Thanks, Kath. Totally fascinating post, esp the barter part.
In 1979 I attended a conference on Native American nutrition and one thing
pointed out was that a lot of nutrients came from the ash from the cooking
fire floating up and then falling into the food. Also, the minerals from the
grinding stones and other stone paraphernalia contributed.
Pat Barrett [log in to unmask]
http://ideas.lang-learn.us/barrett.php
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathryn Rosenthal" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: Comanche Diet. S. NM Apache
----- Original Message -----
From: "mark wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
>
Hi, Mark. Thanks for the interesting post re. Comanche diet.
When game was scarce the men hunted wild mustangs, sometimes eating their
own ponies.
Mark, I went to a lecture last week by an anthro. prof. at NMSU re. the
Salado people of S. New Mexico. He also touched on the Apache who came into
this region at about 1450; the Spanish came through here about 1500. Don
Juan de Ornate led men, women & children up from Mexico to the Sante Fe area
along with hundreds of cattle, horses, sheep. Some members of the herds
wandered off, bred and became feral. Note: when I have asked Apache people
how long their people have lived here they say "forever" or "10K yrs" or
similar answers, not agreeing w/ the 1450 approx. date.
Although he didn't mention it during his lecture, I've read that the Apache
did eat horses and, as a result, wild horses could smell them up to a mile
away. No idea if this is true or even possible. Also, I've read that the
Apache women never got attached to the tribe's horses because they never
knew when they would have to eat them. I visit the Mescalero Apache res.
several times ea. year and enjoy seeing the painted & other horses scattered
all over the res. In speaking w/ the tribal president a couple yrs. ago,
he told me that there are still wild horses on the res. & that tribal
members just need to fill out a form at the tribal office & have it
approved, then they are free to capture any one of the wild horses that they
want at no cost & keep it.
In later years the Comanche raided Texas ranches and stole longhorn cattle.
Down here in S. NM the Apache had a reciprocal arrangement w/ the ranchers:
they'd swoop down on their horses & steal a few of the rancher's horses &
ride back up to their mountain. All ranch horses were branded. So, when
some horses went missing the ranchers just waited. Shortly, the Apache
would ride down to a different ranch & offer the horses in trade for goods
that their women were demanding the men get for them: flour, sugar, coffee,
etc. The trade seems awfully lopsided toay, i.e. the value of goods varied
from time to time but essentially a rancher would trade, say, a pound of
sugar for up to four horses. Then the rancher would take the stolen horses
& give them back to the rightful owner. Horses throughout the region just
kept being stolen, taken to another ranch & then returned to the orig.
owner. It was a strange barter system but it worked. Nobody got hurt.
That is, it worked until the U.S. Army came in and messed it up. I often
eat w/ friends at a very basic local restaurant where ranchers congregate &
some of them have had family in the area for generations. They have some
pretty cool stories.
They especially liked to make a sweet mush of buffalo marrow mixed with
crushed
> mesquite beans.
Mesquite grows everywhere down here. The anthro. prof. said in the lecture
that around 1450 (when the Apache came S. from the Plains to this area) the
area was going through a mini ice age. Pueblo crops failed and the people
had to go back to hunting and gathering! I never knew that. W/out
agriculture, they once again ground mesquite seeds. I asked if they had
found any evidence of animals that were hunted during that period but they
have not; the digs are ongoing about 15 mi. from my condo. I saw the
rancher who owns the land at the lecture & he is being very generous in
letting the Univ. use his land for research.
So.... I didn't know about the mini ice age and resultant crop failures &
the return to hunting and gathering. Interesting to me.
Kath in S. NM
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