Native Harvest
Foods native to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia that are called “wild edibles” are around today just as they were before European contact, albeit in limited quantities and locations. There was an abundance of life-sustaining plants and animals to Native Americans and colonists, with wild game and seafood providing protein throughout the year and being preserved by dehydration and smoking.
Historical writings and drawings report the use of various plants and animals, and describe their use by Native peoples. Many plants were selected for cultivation while others were naturally abundent.
Most meals in a native village were prepared in a clay stew pot.
Wild rice was available in the fall along the edge of creeks and rivers and boiled in the same manner as modern rice. “Sunchoke” — often called “Jerusalem artichoke” even though it is not a member of the artichoke family—provided an edible tuber in the fall, winter, and late spring and could be eaten raw or boiled much like a potato. This is an example of a plant that could be cultivated.
Known to many as the “Three Sisters,” corn, beans, and squash were cultivated and provided a bounty of produce in the summer, fall, and winter to the extent they were preserved.
Dandelion, wild strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, persimmon, and pawpaw all produced fruit. Black walnut, chestnut, acorn, and sunflower provided nuts and oils. In concert with a variety of animals, fish, and shellfish, all these plants enabled the Native peoples of Delmarva to survive and thrive.
One plant no longer remains a staple, but is arguably the plant most important to the native people living along the waterways on the Eastern Shore, the cattail.
The cattail is edible and life-sustaining throughout the year in various forms and stages. Cattails are found along marshes, creeks, and rivers often close to Native settlements. In the spring, the early shoots are pulled up and peeled revealing an inner core that can be eaten raw or boiled and has a mild flavor like asparagus. The underground/underwater tubers are available year-round and are boiled and mashed into a meal that can be eaten or included into breads and soups.
The cattail’s seed head contains pollen that can be used like flour. (Avoid collecting cattails for consumption near roadways and stormwater drainage ponds as various contaminants may be present.)
The importance of the cattail goes beyond its use as a food source. Cattail leaves and stalks are woven into mats to cover the sapling framework of Native dwellings. In the same manner, the leaves are used to create soft bedding.
Indigenous people wove cattail leaves into the shapes of waterfowl to create hunting decoys.
The clear gelatinous liquid between the leaf layers was used as a salve for sunburn or skin infections. Fire could be transported using the cigar shaped seed heads to hold a smoldering ember for several hours. The cigar shaped seed pods were coated with fat and ignited as a torch or opened to reveal the tiny seeds for use as tinder for starting fires.
Many stands of cattail have been crowded out by invasive species, such as phragmites.
Moving forward, we can educate ourselves about the use and importance of native plants. We can honor their contribution to our history and survival by incorporating native rather than invasive plants in our landscape and taking the time to utilize them once again so that generations to come can appreciate them as we do.
For more information about the Native Americans from the Lower Eastern Shore of Delmarva visit PocomokeIndianNation.org.
Recommended reading for additional information about native plants and foods:
Native Harvests, American Indian Wild Foods, and Recipes, by E. Barrie Kavasch. Dover Publications, Inc., 2005.
The Pocomoke Indian Nation publicly interprets the history, culture and life ways of the Pocomoke people on the Eastern Shore through oral presentations, live demonstrations and educational classes on native skills, arts and customs.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
