chrysalids,"
and honeydew were used alone as condiments or as ingredients in pinole.
Lando, R.; Modesto, R.E.
1977. Temal Wakhish: a desert Cahuilla village. J. Calif. Anthropol. 4(1): 95-112.
The
authors corroborate (p. 110) the earlier report by Bean of use by the Cahuilla
of a worm called piyatem (Ruby E. Modesto was the granddaughter of an
earlier Desert Cahuilla informant):
She remembered that her grandmother
went out in the spring towards the hills, and they would gather these worms
[white-lined sphinx moth, Hyles lineata], killing them by pinching off
the heads. The worms were roasted on a comal
"griddle" and either immediately eaten or stored. Sometimes they were parched over hot coals,
which dried them out and allowed them to be stored longer without turning
rancid. Grasshoppers, locusts, and
cicadas were also roasted and eaten.
They were also stored for future use like prepared meat in small net
bags. Another type of worm or
caterpillar called ewinchem was taken in November or December. It was found among the roots of the saltbush,
(Atriplex lentiformis?) and was a pinkish insect larva approximately two
to three inches long. This larva was
prepared like army worms and also parched or sun dried for storage.
Lanner, Harriette.
1981. Pine-nut cookery. In The Pinyon Pine: A Natural and Cultural History, by R.M.
Lanner, pp. 148-167. Reno: Univ. Nevada
Press. (Tettigoniidae)
Lapena, F.R.
1978. Wintu. In:
W.C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook
of North American Indians, Vol. 8, California (R.F. Heizer, Vol. Ed.), 1978,
pp. 324-340.
Lapena
(p. 337) cites Du Bois (1935: 14-15) for the following relative to the Wintu in
northern California:
Grasshoppers were obtained by encircling
grassy area. The people sang and danced
as they drove the grasshoppers into the center area. The grass in the center was then set afire
with wormwood torches. After the blaze
had subsided, the now wingless insects were gathered by both men and
women. The grasshoppers were boiled in
baskets, put on basket trays to dry, and then either eaten at once or mashed in
a hopper and stored. Salmon flies [Plecoptera], which swarmed on the river edge
for a few days in April, were gathered early in the morning before their wings
were strong enough to permit flight.
They were boiled, or, if great in number, dried and saved for winter
use.
Lawton, H.W.; Wilke, P.J.; DeDecker, M.; Mason,
W.M. 1976 (?). Agriculture among the Paiute of Owens
Valley. J. Calif. Anthropol.
[Vol.?]: 13-49. (Ephydridae)
Leechman, D.
1944. Further light on "wooden
tubes" from Oregon. Am.
Antiquity 9(4): 451. (Tettigoniidae)
Leonard, Z. 1904. Adventures of Zenas Leonard, Fur Trader and
Trapper, 1831-1836. W.F. Wagner (ed.). Cleveland:
Burrows Bros. Co., p. 166.* [see under Wagner]
Levy, R.
1978a. Eastern Miwok. In:
W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 398-413.
Most
prominent among the insects eaten by the Eastern Miwok in California were
grasshoppers and yellow jacket larvae (p. 403).
Levy, R. 1978b. Costanoan.
In: W.C. Sturtevant 1978,
pp. 485-495.
Levy
cites Harrington (1921) in saying (p. 492) that insects eaten by these
California Indians included yellow jacket larvae, grasshoppers and
caterpillars. Honey and wasp larvae were collected by blowing smoke (using a
fan of hawk feathers) into the nests to kill the bees or wasps.
Lewis, A.B.
1905-1907? Tribes of the
Columbia Valley and the coast of Washington and Oregon. Memoirs Am. Anthropol. Assoc. 1 (part 2): 149-209. (Acrididae)
Loew, O. 1876. Report on the alkaline lakes, thermal
springs, mineral springs, and brackish waters of southern California and
adjacent country. Ann. Rpt. Upon the Geograph. Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, Appendix
H3, pp. 188-199. (Ephydridae)
Lowie, R.H.
1909a. The northern Shoshone.
Anthropol. Papers Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Vol. II, Part II, p. 188.
Lowie
mentions grasshoppers, crickets, and ants among the small animal foods of the
tribe, some portions of which were known as "Diggers," because they
depended primarily on vegetable food.
The insects were prepared by throwing them into a large tray with
burning cinders and tossing them to and fro until roasted. Roasted ants were stored in bags for future
use.
Lowie, R.H. 1909b. The Assiniboine. Anthropol. Papers Am. Mus.
Nat. Hist. Vol. IV, Part I, p. 12.
The
porcupine was an important food item in the forest, and “in case of necessity,
pulverized insects dried in the sun, roots, seeds, and the inner bark of the
cypress served to eke out their fare.”
Lowie, R.H. 1924. Notes on Shoshonean ethnography. Anthropol. Papers Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 20(3): 185-324.
Lowie
reports (pp. 195, 199) that the Lemhi, although largely vegetarians, "did
not disdain such small game as grasshoppers and ants," while the Wind
River Shoshone "deny having eaten roasted ants, but they did not scorn
small game."
Lowie, R.H. 1939. Ethnographic notes on the Washo. Univ. Calif. Publs. Am. Archaeol. Ethnol. 36(5), p. 327. (Acrididae)
Luomala, Katharine.
1978. Tipai-Ipai. In:
W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 592-609.
Most
meat came from rodents, but lizards, some snakes, insects, and larvae were
eaten (p. 601).
Madsen, D.B.
1989. A grasshopper in every
pot. Nat. Hist., July 1989, pp.
22-25. (Tettigoniidae)
Madsen, D.B.; Kirkman, J.E. 1988.
Hunting hoppers. Am. Antiquity
53: 593-604.
These
authors emphasize that there is a substantial amount of ethnographic and
ethnohistorical data revealing the importance of insects as a food resource for
Great Basin groups. "Not only did
every identified group use them, but many were dependent on one or more species
as a primary resource and principal winter-storage food."
See
Madsen and Kirkman also under Acrididae.
Malouf, C. 1951
[1974]. The Gosiute Indians. In Shoshone Indians (D.A. Horr, ed.),
1974, pp. 25-172. New York: Garland Publ. Inc.
Malouf
begins his discussion of insects (pp. 52-54) by commenting: "It is difficult for Europeans to
appreciate insect life as a source of food.
Yet, when viewed objectively, 'bugs' contain many of the necessary
vitamins, proteins, and carbohydrates that modern advertising has proclaimed so
necessary for nourishment." He
continues: "Rodents, 'Mormon
crickets' (Anabrus simplex), cicadas, and grasshoppers were most often
consumed. In preparing the ants for
eating, the women would scoop up an ant hill into a winnowing basket. Tossing this mass up and down, she would
allow the ants to roll to one side into another basket or onto a blanket. About a quart of ants and ant eggs
[larvae/pupae] could be collected in this way.
These were then mixed with water and a flour made of ground seeds, and
then it was placed on a fire to cook."
Methods of harvesting and preparing crickets and locusts are described
from earlier accounts by Chamberlin and Egan.
Crickets and locusts were not only eaten in season, but were dried and
preserved for winter use. Although
usually roasted, crickets were also eaten raw, after removing the legs. Cicadas were eaten fresh or roasted, or
ground in a metate for storage and future use. Malouf notes: "The primary source of sustenance for
the Gosiute was not animal life, but a variety of plants, roots, berries, nuts,
seeds, and greens."
McCook, H.C.
1882. The Honey Ants of the Garden of
the Gods and the Occident Ants of the American Plains. Philadelphia:
J.B. Lippincott & Co., pp. 30-33.
(Formicidae)
Merriam, C.
Hart. 1979. Indian names for plants and animals among
Californian and other western North American tribes. Assembled and annotated by Robert F.
Heizer. Ballena Press Publs. Archaeol.,
Ethnol, Hist. No. 14, 296 pp. (pp. 260-261, 263-264, 271-272.).
Merriam
reported as follows on the insects eaten:
Mono Paiute, (p. 260), Mono Lake (Ephedra) [Hydropyrus =]
(informant remarked: "Give me lots
to eat"):
E-wah-kw-ma-ga/E-wah'-mah-kah'; Sphynx (pine tree worm; boil to
eat): Pe-ap'-pe/Pe-ag'-gah; Larvae in
Mono Lake of fly:
Koo-cha'-be/Koo-za'-be. Monache
(Western Mono) at North Fork, San Joaquin River (p. 260), Tree worm (big fat
ones, good to eat): Pe-ag'-gah; Hairy
caterpillar (eaten): U-ah'-be. Monache at Pine Ridge, east of Sycamore
Creek, Fresno Co. (p. 261), Sphynx moth, it's larvae: Pe-ag'-gah (good to eat). Bridgeport Paiute (p. 263), Sphynx moth
("Pine tree worm"; boil larvae to eat): Pe-ag'-gah (the larvae). Panamint Shoshone, Panamint Valley and
several other locations (p. 264), Larvae in lake; good to eat: Pish-sha-war'-rah; Fly larvae in Owens Lake
(used for food):
E-yar'-rah/E-yad'-dah/Eng-ar'-rah.
Southern Shoshone (southern Nevada) (p. 271), Sphynx moth; worms good to
eat: Pe-ag'-gah; Cicada ("fat, good
to eat"): Ku-ah/Ga'. Paviotso (Northern Paiute at Walker Lake) (p.
272), Sphynx moth, the worms best food"; Cicada ("good to
eat"): Ku-ah'.
Miller, J.; Hutchinson, W. 1928.
Where Pe-ag'gie manna falls. Nat.
Mag. 12(1): 158-160. (Saturniidae)
Miller, K.K.; Wagner, M.R. 1984.
Factors influencing pupal distribution of the pandora moth
(Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) and their
relationship to prescribed burning. Environ.
Entomol. 13: 430-431. (Saturniidae)
Mooney, J. 1890. Notes on the Cosumnes tribes of
California. Am. Anthropologist,
o.s. 3 (No. 3, July 1890): 259-262.
(Acrididae)
Moore, J.G.; Fry, G.F.; Englert, E., Jr. 1969.
Thorny-headed worm infection in North American prehistoric man. Science 163: 1324-1325.
Moore
et al reported recovery of Acanthocephala eggs, probably Moniliformis clarki,
from coprolites of probable human origin found in Danger Cave in Utah. This constitutes possible indirect evidence
of insect consumption, as the camel cricket, Ceuthophilus uthahensis
(and probably other insects), are the intermediate hosts of this parasite. Definitive hosts include a variety of small
rodents. Human infestation by M. clarki
has not been reported, but Moore et al conclude that "aboriginal people
could have served as a definitive host by ingesting the arthropod intermediate
host, or they may have been victims of false parasitism as a result of eating
parasitized rodents." Another
possibility is the congeneric and cosmopolitan M. dubius, the definitive
host of which is primarily the rat; beetles and cockroaches serve as the
intermediate hosts.
Morgan, D. 1947. The Great Salt Lake. New York:
The Bobbs-Merrill Co., p. 255.*
(Acrididae)
Muir, J. 1911. My First Summer in the Sierra. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., pp. 45-46, 119, 206, 227.
Muir,
in a general statement regarding Digger Indian fare (p. 119), says: "When food is scarce, he can live on
whatever comes his way, -- a few berries, roots, bird eggs, grasshoppers, black
ants, fat wasp or bumblebee larvae, without feeling that he is doing anything
worth mention, so I have been told."
On page 206, Muir says, "Their food is mostly good berries, pine
nuts, clover, lily bulbs, wild sheep, antelope, deer, grouse, sage hens, and
the larvae of ants, wasps, bees, and other insects."
On page
227, Muir writes: "In the season
they in like manner depend chiefly on the fat larvae of a fly that breeds in
the salt water of the lake [Mono Lake], or on the big fat corrugated
caterpillars of a species of silkworm that feeds on the leaves of the yellow
pine [Coloradia pandora]."
After describing a great variety of plant and animal foods used by the
Indians "to vary their wild diet of worms," including rabbits and
deer which were abundant, antelope, sage hen, grouse, squirrels, pine nuts,
acorns, wild rye, and an occasional wild sheep from the high peaks, Muir states
that: "Strange to say, they seem to
like the lake larvae best of all. Long
windrows are washed up on the shore, which they gather and dry like grain for
winter use. It is said that wars, on
account of encroachments on each other's worm-grounds, are of common occurrence
among the various tribes and families.
Each claims a certain marked portion of the shore."
See
Muir also under Formicidae.
Myers, J.E. 1978. Cahto.
In: W.C. Sturtevant (Ed.),
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 8. California (R.F. Heizer, Vol. Ed.),
1978, pp. 244-248.
Deer
were the chief meat source of the Cahto in northwestern California,
supplemented with fish and other animals.
Caterpillars, grasshoppers, bees and hornets were also eaten (p. 246).
Napton, L.K.; Heizer, R.F. 1970. Analysis of human
coprolites from archaeological contexts, with primary reference to Lovelock
Cave, Nevada. Contrib. Univ. Calif.
Archaeol. Res. Facility, No. 10, Part II: 87-130.
The
authors report (pp. 118-120) coprolites from Lovelock Cave containing
"insects," including "crickets."
Nissen, Karen. 1973. Analysis of human coprolites from Bamert
Cave, Amador County, California. In
The Archaeology of Bamert Cave, Amador County, California, by R.F. Heizer and
T.R. Hester, Appendix V. Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Archaeol. Res. Facility, pp.
66-68. (Tipulidae)
Olmsted, D.L.; Stewart, O.C. 1978.
Achumawi. In: W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 225-235.
The
authors describe the invertebrate foods of the Achumawi or Pit River Indians in
northeastern California as follows (p. 228):
Digging for roots, bulbs, and tubers
exposed angleworms that were collected and added to the soup pot. The underground nests of the yellowjacket
wasp were sought and exposed so that the larvae could be procured for eating. The larvae of ants, bees, and hornets were
also eaten. Crickets, grasshoppers,
caterpillars, and salmonflies were also used as food. The periodic plagues of Mormon crickets were
remembered as times of plenty, for the crickets were roasted and formed into
cakes for storage. Fields might be
encircled with fire to drive grasshoppers together and be roasted in the
process of capture. They were then ready
for winter when placed in sacks of vegetable fiber.
The authors note, citing others (p. 225), that: "The Indians burned fields and forests
to drive game, stimulate growth of seed and berry plants, collect insects, and,
at times, as an aid in warfare."
Orcutt, C.R.
1887. A lemonade and sugar tree. West Am. Scientist, 3: 45-47.
(Aphididae)
Orr, P.C. 1952. Preliminary excavation of Pershing County
Caves. Bull. 1, Nevada St. Mus., Carson
City.* (Acrididae)
Osborne, P.J.
1973. Insects in archaeological
deposits. Sci. and Archaeol. 10:
4-6.
In
archaeological deposits, assessment of the use of insects as human food
apparently depends on the finding of coprolites containing their remains. In
humid climates, faecal masses do not preserve well, but Osborne cites Callen
(1963) regarding coprolites from Peru and Mexico found to contain insects and
other invertebrates.
Palmer, E.
1871. Food products of
the North American Indians. In
Rpt. Commissioner Agric. for 1870, Washington, D.C.: Govt. Print. Off., pp.
404-428. (Ephydridae, Aphididae, Apidae,
Formicidae, Sphingidae, Acrididae and Tettigoniidae)
Parkman, F. 1873. The Oregon Trail. Boston:
Little, Brown & Co., pp. 208-209.
(Tettigoniidae)
Pattie, J.O.
1831. The Personal Narrative of James
O. Pattie, of Kentucky. Cincinnati: John H. Wood, p. 100. (Acrididae)
Peigler, R.S. 1994.
Non-sericultural uses of moth cocoons in diverse cultures. Proc.
Denver Mus. Nat. Hist. Ser. 3, No. 5: 1-20. (Saturniidae)
Powell, J.W. 1875
[1957 reprint]. Exploration of
the Colorado River of the West.
Washington: Smithson. Inst., p.
133. [The reprint deletes some parts of
the original.] (Acrididae and Tettigoniidae)
Powell, J.W. 1881.
Sketch of the mythology of the North American Indians. Smithson. Inst., Bur. Ethnol. First Ann.
Rpt., pp. 19-56. (Aphididae)
Powers, S. 1877a. Tribes of California. Contributions to North American Ethnology,
Vol. III. U.S. Geograph. & Geol. Surv. of Rocky Mtn.
Region, Dept. Interior, pp. 379, 430-431.
Powers
(p. 379) says of the Yokuts of California:
In the mountains they used to fire
the forests, and thereby catch great quantities of grasshoppers and caterpillars
already roasted, which they devoured with relish, and this practice kept the
underbrush burned out, and the woods much more open and park-like than at
present. This was the case all along the
Sierra. But since about 1862, for some
reason or other, the yield of grasshoppers has been limited. They are fond of a huge succulent worm,
resembling the tobacco-worm, which is roasted; also the larvae of
yellow-jackets, which they pick out and eat raw.
Powers
lists (pp. 430-431) a number of insects among the animal foods of the Nishinam
of Pacer County, California: Shek (Saturnia
caeanothi [Hyalophora euryalis =]), caterpillar; Shek (two species
of Arctia), caterpillar; Hol'-lih, crickets, roasted (formerly they were
often roasted in large numbers by firing the woods); Pan'-nak, grubs found in
decayed oak trees; Kut (Sphinx ludoviciana), a horned black worm (the
Indian name denotes "a buck," so-called because of the horn). En'neh, or grasshoppers, are eaten by the
Konkau. They catch them with nets, or by
driving them into pits, then roast them and reduce them to powder for
preservation.
Powers, S. 1877b [1975]. Centennial Mission to the Indians of Western
Nevada and California. Smithson. Inst.
Ann. Rpt. 1876, pp. 449-460. Washington:
Govt. Print. Off. (R.F. Heizer,
The Friends of the Bancroft Library, Berkeley:
Univ. Calif., 1975.)
Powers
(pp. 24) reported that the Northern Paiute at Pyramid Lake ate grasshoppers,
crickets and other species of insects.
He also mentioned (p. 29) Ephydra larvae, saying "Some are
eaten raw, and are of a rank and oleaginous taste; others are made into
soup."
Ray, V.F. 1933. The Sanpoil and Nespelem: Salishan peoples of northeastern
Washington. Univ. Wash. Publ.
Anthropol. 5: 1-237.
According
to Ray (p. 90), the Southeast Salish looked with repugnance on eating
insects: "Certain animals were
never used as food. Among these were the
snake, gopher, mouse, wood rat, all frogs, and the dog. Grasshoppers, crickets, ants and ant pupae
were not eaten, though all were abundant.
In fact, all insects were looked upon as unfit for food."
Reagan, A.B. 1934a. The Gosiute (Goshute), or
Shoshoni-Goship Indians of the Deep Creek Region, in western Utah. Proc.
Utah Acad. Sci., Arts, Lett. XI: 43-54.
(Ephydridae, Formicidae, Acrididae)
Reagan, A.B.
1934b. Some notes on the history of
the Uintah Basin, in northeastern Utah, to 1850. Proc. Utah Acad. Sci., Arts Lett. XI:
55-64. (Formicidae, Tettigoniidae)
Rich, E.E.; Johnson, A.M. 1950.
Peter Skene Ogden's Snake Country Journals, 1824-25 and 1825-26. London:
The Hudson's Bay Record Society, pp. 133, 139.* (Formicidae, Acrididae)
Riddell, F.A.
1978a. Honey Lake Paiute
ethnography. Occas. Papers, Nev. St.
Mus. 3(1): 51-52. (Orthoptera: Acrididae and Tettigoniidae)
Riddell, F.A.
1978b. Maidu and Konkow. In:
W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 370-386.
Riddell
(p. 374) cites Dixon (1905) in saying that yellowjacket larvae, angleworms,
locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets were caught and eaten.
Ross, A. 1956. The Fur Hunters of the Far West. Edited by K.A. Spaulding. Norman:
Univ. Oklahoma Press, pp. 179-180.
[Sutton 1988 notes that this
edition is of Ross' original manuscript, unlike the 1855 edition, published in
London and which was heavily edited.]
Ross
reported, regarding the Snake Indians (probably Northern Paiute or Bannock,
according to Sutton 1988) in the early 1800s, that despite a profusion of
salmon, buffalo and vegetables, they often resorted to "the most nauseous
and disgusting articles of food.":
Beneath the shade of the bushes is
found an enormous kind of cricket.
Skipping in the sun is a good-sized grasshopper, and gigantic mounds of
pismires [ants] of enormous growth are likewise very frequent: all these insects are made subservient to the
palate of the Snake Indian. These
delicacies are easily collected in quantity and when brought to the camp, they
are thrown into a spacious dish along with a heap of burning cinders, then
tossed to and fro for some time, until they are roasted to death. Under this operation they make a crackling
noise like grains of gun powder dropped into a hot frying pan. They are then either eaten dry or kept for
future use, as circumstances may require.
In the latter case, a few handfuls of them are frequently thrown into a
boiling kettle to thicken the soup.
Ross continues:
"One of our men had the curiosity to taste this mixture and said
that he found it most delicious! Every
reptile or insect that the country produces is after the same manner turned
economically to account to suit the palate of the Snake Indian...."
Roust, N.L. 1967. Preliminary examination of prehistoric human
coprolites from four western Nevada Caves.
Rpts. Univ. Calif. Archaeol. Surv. No. 70: 49-88. (Cerambycidae and Dytiscidae)
Russell, 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 the significant 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, and grubs 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 direct
wagon-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 almost continually 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 mentions specifically as foods (pp. 36, 53) rabbits, rats,
lizards, snakes, insects, rushes, roots, and grass-seeds. He states that 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.
New York Entomol. Soc. 18: 264-267.
The
author reviews some of the earlier literature and states that, west of the
Mississippi River insects are used as food by tribes of the Algonkian, Siouan,
Shoshonean, Athabasca, Pujunan, Pinan, and Shastan stocks, "at
least." 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 explaining the 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 to California, 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. The editor of this
work, George R. Brooks, quotes from a report by Lt. Robert S. Williamson, who,
during the course of 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.
The 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 were parched
with hot coals in a winnowing basket before being eaten. Yucca and other roots were collected and
roasted. 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 Valley and Mono Lake in 1927 and 1928, describes (pp. 245-246)
hau've (Phragmites communis Trin.), a cane or reed as most
important: "Sugar, called
hauva-hauva, the dried sap brought to surface by small green insects, gathered
by beating into baskets; many insects remained in sugar. Made into balls. Later softened by fire and eaten like sugar. 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 in lumps; cane piled on canvas, beaten with sticks
to loosen sugar; sugar gathered up, cleaned by winnowing, and stored in shallow
baskets, about sixteen inches diameter, made of tule. Tule preferred to willow, believing it
preserves 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 Valley and Mono Lake foods.
Several Indians denied eating grasshoppers (a takica) and crickets (tsu
nutugi'), although Muir 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 Coloradia pandora, and
cuza vi (Owens Valley) or cu-tza or cutza (Mono Lake), the pupae of Ephydra
hians, were traded widely. Muir
is cited to the effect that families and tribes claim sections of the shore at
Mono Lake where the windrows 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 swarms in eastern
Nevada, was an important food when plentiful.
Among caterpillars, Coloradia pandora and at least two other
species were used. One of the latter was
called "tsagwano"; they were roasted in coals after removing the
heads. Pupae of Ephydra hians
from Owens Lake were called "cuija'vi" or inada, and Shoshoni
said pupae of at least two other species were procured from the lake. A large black ant called "ani'" was
"dug from nest in early morning while still cold; dirt winnowed out in
basket; killed with coals in parching tray; entire ants ground on metate;
boiled into mush." Red ants were
eaten as a tonic when a person was thin.
Yellowjacket eggs were called "pena."
Steward's
notes continue: "cicadas gathered
from bushes in early morning into conical basket; parched in coals which burned
off legs and wings; dried and ground on metate; could be stored for
winter." They were called
"kua" or "gua" by different Shoshoni groups. The cricket, called "maico," is
"scooped into conical basket in early morning; thrown into pit from which
fire has been removed; covered with grass; when roasted, insides removed by
pulling off head; legs pulled off; dried; ground; stored in buckskin bags for
winter use." Another group drove
them into the fire and then dried and ground them. Grasshoppers, called "a:tin,"
were eaten only when 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.
Steward
(pp. 270-271, 299-300, 362) reported widespread use of insects as food among
the Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni of eastern Idaho and northern Utah. Steward says:
"Except among groups having access to bison, rodents and insects
were of outstanding importance....Most often, informants said crickets were
picked up in the early morning when they were cold and dumped into the
fire." Other insects that were
widely used included caterpillars, ants (as food, and by one group as
medicine), ant and yellowjacket "eggs," and cicadas. Grasshoppers were eaten by the Idaho
Shoshoni; of two kinds, only the large yellowish variety was edible. Cicadas, Mormon crickets, and grasshoppers
were frequently stored.
Stewart, O.C.
1941. Culture element
distributions: XIV - Northern
Paiute. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.
Rec. 4(3): 361-446.
Stewart
reported (pp. 373, 419, 426-427) numerous insects used as food by the Northern
Paiute, who occupied a region including northeastern California, eastern
Oregon, southwestern Idaho and Nevada excepting its southern tip. Stewart discusses in detail, in relation to
earlier accounts, the location of lakes where kutsavi [H. hians] pupae
were found and which groups used them.
Other insect foods included "piuga" (caterpillars of C.
pandora), cicadas ("kua"), crickets ("miju" or
"niju"). Grasshoppers were
used by only two of the 14 groups studied.
Stewart, O.C.
1942. Culture element
distributions: XVIII - Ute-Southern
Paiute. Univ. Calif. Pubs. Anthropol.
Rec. 6(4): 231-354.
Stewart
(pp. 245, 337) reported widespread use of insects by the Ute-Southern Paiute
Indians of Colorado, Utah and northern Arizona.
These included caterpillars, ants, ant and wasp "eggs,"
cicadas, crickets and grasshoppers. The
latter three were gathered in baskets in the morning before they became
active. Cicadas were called
"kovi," crickets were called "arcupits."
Stewart, O.C.
1966. Ute Indians: before and after white contact. Utah Hist. Quart. 34(1): 38-61.
The
only mention of insects is quoted from Father Pierre Jean deSmet regarding the
Sampeetches (p. 53): "Two, three,
or at most four of them may be seen in company, roving over their sterile
plains in quest of ants and grasshoppers, on which they feed."
Stewart, O.C.
1980. Temoke Band of Shoshone and the
Oasis Concept. Nev. Hist. Quart.
23(4): 246-261.*
Stewart
reports (p. 250) the use of ants and bee eggs by the Western Shoshone in Ruby
Valley, Nevada.
Strong, E. 1969. Stone Age in the Great Basin. Portland, Ore.: Binfords & Mort, pp. 125-129.
The
author draws mainly on earlier accounts (Leonard, Fremont, Ogden) in briefly
discussing the use of the shore flies, Ephydra hians and E.
subopaca, crickets, locusts, ants, and the caterpillar, Coloradia
pandora. He notes that: "Insects formed a small but important
portion of the diet of the desert people, important because they offered a
variety in the menu not less desirable to a primitive race than to ourselves,
and because no food source could be overlooked. . . . Our culture generally
revolts at the use of insects for food, and relegates those who do to an
inferior status in the same manner as any other native trait differing from our
beliefs, yet edible insects may have cleaner habits and be as tasty as some
delicacies considered by us a luxury; for instance the oyster."
Sturtevant, W.C. (Ed.).
1978 -1998. Handbook of
North American Indians. Smithson. Inst.,
Washington, D.C.
Contains
numerous articles cited in this bibliography.
Sutton, M.Q.
1985. The California salmon fly as a
food source in northeastern California. J.
Calif. & Great Basin Anthropol. 7(2): 176-182. (Plecoptera:
Pteronarcyidae)
Sutton, M.Q.
1988. Insects as food: aboriginal entomophagy in the Great
Basin. Ballena Press Anthropol. Papers No.
33, 115 pp. (See under Introduction and
most insect orders.)
Sutton, M.Q.
1995. Archaeological aspects of
insect use. J. Archaeol. Method Theory 2: 253-298. (Introduction)
Swenson, J.D.
1984. A cache of mesquite beans from
the Mecca Hills, Salton Basin, California.
J. Calif. & Great Basin Anthropol. 6(2): 246-252. (Bruchidae)
Swezey, S.L.
1978. Barrett's armyworm: a curious ethnographic problem. J. Calif. Anthropol. 5(2):
256-262. (Noctuidae)
Taylor, A.S.
1859. An account of the grasshoppers
and locusts of America, condensed from an article written and furnished by
Alexander S. Taylor, Esq. of Monterey, California. Smithson. Inst. Ann. Rpt. 1858, pp. 205-206, 209. (Acrididae)
Thomas, C. 1875. Report upon the collections of Orthoptera
made in portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona
during the years 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874.
U.S. Geol. Surv. West of the 100th Meridian 5(2): 843-908. (Tettigoniidae)
Thomas, D.H.
1983. The archaeology of Monitor Valley. 1. Epistemology. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Anthropol. Papers
58(1), pp. 82-83.
The
author cites earlier papers relative to the use of piuga (Coloradia
pandora) and kutsavi (Hydropyrus hians).
Voegelin, E.W.
1938. Tubatulabal ethnography. Anthropol. Rec 2(1): 1-90.
Voegelin
(p. 12) reports that the Tubatulabal of California rejected insects as food
even though caterpillars, grasshoppers, grubs and other insects were available
to them. They did use honeydew, however,
as described on page 19:
Honey dew, which produced in summer
by aphids on stalks, leaves of cane (paha.bil), Phragmites
communis Trin., utilized as sweet (ha.bist). Canes cut in July, August, spread out in hot
sun to dry; then heaped on bearskin, 'because bearskins are good and thick for
beating,' and flayed vigorously with hardwood stick beaters. Beating caused saccharine crystals on canes
to adhere to bearskin; these crystals scraped off skin, winnowed on flat tray,
put into small cooking basket, and made into stiff dough with cold water. Doughy mass removed from basket with hands,
spread on twined tule tray; end of tray folded over wet sweets, and tray put
away for 6-7 days to allow sugary substance to dry. When dry, lumps of sweet broken off the hard
brown loaf with rock and eaten dry with chia gruel. . . .
Voegelin, E.W.
1942. Culture element
distributions: XX - northeast
California. Univ. Calif. Pubs.
Anthropol. Rec. 7(2): 47-251.
Voegelin
(pp. 53, 56, 59, 177-178) reported widespread use of insects as food among
northeast California Indians. People of
the Shasta Valley and elsewhere where they were available ate crickets; some
others made trips to gather them. The
insects were pounded into meal and stored.
Not many grasshoppers were eaten; those that were were boiled. The Modoc ate four varieties of
caterpillars. Ants were roasted;
"eggs" of red ants also used.
Yellowjacket larvae were used by 13 of the 16 tribal groups. Grasshoppers were used also as bait.
Wagner, W.F. (ed.).
1839 [1904]. Leonard's
Narrative. Adventures of Zenas Leonard,
Fur Trader and Trapper 1831-1836.
Cleveland: The Burrows Bros. Co.,
pp. 166-167. (Ephydridae)
Wakefield, E.G.; Dellinger, S.C. 1936. Diet of the bluff
dwellers of the Ozark Mountains and its skeletal effects. Ann. Intern. Med. 9: 1412-1418.
These
authors reported insect and mite fragments in coprolytic material from an
ancient race of bluff-dwellers in the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri. Identifications included two early stage
coleopterous larvae tentatively of the family Nitidulidae (genus Steliodite),
an ant, and a number of lice and mites, the mites including several specimens
of a species of Cheyletus and a species of the family
Tyroglyphidae. The fact that Nitidulidae
and Tyroglyphidae are largely associated with stored products or decaying
materials suggests that most of these arthropods may have been ingested
accidentally. The authors note that many
primitive peoples have been known to deliberately ingest their own lice.
Wakeland, C.
1959. Mormon crickets in North
America. U.S. Dept. Agric. Tech. Bull.
No. 1202, p. 4. (Tettigoniidae)
Wallace, Edith.
1978. Sexual status and role
differences. In: W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 683-689.
The
author states (p. 683):
All California Indian tribes
distinguished between the statuses and roles of men and women, assigning to
each sex special tasks, duties, and prerogatives. . . . Shellfish and
crustaceans were regularly procured by women and girls as were insects, larvae,
and grubs, supplementary foods for many Californians. Communal insect hunts, in which everyone
participated, were undertaken too; and now and then men went out to search for
a particular species.
Waugh, F.W. 1916. Iroquois foods and food preparation. Can. Dept. Mines, Geol. Surv., Mem. 86, No.
12, Anthropol. Ser. Ottawa: Govt. Print. Bur., 235 pp.
Waugh
(pp. 138-139) credits an Onondaga informant for the information that ants of
various species were eaten raw -- because of the acid flavor, and more as a
luxury than as a staple. From another
informant, Waugh reports: "At
Onondaga Castle, N.Y., the larvae of the seventeen-year locust (Cicada
septendecim) were formerly ploughed or dug up and roasted in a pot, without
water. They were stirred while cooking
and, when they were thoroughly done, a little grease was added. Some of the older people are said to make use
of them still. They are considered to be
'good for the health.' An Onondaga name
given was 'ogwayu"da'." Waugh
cites earlier authors for the use of either locusts or cicadas (the use of the
popular name, "locust," leaves doubt as to which) by the Iroquois and
the Delaware, and for the use of "young wasps" among the tribes of
North Carolina.
See
also under Miscellaneous Diptera.
Weaver, R.A.; Basgall, M.E. 1986.
Aboriginal exploitation of pandora moth larvae in east-central
California. J. Calif. Great Basin
Anthropol. 8(2): 161-179.
(Saturniidae)
Wheeler, W.M.
1908. Honey ants, with a revision of
the American Myrmecosysti. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 24: 345-397. (Formicidae)
Whiting, Beatrice B.
1950. Paiute sorcery. Viking Fund Publs. Anthropol. No. 15, New
York, pp. 17-19. (Tettigoniidae)
Wilke, P.J. 1978. Late prehistoric human ecology at Lake
Cahuilla, Coachella Valley, California.
Berkeley: Contrib. Univ. Calif.
Archaeol. Res. Facility No. 38.*
Wilke
(p. ? ; vide Sutton 1988: 81) reported
unidentified insect remains in coprolites from the northern Coachella Valley in
southeastern California, but generally attributed these to post-depositional
intrusions rather than as indications of diet.
Wilke, P.J.; Lawton, H.W. (eds.). 1976.
The Expedition of Capt. J.W. Davidson From Fort Tejon to the Owens
Valley in 1859. Soccoro, N. Mex.:
Ballena Press, p. 30. (Ephydridae)
Williston, S.W.
1883. Dipterous larvae from the
western alkaline lakes and their use as human food. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts & Sci.
(New Haven) 6: 87-90. (Ephydridae)
Wilson, N.L.; Towne, A.H. 1978.
Nisenan. In: W.C. Sturtevant 1978, pp. 387-397.
Citing
earlier papers by Wilson, the authors state (p. 390):
Grasshoppers were gathered in
meadows in the summer. They were chased
into conical pits by drivers beating the grass.
A smoking grass bundle was thrown into the pits for killing. They were soaked in water and baked in an
earth oven. A light crushing with a
handstone on a basketry tray broke off the wings and legs, which were winnowed
away. They were eaten whole, crushed
into a meal, cooked like a mush, or stored.
A ring of fire was also built to creep through the underbrush roasting
the grasshoppers and other insects.
It is mentioned that larvae, pupae, ants and other
insects were eaten, and some of them were gathered for medicinal use or for
poisons.
Witherspoon, W.W.
1889. Collection of honey dew by the
Nevada Indians. Am. Anthropologist,
o.s., Vol. 2, p. 380. Washington. (Aphididae)
Woodward, A.
1934. An early account of the
Chumash. The Masterkey 8:
118-123. (Aphididae)
Woodward, A.
1938. The "honey" of the
early California Indians - a strange ethnological error. The Masterkey 12: 175-180. (Aphididae)
Wright, W.G.
1884. A naturalist in the
desert. Overland Monthly 4(21):
279-284.* (Sphingidae)
Wyman, L.C.; Bailey, F.L. 1964.
Navaho Indian ethnoentomology.
Univ. N. Mex. Publs. Anthropol. No. 12, pp. 1-158. (Cicadidae)
Zigmond, M. 1980. Kawaiisu mythology: an oral tradition of south-central
California. Ballena Press Anthropol.
Papers No. 18, p. 55.*
Zigmond
(vide Sutton 1988: 49) relates the Kawaiisu myth, "The Origin of the Pagazozi,"
which tells how the Pagazozi, a people to the north of the Kawaiisu,
were created from the worms of the lake [Owens?] when they reached land.
Zigmond, M.L.
1986. Kawaiisu. In Handbook of North American Indians,
Vol. 11, Great Basin (W. d'Azevedo, ed.), pp. 398-411. Washington:
Smithson. Inst.
“Invariably, deer meat was mentioned
as the favorite animal food [of the Kawaiisu], but a large number of faunal
species, including large and small game, rodents, birds, and insects, were
considered edible. . . The caterpillar of the Pandora moth and a white ‘worm’
found in dead trees [probably a cerambycid grub] were commonly eaten, the
latter fed to children to ‘fatten’ them.” (p. 400)
The
Kawaiisu denied eating grasshoppers (p. 400).
Chapter 2 of The
Human Use of Insects as a Food Resource: A Bibiliographic Account in
Progress, by Gene
R. DeFoliart, posted on website September, 2002
Davis, E.L.
1964. An archaeological survey of the Mono Lake Basin and excavations of two
rockshelters, Mono Lake, California. Los Angeles: Univ. Calif. Archaeol. Surv.
Ann. Rpt. 1963-1964: 251-39 (p. 261).
Henderson, W.W.
1944. Four devastating melanopli found in Utah. Great Basin Nat. 5(1-2): 1-19.
Meighan, C.W.
1955. Excavation of Isabella Meadows Cave, Monterey County, California.
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