Comanches were Shoshoni who, after acquiring the horse, migrated to the
central and southern plains. Many of the Comanches' values and traditions
had their origins in the harsh environment of the Great Basin (Utah and
Nevada). Sometime around 1500 (perhaps earlier), several large groups of
Eastern Shoshoni pushed through South Pass and spread across the western
part of the northern plains. Eventually, they extended as far north and east
as the plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan. On the plains, their lives
improved but were still hard. Hunting buffalo on foot was not only
difficult, but dangerous, and there were frequent skirmishes with the Crow,
Blackfoot, and Plains Apache. The staple food was buffalo, but their diet
also included roots, wild vegetables and fruits gathered by the women. The
buffalo provided just about everything they needed: clothing, tepee covers,
thread, water carriers, and tools. Some have mentioned they never ate fish
or waterfowl, but Comanches say they ate them only if they happened to be
hungry. However, they definitely did not eat dogs and never quite adjusted
to the hospitality of their Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho allies who did. When
the Comanches first encountered cannibalism among the tribes in eastern
Texas, their reaction was almost the same as Europeans, only Comanches had a
more direct method of expressing disapproval. As a rule, they did not like
or use the "firewater" offered to them by white traders.
The Ojibwe were the largest and most powerful Great Lakes tribe; perhaps the
most powerful east of the Mississippi; and quite possibly the most powerful
in North America. The Lakota (Sioux) and Apache have gotten better press,
but it was the Ojibwe who defeated the Iroquois and forced the Sioux to
leave Minnesota. However, most Ojibwe lived in the northern Great Lakes with
a short growing season and poor soil. They were hunter-gatherers who
harvested wild rice and maple sugar. Woodland Ojibwe had no salt to preserve
food and generally mixed everything with maple syrup as seasoning. They were
skilled hunters and trappers (useful skills in war and the fur trade).
Fishing, especially for sturgeon, provided much of their diet and became
progressively more important in the northernmost bands. As a rule, Woodland
Ojibwe rarely used horses or hunted buffalo. Dogs were the only domestic
animal and a favorite dish served at their feasts. The Ojibwe used birchbark
for almost everything: utensils, storage containers, and, most importantly,
canoes.
The Potawatomi originally provided for themselves as hunter/gatherers
because they were too far north for reliable agriculture. Like the
closely-related Ojibwe and Ottawa, their diet came from wild game, fish,
wild rice, red oak acorns, and maple syrup, but the Potawatomi were
adaptive. After being forced by the Beaver Wars (1630-1700) to relocate to
Wisconsin, they learned farming from the Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and Winnebago.
When the French arrived at Green Bay, Potawatomi women were tending large
fields of corn, beans, and squash. They even took their agriculture a step
further and in time were known for their medicinal herb gardens. Agriculture
was an extension of the women's role as gathers, but other than clearing the
fields, the men remained hunters and warriors. By 1660 the Potawatomi were
agricultural, and their movement south after 1680 was most likely motivated
by a desire for better soil and a longer growing season. Other things
changed as European contact continued. Besides the switch to metal tools and
firearms, the Potawatomi by the 1760s were abandoning birchbark canoes for
horses "borrowed" from white settlers. This served well for buffalo hunts,
first on the prairies of northern Indiana and Illinois, and later the Great
Plains.
The Pocumtuc lived in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts
from just south of the border with Connecticut northward into southern
Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire. Like other New England Algonquin,
the Pocumtuc were an agriculture people who lived in one of the most fertile
farming areas in New England. Their homeland also abounded with game, and
during the spring they were able to take advantage of large fish runs up the
Connecticut and its tributaries.
Otherwise, in most other ways, the Fox and Sauk closely resembled the other
Algonquin tribes in the Great Lakes. Agriculture provided most of their
diet: corn, beans, squash, and tobacco, and the women were considered the
owners of their fields. One important difference between the Fox and Sauk
and neighboring tribes was they usually maintained large villages during the
winter. Otherwise their housing was typical for the region. Large communal
buffalo hunts, especially after they acquired horses in the 1760s, were
conducted in the fall and provided much of their meat during winter, but
like other Great Lakes Algonquin, when the Fox or Sauk wanted to hold a real
feast for an honored guest, the main course was dog meat from which the
expression "putting on the dog" has come.
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