The Eating Habits of the Iroquois

All right, maybe posting a high school term paper on one’s blog is really vigorously scraping the bottom of the worm bin. But I wanted to share with you this thirteen hundred word stream of total folderol and poppycock— for which I was awarded the highest grade in my class and a recommendation for publishing in a scholarly journal—in hopes you might find it funny. I was seventeen.

Eric G. Dailey
11/10/1983
Advanced Placement History

The Eating Habits of the Iroquois

Many have said that the best way to learn about someone is to go through their trash. Such is true of the Iroquois tribes, who once had dominance of all of New York State. Much can be learned from studies of the fossilized remains of the food scraps they so carelessly cast aside after a big meal. Most importantly, we find that our previous concepts of Iroquois Eating Habits have been mis-conceptions, hypotheses, and altogether bushwah, balderdash, and malarkey.

In the Minoa area alone there is, and has been unearthed much evidence as to the true nature of an Iroquois Shawuk, or feast, that leads us to believe it was a major part of their culture, a veritable spiritual, communal, and nutritional gathering to enjoy all the nutrition Mother Earth had to offer. And, in being such an all-involving ritual, the Shawuk was an involved process that took up much of the Iroquois’ time.

Part One: The Hunt

The Hendayah, or hunt, wasn’t as all-fire important to the overall well being of the Iroquois as most films and bum novels would like to have us think. In fact, under the vegetarian chief Mohet-Se in 1540, the hunt as an institution was completely abolished and anyone caught harming any of God’s little creatures had the hair in his nose removed by a very primitive, very painful electrolytic process which stigmatized the unfortunate recipient for life while making breathing not such a pleasant experience.

As far as the Hendayah went, the able-bodied braves of the tribe would simply venture forth into the forest and see what they could scare up in the way of game. Most of the time deer, wild boar, or ruffed grouse would be their quarry: which would be skinned and filleted on the spot and cleansed in the nearest unpolluted stream (yes-there was pollution-see Part Three: The Cleanup). Occasionally, of course, the hunters would stumble upon the occasional wild ram, bear, turkey flock, large woodchuck, herd of cattle, fox, vole, hamster, mole, meadow mole, meadow vole, pigeon, chicken, snake, “chicken snake,” moose, puma, tame boar, or fish.

Fishing, incidentally, was also an extremely popular method for trumping up “eats,” though quite different in practice from fishing today. The Iroquois had no monofilament line, outriggers, ‘trolling” motors, Rapala minnow-type lures with treble hooks, “Mr. Wiggly’s”, etc. No, these early Central New York anglers did without all of that. They constructed nets out of Weelamak, a new extinct species of Spanish moss, which they meticulously crocheted. These nets the Iroquois Nastaquai, or “Fish-gatherers” would cast into the water in fervent hopes of some fish swimming into them. Though mildly successful, these nets usually did a better job of frightening the poor fish away from the generally clumsy Nastaquai.

The Nephado-Nastaquai, however, were highly skilled, spiritual, technical, and artistic masters of obtaining fish. While the Nastaquai were upstream with their Weelamak nets, a Nephado-Nastaquai would blindfold himself, lie down on the bank of the stream—in a trance—and cradle an unsuspecting trout in his grasp. Yet they would not make any move to grab the fish-not yet. The man would slowly and hypnotically stroke the trout’s belly for hours, until it fell asleep; at which time, if he was still awake himself, the brave would snatch the fish out of the water and swallow it whole. This practice was later frowned upon after the discovery that a live, intact fish the size of a trout—if swallowed whole—can do a real job on one’s insides.

Part Two: the Feast

“Much as in a game of good bridge, the direction of flow was clockwise.”1 So said Major Thomas Stephens of the British army when, in 1745, he accidentally stumbled upon an Iroquois Shawuk in his sleep.

Inside each longhouse was a single, very long table at which each member of the longhouse would sit during the Shawuk or for religious or political gatherings. What Major Stephens was referring to, of course, was the procession of food from one place to another around the Iroquois Tehraneba, or “Table of Great Length.” It seems that circulation began with the women, then to the men, then to the old women, then to the old men, and finally to the children. “Iq hane rehtana defgupadi Shawuk quoe kande!”2 (By the time it got around to us kids, there was nothing left!)

The feast began at a signal from the leader of the longhouse, who would heft a handful of maize paste—the staple grain comestible of the Iroquois Nation—and utter an incantation that no one understood, not even him. After the signal had been given, the elders of the longhouse would similarly heft the maize paste, yet instead of the aforementioned incantation utterance, they would “ . . . proceed to inscribe a pattern of dots and stripes upon their mates’ foreheads with the paste, which varied from Shawuk to Shawuk.”3 After this display of good will, the actual eating would commence.

Part Three: The cleanup

The history books are a bit hazy in regard to the Iroquois sanitation process, yet we do know that it was carried out by a select few, and given nearly as much importance as the meal itself. The Panewohke, or “table cleaning,” it seems, was executed by a group of Pahtanegwaa, or “table cleaners” who were elected bimonthly. The Pahtanegwaa, highly skilled tribal sanitation workers, were said to have worn the Yuhngapas, or special deerskin mittens with which they would handle the partially eaten food. With this food they would carefully fill a series of Bananequas, large satchels made out of a coarse, burlap-like material. According to social standing, each Pahtanegwana would carry his own bundle to the nearest stream, where, at the command from the Pahtanegwana-Quansada, the leader of the Pahtanegwaa, they would all heave their respective bundles into the onrushing current. Whatever happened to leak out of the Bananequas or was left behind in the longhouse was swiftly disposed of by Keelewanas, or “rats.”

In Robert Myron’s Mounds, Towns, and Totems, he writes, “After supper, the children would often play with the Keelewanas, throwing them food and teaching them tricks.”4

Part Four: The Philosophy of the Iroquois in Regard to Eating

To the Iroquois, the Shawuk was more than just a meal. To them, it represented the culmination of a day’s toil. It symbolized the survival of the Indian Nation in its simple replenishment of the basic, essential nutrients of life. When they ate, they ate with their entire families, their friend, and they shared alike. They ate with such pleasure that to use utensils of any kind was an abomination. They considered utensil use “an alienation from the pure stuff of life,” from the bounty of Mother Earth. They ate “with their hands; not as savages, but lovingly, caressing and experiencing each scrap, until all was gone.” 5

They ate but one meal a day—the Shawuk—yet this singular event in the daily life of the Iroquois was more significant than it widely believed. It gave them a true sense of community, brotherhood, responsibility, and a taste of good cooking, above all.

Bibliographical Index
The American Indian in America, Jones, Jayne Clark, Minneapolis, The Lerner Co. 1973
The American Indian Today, Levine, Stuart, New York, Penguin books 1968
Great lakes Indians, Kubiak, William J. Bonanza Books 1970
“Handbook of the American Indian,” Hodge, Frederick W. Bureau of American Ethnicology, Washington 1971
History, Manners, and customs of the Indian Nations, Heckewelder, John G. E., Philadelphia 1953
Indians at Home, Hofsinde, Robert, New York, Morrow Co. 1964
Indians of the Longhouse, Bleeker, Sonia, Macmillan 1968
Mounds, Towns, and Totems, Myron, Robert, Cleveland World Publishing 1966
The Iroquois, Aston, Francis, New York, Random House 1974
My Experiences with the Iroquois, Markham, James Stanley, Philadelphia, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1967
Editor’s Note:
Where the pronunciation of some Iroquois dialect is disputed, the most widely recognized spellings are furnished.
“Mr. Wiggly” is a product of Garcia Fishing Lures, Inc.
Rapala is a registered trademark of the Rapala Corp.