Part 2

Deer were hunted in the fall; men moved away to the forest to catch the migrating animals. Sometimes women and children would be included in the hunting expedition, if the distance to be traveled was not too far from their summer home. But some people stayed in their summer residences through the hunting season, probably to harvest the last crop. Hunting sometimes lasted until the snow was too deep to move in.

After hunting season the fall and summer encampments were abandoned, and people moved inland, joining with other summer village groups to take up winter quarters in what Williams describes as “thick warme vallies”. There was greater protection from the weather away from the shore, and the warm weather food resources were gone—even the fish moved offshore into deeper waters. From December or January until April, Indians occupied these winter camps and lived on food they had stored during summer and fall and on what could be caught through the ice or trapped during the winter. With the return of spring, they would once again congregate at their fishing places.[27]

=Collecting=: A number of wild plants were utilized by the Wampanoags for food. These included wild peas, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, currants, chestnuts, acorns, walnuts, ground nuts, and the Jerusalem artichoke.[28] Doubtless other nuts, roots, and berries not specifically named by the early observers were also collected.[29] The ground nut (_Apios tuberosa_) was one of the most important of the wild roots that the Indians used for food.[30] It also helped the Pilgrims keep away starvation during the winter of 1623.

A part of the inventory of collected foods consisted of shellfish. Clams were dug by the women at low tide. Also noted specifically were: horseshoe crab, lobster, oyster, crab, soft-shelled clam, and mussel.[31] The following passage tells of the troublesome quest for lobsters:

This is an every dayes walke, be the weather cold or hot, the waters rough or calme, they must dive sometimes over head and eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands with a churlish nippe, and bids them adiew. The tide being spent, they trudge home two or three miles, with a hundred weight of Lobsters at their backs, and if none, a hundred scoulds meete them at home, and a hungry belly for two dayes after.[32]

=Fowling=: The various types of fowl that were taken included turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons, cormorants, and cranes.[32] This is only a partial list (again the kinds cited specifically by contemporary sources) of the kinds of birds that were actually hunted; there was an abundance of both shore and land birds to be taken at various seasons.[33] Turkeys seem to have been particularly numerous.[34] Pigeons were abundant in Worchester County, so much so that Williams describes it as having been called “Pigeon Countrie”. They were attracted by ripe strawberries and the old garden plots of the Indians, and they were eaten in great numbers because they were well-liked and easy to kill.[35]

The techniques of taking fowl were various. Shooting with bow and arrow was one method, and Indians were very anxious to get guns and shot from the English for the same purpose.[36] Williams says that hunting involved enduring the weather, “... wading, lying, and creeping on the ground, &C.”[37] The method of getting cormorants was to sneak up on them at night as they slept on the rocks along the shore.[38] Netting birds at their feeding places was another way of capture.[39]

=Hunting and Trapping=: Among the animals hunted or trapped were deer, moose, beaver, bear, wolf, wild cat, racoon, otter, muskrat, and fox.[40] While all of these were eaten, the importance of the smaller animals lay mainly in their pelts. Deer seem to have been the most important of the animals that were hunted.[41] Moose and bear were also of major importance in New England, according to the evaluation of William Wood.[42] Probably the deer was more important to southern New England groups like the Wampanoags, with the frequency and relative importance of moose rising as one traveled northward.

Techniques for taking deer fall into three categories: stalking and shooting, the use of snares, and the use of drives.[43] The stalking method calls to mind the familiar image of an Indian stealthily pursuing a deer through the forest with great skill and patience, using bow and arrow as his weapons. No less important, however, was the use of snares. A snare for deer was made by bending a springy sapling down, fastening it in place, and affixing some sort of noose that would catch the deer by the leg when he, by stepping into it, released the fastening that held the tree down. Acorns were used to bait the snare. Wood tells us that the traps were “... so strong as it will tos a horse if hee be caught in it....”[44] When the Pilgrims went exploring on Cape Cod they encountered such a device:

As we wandered we came to a tree, where a young sprit was bowed down over a bow, and some acorns strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said, it had been to catch some deer. So as we were looking at it, William Bradford being in the rear, when he came looked also upon it, and as he went about it, it gave a sudden jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg. It was a very pretty device, made with a rope of their own making, and having a noose as artificially made as any roper in England can make, and as like ours as can be....[45]

These devices were also sometimes used for trapping moose, bears, wolves, wild cats and foxes.[46]

Most hunting was carried out during the fall, after a spring and summer of watching the habits and locations of the deer.[47] Ten to twenty or more men from a village would move into temporary quarters in the woods to hunt at this time, each man retiring to his own well-defined hunting territory of “... two, three or foure miles, where hee sets thirty, forty, or fiftie Traps....”[48] It was necessary to tend such a trapline closely, since the human hunter competed with other carnivores for his kill. A circuit of the traps was made every two days. Even so, the hunter might find that a wolf had been there before him, seeing which, he would set to building a trap for the wolf as well.[49]

Unlike the two proceeding techniques, taking deer by means of drives required the cooperative efforts of a number of people. This number might range from twenty to three hundred, according to one observer.[50] Fences of brush were built, sometimes a mile or two in length, through the woods, in the shape of a funnel. Deer were chased into the wider end, and Indians waited at the narrow end to shoot them as they passed. Since it was possible for the deer to leap over the fence, the hunters were careful not to startle them. Working at night, they set snares for the deer that had escaped their arrows.[51] If the evidence from other Indian groups can be applied in this case, it can be said that the hunting party included women and older children as well as the hunters themselves, and that these former were stationed along the length of the brush fence, outside it, to keep the deer from jumping over.

There is evidence that another technique of hunting common in North America, especially among the Algonquians farther north, was also used by the Wampanoags: driving the deer into water where they are more vulnerable to the hunters. There is no direct description of this process taking place, but there is the information that laws made special provision for paying the sachem within whose territory a deer was shot in the water.[52] And Williams tells us that there is a special word to designate the skin of such a deer.[53]

Another hunting device, used for beavers, otters, and wolves, was the deadfall.[54] One variety was made by piling up a large number of rocks, designed to fall on the animal which entered the trap.[55] This style of trap was used because these were animals capable of gnawing their way out of a trap that left them alive.[56]

Apparently allied to hunting, at least in part, was the practice of setting fire to the woods at intervals, in order to burn out the undergrowth.[57] Where this was not done the woods were difficult to travel through, and thick scrub would have hampered deer drives considerably.[58]

=Marine Hunting=: Marine hunting was not a major activity of the Wampanoags as it was of the Indian groups further to the north; however, it was practiced to some extent. Seals were taken as they napped on rocks in the warm sun.[58] Various species of whale were also common along the more exposed coasts, but it is not known if the Wampanoags actually hunted them in boats. They did make use of both the flesh and the oil of those that were cast up on the beaches.[59]

=Fishing=: Fish were a major dietary item in the spring and continued to be of importance during the remainder of the year. Both fresh and salt water fish were taken. These included: bass, bream, cod, mackerel, flatfish,[60] skate, haddock, striped bass, sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, shad, herring, frostfish,[61] eels, lampreys, trout, roach, dace, pike, perch, catfish and pickerel.[62] Of these the salmon, trout, shad, herring, bass, and sturgeon run up the fresh water streams from the sea.[63] Trout, roach, dace, pike, perch, catfish, and pickerel are fresh water species only.[64]

Techniques for catching fish varied with the circumstances.[65] The hook and line apparently came in for a good deal of use.[66] However, the only specific fish for which its use is mentioned are bass and cod.[67] To take these fish, the hooks were baited with lobsters.[68] Probably the hook and line was used for ice fishing during the winter, and if so it was also used for pike, perch, bream, and pickerel.[69]

Nets were used to take sturgeon.[70] Nets were placed across rivers at the falls to take bass. The trapped fish were then shot with arrows or speared.[71] Bass were also caught in weirs.[72] The tending of nets went on at night as well as during the day, the fishermen resting on the shore near small fires until it was time to check their nets.[73] Sturgeon were also taken at night—using a different technique. A torch was waved about over the side of the canoe to lure the fish. When the fish came near, an Indian in the canoe would drive a harpoon into his belly. Thus secured, the struggling fish was dragged back to shore.[74] The method of taking eels was to wade into the water, tread them out of the mud with the feet, then grab them.[75]

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

The Wampanoags’ only domesticated animal at the time the Europeans arrived was the dog.[76] Later, those Indians who adopted European culture as part of their conversion to Christianity seem to have begun keeping the types of livestock—cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, etc.—brought by the settlers.[77]

AGRICULTURE

Horticulture was a major occupation of the Wampanoags from the spring until fall. Chief among their crops was the native American corn, _Zea mays_. Historical sources mention a number of colors—red, blue, yellow, and white.[78] Of the squashes and their relatives (all grouped into the family Cucurbitacae) there are mentioned pumpkins and cucumbers.[79] Also cultivated was the native American variety of tobacco, _Nicotiana rustica_.[80]

Gardening was work done by women, except for tobacco growing, which was the business of men.[81] The implements of cultivation were such things as clam shell hoes, and fish were used for fertilizer. During the time that the corn was growing the women would weed it and protect it from birds. Watch houses might be built in the fields where the gardener or her older children would sit all day to frighten away birds.[82] Sometimes hawks were captured, tamed, and kept nearby the house in order to chase the other birds away from the corn fields.[83]

Corn might be harvested green or allowed to ripen in the fields, depending upon the use for which it was intended. Green corn seems to have been a favorite food, and to get as much as possible two plantings might be made during a summer.[84] At harvest time the women gathered in the corn and prepared it for consumption or storage.[85]

When preparing a new field the first step was to remove the forest cover. Trees were cut down, leaving only the stumps; the branches were burned on the spot. Ashes left from the burning enriched the soil. Gardens were then planted between the stumps.[86] A field thus prepared would gradually diminish in fertility over a period of years of continuous use, despite the addition of organic fertilizers (fish) with each planting. When this happened, the field was left fallow for a period of time, during which a cover of weeds and brush would develop. This cover was then burned off, the ashes worked into the soil, and the field planted again.[87]

FOOD PROCESSING

=Preservation and Storage=: Both animal and vegetable foods were preserved by drying.[88] With this technique, there was constant danger of spoilage through dampness. Prior to the arrival of the European settlers, salt was not available to the Wampanoags for food preservation.[89] The method of drying fish and shellfish was to cut it into thin strips and hang it on a scaffold over a fire prepared for that purpose. Both the sun and the fire worked to dry the fish quickly; the fire served the additional purpose of keeping away flies, which would have spoiled the food.[90] At night or when the weather was humid, the drying fish was moved to the warm, smoky interior of the wigwam to hang above the fireplace.[91] Corn, chestnuts, currants, beans, and acorns were also preserved by drying. There is no description of the process, save that they were spread out on mats.[92]

Vegetable foods were stored in specially constructed pits in the ground. After they had been dug, the pits were lined with woven mats. The dried fruits or vegetables that were to be stored were put into large baskets (The Pilgrims told of digging up one such basket that had a capacity of three or four bushels[93]); the baskets were put into the pits, covered with more mats and perhaps wooden planks, and the whole thing was covered with earth so that a small mound marking the place was formed.[94] When such could be obtained, a metal pot rather than a basket might serve as a storage container.[95] The dried fish was also stored for winter use, but there is no mention of its being put into the storage pits. It might have been kept in some sort of woven or bark container in the house.[96]

=Food Preparation=: Meat and fish were prepared by boiling or roasting.[97] Meat was roasted by putting it on the end of a forked stick placed in the ground near the fire.[98] Fresh or dried meat, fish, and shellfish were cut into small pieces and boiled into a stew—whose constituent parts probably varied according to what was available on any given day. A pot of this stew was probably kept over the fire almost all the time, and as some was eaten new ingredients were added. As the following passage by Wood suggests, it was “... made thicke with Fishes, Fowles, and Beasts boyled all together; some remaining raw, the rest converted by over-much seething to a loathed mash....”[99] Vegetables were also added to the stew pot. Jerusalem artichokes, ground nuts and other roots, pumpkins, squashes, corn, and beans are mentioned specifically.[100] Walnuts, acorns, and chestnuts were ground into a powder and added to the broth to thicken it.[101] Clam juice, which functioned as a substitute for salt, was added as seasoning.[102] Williams tells of another sort of dish, prepared from the heads of bass, “... the braines and fat of it being very much and sweet as marrow”.[103] Notes by John Winthrop give the designation _Sukatash_ to a dish which is venison, fish and Indian corn boiled together.[104]

Vegetable foods were also prepared in a number of other ways and combinations. Whole corn was boiled—with or without beans.[105] Corn ground into meal was an important item in the diet of the Wampanoags. Corn kernels were dried and parched in the coals of the fire. Ashes were then sifted out of the parched corn, and it was ground fine with hand milling equipment. A woman then sifted the meal through a basketry sieve to catch out unground lumps, and the result was a meal called _Nocake_. Nocake was the food of anyone when on a journey away from home. A few spoonfuls made a meal; it was taken with water to facilitate swallowing.[106]

For use at home, the parched meal might be mixed with water and boiled into a porridge.[107] In a more elaborate recipe it was mixed with crushed strawberries, made into dough, wrapped in leaves and baked in the ashes to make a kind of bread.[108] It was also made into small cakes that were boiled. Williams mentions a dish made by mixing corn meal with powdered dried currants, “... which is as sweet to them as plum or spice cake to the English”.[109] He also says that clam juice was used as a seasoning for bread.[110]

Of the nuts used by the Wampanoags, acorns required additional work, since the bitter tannic acid had to be removed from them by some sort of leaching process before they could be eaten. This was done by boiling.[111] Oil was extracted from walnuts and used for a variety of purposes.[112]

FOOD CONSUMPTION

The diet of the Wampanoags, because of their seasonal cycle of resource use, varied considerably. While many kinds of food were preserved for use beyond their season by drying, the supply was probably not so great that the diet was identical throughout the year, if only in terms of the relative quantities of the kinds of food eaten. The diet of the Wampanoags included several varieties of land animals,[113] of which deer were probably the most important. Fresh and salt water fish, shellfish, fowl, and marine mammals, such as were available, were also eaten. Corn, beans, and cucurbits, which they raised, plus various wild nuts, roots, and fruits made up the vegetable part of the diet. While there is evidence that the Indians in Maine used maple sugar, there seems to have been none used in southeastern New England aboriginally.[114] Altogether, according to Bennett, who has made a study of the diet of the Indians of southeastern New England, the Indian diet included more vegetable products than the diet of Europeans living in the same area today.[115]

Squashes came to replace corn as the dietary mainstay in the late summer.[116] Clams seem to have been dug in all seasons of the year; they are spoken of as a food to which the Wampanoags turned when other sources of food dwindled.[117] Acorns were also a food turned to when the preferred diet was scarce, although sometimes they were eaten when there was plenty of corn, as a novelty item.[118] Writing of a visit to the Plymouth area in June, Martin Pring noted that the food the Indians were eating at that time of the year was mostly fish.[119]

There is not a great deal known about Wampanoag eating habits, but some general impressions can be put together. Morton tells us that “... they feede continually”.[120] Wood, on the other hand, notes that it was “... their fashion to eate all at some times, and sometimes nothing at all in two or three dayes....”[121] The apparent contradiction is probably the result of the two observers looking at different sets of cultural circumstances. When there was food available in abundance, everyone probably ate, according to his wishes, out of the stew pot at any time. There were also formal meals held on at least the following occasions: when a guest arrived (_i.e._ visiting Englishman) and when groups would gather for games and dances. Wood gives a description of what such a “sit-down” meal was like:

... dishing it up in a rude manner, placing it on the verdant carpet of the earth which Nature spreads them, without either trenchers, napkins, or knives, upon which their hunger-sawced stomacks impatient of delayes fals aboard without scrupling at unwashed hands, without bread, salt or beere: Lolling on the Turkish fashion, not ceasing till their full bellies leave nothing but emptie platters ... eating three or foure cornes with a mouthfull of fish or flesh, sometimes eating meate first, and cornes after, filling chinkes with their broth ... At home they will eate till their bellies stand forth ready to split with fullness....[122]

At this type of meal the men ate, and the women waited upon them, being paid by the favor of a bite from time to time.[123] Eating was done from individual wooden bowls, with fingers or spoon, depending upon the consistency of the food.[124]

When one was away from home on a journey and not near enough to any settlement to go there for hospitality, he ate from his pouch of parched corn meal. This might be eaten quickly if he were in a hurry to be off again, by gulping down three spoonfuls of corn meal with some water. A more leisurely meal was one for which the traveler took the trouble to build a fire and cook the meal to eat it hot.[125]

Food seems to have been shared liberally with anyone who was around when people were eating, no matter what it was or how much there was at the time.[126]

Diet was one area in which the arrival of the Europeans seems not to have had much influence. Composition of the diet remained the same as it was aboriginally until the time of King Philip’s War.[127]

DRINK, DRUGS AND INDULGENCE

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans there was no knowledge of alcohol among the Indians of the New England area. Once introduced, however, it became a popular item of trade, and Indians learned how to produce it for themselves.[128]

The Wampanoags and their neighbors, however, did smoke the native American variety of tobacco, _Nicotiana rustica_.[129] This strong variety of tobacco would not be appealing to modern American tastes. The only place where it is used commercially today is in the USSR. In one instance at least—where the writer characterized the tobacco as weak—it is likely that some was mixed with other plant material preparatory to smoking.[130] Tobacco leaves were picked green, dried, crushed, and smoked in pipes.[131]

Tobacco was used frequently.[132] Smoking was a pleasant diversion. When friends met on the trail they would stop, smoke together, and talk.[133] Tobacco apparently also was used by women.[134] Besides being a refreshing indulgence, taking tobacco was thought to be a helpful remedy “... against the rheume, which causeth the toothake....”[135]

LEATHER, TEXTILES, FABRICS

=Work in Skins=: Most of the clothing worn by the Wampanoags was made from the skins of animals. Deerskin was an excellent material for clothing, since it was tough but thin enough to be made pliable, was large enough to be used with a minimum of piecing, and was readily available in the environment. Moose hide was used for similar purposes, but being heavier it was perhaps more popular for making shoes.[136]