New book digs into Indigenous cuisine through archaeology, culture, ecology

By Isabella Figueroa, Capital News Service

LANSING — In a new book, archeologists who study past societies of the Great Lakes and Midwest agree “you are what you eat,” but they say there’s a lot more to it than that.

It’s also how we eat: The ways we “prepare, cook and consume” those foods are influenced by our history, family and natural environment.

And it’s all part of “cuisine,” write the editors in their introduction to “Ancient Indigenous Cuisines: Archaeological Explorations of the Midcontinent” (University of Alabama Press, $39.95).

The book’s essays use the concept of cuisine to go beyond ingredients when studying thousand-year-old foodways in regions that now make up Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and other states.

The book is written by and for professional archaeologists and students, but it could interest anyone curious about Indigenous food culture.

The idea for the book sprouted at a Midwest Archaeological Conference symposium, said Jodie O’Gorman, an emeritus associate professor of anthropology at Michigan State University.

“The book kind of evolved out of everybody doing their own things separately, bringing the people together at the conference,” said O’Gorman, one of its editors.

They said they hope it will be a resource for other archeologists who want to do similar research and can facilitate collaboration with Native Americans.

“I mean, who’s not interested in food, right? We might be interested for different reasons. I think we can maybe find it easier to collaborate on a topic like this,” said O’Gorman.

One food explored in the book is manoomin, more commonly known as wild rice.

The book highlights its significance for Anishinaabe groups, describing it as a sacred food with important cultural and ecological implications.

The book talks about wild rice’s role in Indigenous cuisine, its habitats and its deep connection to Indigenous identity in the Great Lakes region, said Susan Kooiman, an assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University.

“We’re trying to figure out when wild rice first appears naturally in the area, as well as when people really start focusing on it as an important resource,” said Kooiman, another editor. “Manoomin is highly important to certain Anishinaabe identities and cuisines.”

As wild rice is an aquatic plant, the book explores how waterways influence food systems, said archaeologist and co-editor Autumn Painter.

Waterways are sources of food and an important way of transportation, Painter said.

“That’s how you would get around and get to those other groups, to get to other resources, make trades, make alliances and get new resources,” she said.

Kooiman said the book seems to have come at a “perfect timing” amid growing public interest in Indigenous foodways. For example, the James Beard award-winning restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis is a focus in a section on decolonized Indigenous foods.

Isabella Figueroa writes for Great Lakes Echo