Cranberries were a favourite autumn food and were also considered as blood and liver boosters. Blackberry roots were used as an astringent. Nuts were a main source of high nutrition and they used them for making nut bread, crushing them and adding water for nut milks. Acorn and dandelion roots were roasted, pounded and sprinkled over other cooked roots. Pond lily roots are one of the most widely known food roots on the continent, and were eaten from eastern Canada to the Pacific coast. Milk weed roots were gathered while the dew was still on the leaves and a root sugar prepared from them. The white portions of hardwood ashes were used for salt, also certain leaves. Apples and other fruits and vegetables were stored in barrels and buried in winter pits. Some were sliced, strung and dried for later use.
Yucca leaves and Quillaja bark provided soap and shampoo. Although the Indian way of life has vanished, it should be remembered that a considerable number of its elements have been taken over and incorporated by the white man. These included growing of corn, squash, pumpkins and tobacco. The use of canoes and snowshoes and perhaps still more important and half understood idealization of what is assumed to be an Indian way of life.
Man esteems himself happy when that which is his food is also his medicine. The Indians at one time were a people of complete accord, for they practised it daily in many ways.
HEALTH AND SICKNESS
From the earliest days all Europeans were impressed by the robust stamina of the Indians in every location. The original artist and photographer, as previously mentioned also favours the alert, brave, strong and, in many ethnic groups, handsome Indian in every standard of beauty.
Technical study confirms their physical endurance. Archaeology in most cases cannot find any of our modern-day bone deficiency, cavities, arthritis, tuberculosis, etc.
Reviewing the scene from another point of view, our studies on the earliest travellers and missionaries also found the Americans very healthy and comparatively free of disease. From our available sources and varied walks of life we can find only eighty-seven different sicknesses spoken of. It was uncommon for them to have the fatal cancer, TB and heart conditions, all of which have progressed in our time. The figure of eighty-seven sicknesses is really out of date and primitive as compared to our modern list of over 30,000 invented names of disease, which is growing every day.
It is noticed the Eskimos of the north average a sixty-year existence, but in other parts of North America longevity is of 100 years or more. Today’ s American Indian, especially those living in the city, appear the same as the American or Canadian citizen. They dress, speak and eat the same as we do and they are sick in the same way, only worse. As is explained, the Indians cannot adjust so quickly to the new forms of civilization. For instance, TB is ten times higher with Indians than that of the ordinary American.
Indian women of early history were exceptionally strong. They would often become mother and doctor at the time of delivery and in a few hours resume their daily activity, as their mothers did in the past. On occasions grandmother would assist, leaving the Indian doctor to care for less routine matters. Today, these once self-sufficient women are weaker than the white women and need the most attention, with painful labour lasting for days and the children born weaker.
From 1492 to 1969 we have 477 years, approximately twenty-five generations( averaging one every twenty years). By time: comparitively short; concerning changes: overwhelming in every way when we think of the previous 25,000 – 30,000 years of life they knew, cherished and respected.