Foraging

[Hoss]

Saw a post a few minutes ago by Sneakygroundbuzzard he mentioned foraging.
Foraging was the lifestyle they had to lead in order to survive. Up until the woodland time when they became a bit more settled and started planting stuff. Even once settled foraging was indeed needed. There might have been more time for leisure or gaming.
I used to notice stuff in the woods and knew where to dig because of it. If I saw say a large rock overhang. I would not just assume that was a rock shelter. I would look for water. check the exposure of the rock to the elements did it face southerly? Did it face to sunshine and fairwinds in the AM to help warm the old bones ( not really a deal breaker) ?
Different Plants like SunChokes (Jerusalem artichokes) edible roots are tell tale of camps where I was from. They bloom with yellow flowers about five feet tall in late summer. Another plant to look out for is Blackberries, was there black berries or raspberries nearby? How about Cattails edible roots? Maple Leaf Viburnum for straight arrow shafts. Dogbane and basswood for making cordage. Any source of lithics near by? How about edible resources like ? Walnuts? Hickory? Acorn? Butternut, . In CT I think they used Ash for making bows. I have seen Osage Orange in CT but only a couple trees in 50 years time. My assumption is ash was the choice bow material where I was from..
Is the rock of the shelter dry has it been blackened by fire in the past.?
The North was a hard place to live in winter but the south had it challenges in the heat of summer. It also Snows through out Appalachia in winter. so hard times were had there too. Every single place on the continent had its good and bad when it came to survival.
Lets hear what you know about your area. Even if it is two type of perennial plant you know of that was utilized to fashion something or for eating. Was there gourds they hollowed and made cups from? Fresh water shells used to make a ladle?
Foraging was probably taught from infancy. Men hunted fished and Foraged women watched children cared for the camp and home and foraged. It was necessary for survival.
Another thing about berries is this. If you see an over hang and spot a patch of berries near by but cannot find water it is a good chance someone stayed there in the past. When hunting if an Indian happened upon a berry patch and was hungry he would gorge All them seeds would not sit well at night once resting his gut would start to gurgle and bubble he would most likely take a dump not far from where he camped. It gives you seed and fertilizer in one big plop! Sorry if To much information. LOL Black Berries are Perennial plants
Edible and usable plants have always been interesting to me. There is more than I have mentioned in these short paragraphs but I figure lets get the ball rolling. If you know something of woods lore or native american survival techniques lets hear them.
Great link here on Native Plants/ Please read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page. http://www.nativetech.org/plantgath/plantgaht.htm

[lukecreekwalker]

Very nice post Hoss.  I never thought to look at the plant life around an area as a sign of a possible camp.  Also, you have forever scarred me.  From now on everytime I am head hunting and pick a wild blackberry to eat (I have done this many times)....I will now think of an Indian taking a big ol duke on the outskirts of his camp and now I'm eating it....haha.  Anyways thanks for the always useful info you provide

[OnewiththewilD]

oh jeez! where to begin! ive studied and experimented  with native survival skills almost all my life, its been an inner calling of mine ever since i was a kid and knowing i have N.A. blood in me (and first saw the book "the new england indians" by c.keith wilbur)  i wanted to grow up and be an Indian Brave , :laugh: . so ive done my best (and still am!) to learn the types of things it took to become one. how to hunt,fish,trap,forage,track, i.d. local edible and medicinal plants, learn the ways of the animals,make primitive tools and cordage, read the weather,tell time based on the sun, navigate the wilderness and waterways, how to canoe, how to fight, to cook in the wild, seek or make shelter, make fire,have spirituality ,e.t.c.  alot of these skills have survived and been passed on in my family to me by my father and uncles and Pepe'. who in turn learned from my Pepe's  father and uncles. theres a saying that goes along with all of this, a N.A. man's job is to PROVIDE,PROTECT AND PRESERVE. a guide to live yer life by.  

[painshill]

You may be interested in this (from our Information Center):

http://www.arrowheads.com/index.php/forum/hunting-fishing-agriculture-a-plant-usage/78964-plant-usage-cultural-importance

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

for me it starts every spring time when i am out for spring turkey season
thats when the wild ramps are usually ready to be dug up and eaten
ramps are a type of onion,but they have the top of a leek
they taste like a cross between onion and garlic,very delicious
you can eat the entire plant too
the wife loves to cook with them
i also look for mushrooms spring and fall,i dont pick any only because i dont know enough about them(yet) to be able to tell the safe ones from the poisonous ones
then comes summer and its wild berry time,raspberries,black berries,boysenberries,strawberries,then later there is choke cherries
and other wild fruits like plums and apples
all year when i am in the woods i also collect other things like red osier and wild rose shoots
these are used for making primitive style arrow shafts. those will get fletched with wild turkey feathers from birds i harvest,the fletching  will be held on with deer back strap or leg sinew,the stone heads will be held on with pine pitch glue and sinew.
then comes fall and i am on the look out for cordage materials. i prefer any of the milk weed pants,but mostly the dogbane (which is a milk weed),next would be the swamp milk weed,then regular milkweed
any of these make great cordage but dog bane is by far the strongest of them
i also look for chaga when i am in the woods,makes a great tinder for making fire
and i have heard of it being used for tea,can also use sumac berries for tea, or even the mullein plant
i also look for items to add to my hand drill and bow drill fire making kits
a lot of this is stuff i know the natives used,but cant say for sure that they had camp sites in any of the areas i collect at
i say this because any where we have woods and swamps you can find almost all of these items
other things that i know are edible in our area are acorns, cattail plants(different parts of the plant at different times of the year), the pollen is my favorite part
makes great pancakes,then there are wild carrots and the list can go on and on and on
then there are other plants like plantain,not only edible but also medicinal.
if memory serves me correctly it was brought here by the very early settlers as a veggie,and became quit invasive. the natives referred to it as the white mans foot print.
i know some folks from down south,and they make a suave out of it and it works great for skin issues like psoriasis
i got some suave from them  this summer for my psoriasis and tried it and it works wonders for me
i also am always on the look out for a good piece of bow wood. this can be ash,white or red oak, hop horn beam(a.k.a. iron wood) choke cherry and a few others.
  ok enough of my babbling on this for now, im probably starting to bore the heck out of ya'll lol
but hoss did ask what we knew about our areas

[lukecreekwalker]

We have pretty much everything described here in WV.  What about ginseng and yellow root?  Long before I was a head hunter I would go search for both plants with my dad.  I can remember standing right near a ginseng plant berries and all and my dad saying stop you are on top of one.  To me as a kid I could hold a leaf in my hand and still have difficulty finding them lol.  Did the natives have use for these?

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

cant believe i forgot about them two :crazy:
yes they did,if my memory serves me,they both have medicinal uses
ginseng was used for colds and to boost the immune system,and for vomitting
yellow root was used for mouth infections,sore throats and as an anti biotic and other uses

[painshill]

lukecreekwalker wrote:

We have pretty much everything described here in WV.  What about ginseng and yellow root?  Long before I was a head hunter I would go search for both plants with my dad.  I can remember standing right near a ginseng plant berries and all and my dad saying stop you are on top of one.  To me as a kid I could hold a leaf in my hand and still have difficulty finding them lol.  Did the natives have use for these?

  If you go to that link I posted above and use the University of Michigan database at the top of the post, you will find 104 documented uses for "ginseng" by Native Americans, 16 uses for "yellowroot" and a further 2 uses against "yellow root". Those last two colloquial names don't relate to a single plant species.

[lukecreekwalker]

Pretty interesting topic.  Thanks for the links painshill

[Ron Kelley]

I still gather wild foodstuff but when I was young it was more economical and less recreational. We didn't have GPS so I kept a very detailed notebook on exactly where I found spring and fall mushrooms. I would return year after year to the same exact spots to gather mushrooms. I wish I had that notebook today but it was lost when I moved to another area of Michigan. I also kept a notebook of all the deer I harvested. I still have that one. It's interesting today to reflect on where I was hunting, which bow I was using (1 of 6), or which rifle (1 of 9). I ran a trap line when I was young and still enjoy trapping today. The difference is I now spend more on the sport than I get for the hides.  In ancient times deadfall traps were used in many areas. They were plentiful where I live for one reason: (Limestone.) You can pick up big flat slabs that are ideal for deadfall traps. One weekend I picked 24 quarts of wild huckleberries. The fun ends at about ten quarts.  :laugh: Sorrel is a good source of vitamin C and I like to add a little to my salad.

[waterglass]

One of their major sources of food and wood is now pretty much extinct, the American Chestnut. It was truely an amazing tree. It grew faster than maple and the wood would outlast oak. It was also very easy to split and when green was easy to cut. I know of many old buildings built in the 1850s from chestnut that are just as solid as the day it was built. I have torn down my share of them and I reuse the wood any time I get the chance. It produced huge ammounts of nuts from all that I have been told, and many animals fed off them. The end of the chestnut spelled the end for alot of native plants and animals here. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like before that one tree was wiped out.

[Rock queen]

Around here on a lot of sites are the always present wild grapes ,wild strawberries, wild raspberries , huckleberries and the wonderful currant bush . Always makes the hunting a treat on top of wonderful finds.

[OnewiththewilD]

R.I.'s a wild grocery store.we have a good growing season and very fertile soil and have a bit of everything here. our forests are full of nut bearing trees (like oaks,hickorys,beech,walnut,we still have some chestnut and even pine if yer desperate) countless edible plants,berries (blueberrys,blackberrys,mulberrys,raspberrys,choke cherrys, wild grapes galore,e.t.c.) theres lots of game animals,lots of ponds, rivers and streams (lots of fish and great foraging spots) and full access to the sea (also a great foraging spot) our bay and coves are FULL of quahogs,soft shelled clams,mussels,periwinkles,crabs,e.t.c, all easily gathered and the natives took full advantage of it.availability of food (and access to wampum!) was probably why the Narragansett Tribe was able to become a dominant power here in new england before the arrival of europeans.

[JoshinMO]

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI3IsfXPkBc
Winter can be harsh here but if you could store acorns. :laugh:

[Olden]

.
Here's two that haven't been mentioned: the Pawpaw and Persimmon.
The Pawpaw grows in about the right half of of the U.S. (I've always found it along creeks -and- rivers).

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/09/29/140894570/the-pawpaw-foraging-for-americas-forgotten-fruit

http://www.blossomnursery.com/pawpaw_PIX.html

The Persimmon:

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Diospyros_virginiana