The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-30
TRAVEL FOOD OF THE INDIANS
PREPARED CORN AND DRIED
MEAT RARELY FOUND NOW.

Two ways Of Ffxing the Cereal 20 Keep
-Ahp1sloey sanch Used ~ TraDDers
-SOfIcey an Acquired Taate-StOring
Up Food supplies for Go winter.
The original breakfast food maker in
America was the Indian. Years ago he
turned out q corn grit that not all the skill
of Battle Creek has bean able 20 snrpass.
IL did not need to have sugar and cream
upon IL to make it palatable, and it was
famous in all the Indian country "a tho
travel food"
The Indians called it ahpuskey. Corn
was removed from the cob Just before II
had hardened and cooked in a pot until
q tawny colored mass resulted. From
the pot it was dumped into a mortar and
pounded until it turned out a coarse meal.
Some wood ashes were s~prinkled owe the
mixture. and as a usual thing some maple
sap was added
When an Indian started of to travel
he sbing on his back a small skin bag Of
ahpuHkey. While it lasted he needed no
other food. At any brookside he cslme to
he could stop, put a few t~esspoontuls OF
the grits in an i~nprovised cup and soften
it with water. He had a food with a most
appetizing flavor and a power 10 sustain
existence that was marvellous. The trap
pers and hunters who pioneered the country
Of the Indian early learned its value, but
only among the Indians of the five civilized
tribes of the Territory is an ahpuskey
Another travel food that also did good
service as the family messpot is known
as sofkey or tomfulla. Until the Territory
reds got 80 much money there was always
a sofkey pot or two hanging in the kitchen
for the coming Q1leGt.
Sofkey is made Of corn, wood ashes.
I've and water. Long, slender ears oil
corn, the smaller and hintier the grains
the better, are selected at the earliest time
! il is possible TO shell the kernels. These
are soaked in water until the outer skin
is separated. The latter is strained Oh
and the residue pounded until it is a mass
of srits. A sitter made OF intertwined
cane or Of dogwood was used to separate
| the husks from the cracked grain, and in
this task practice made the squaws re-
markably expert.
The grains were then dumped into a pot
Of water and boiled for half a day. Lye
was added to prevent fermentation and give
the acid taste hat was its chief recon-
mendation to the sofkey educated palnte.
Great pots holding several gallons were
used. and after the cooking was nearly
completed some wood ashes we're added
and the pot banked in the fire to keep IT
warm. Two pots were kept on tap. one OF
cold and h other OF warm. n latter
was to cheer the guest on his arrival or for
use as the dinner pot. Lon wooden spoons
lured the mess from its earthen receptacle.
The cold was tapped on his departure
or the going Of a member OF the family
on a journey, to be partaken OF much the
same as a~hpuskey. &C..
The southern Indians were distin-
Ruished from the Dakotas n Athabas-
cans by the fact that they were greater
v~eRetarians. In the north the Indian
used pemmican, the same old pemmican
that is still in use in the Hudson Bay coun-
try. Pemmioan is made OF the lean meat
Of wild game. cut into thin slices and
pounded until il IL reduced to small parti-
cles. Over this melted fat is poured, and
the mass stuffed into small bags or COM
uSasszd into cakes. Pemmican does not
Immediately appeal TO the alien palate.
The fat gives it a flavor that is rather maui
seating, but it is a taste that can be easily
acquired. Pemmican has great nutritive
powers and il is possible easily to carry a
supply lasting for days without unduly
burdening the traveller.
The Sioux have always been meat eaters;
They grew no vegetables at all. Tribal
history has il that one Of the tribes, which
roamed rich bottom lands. once tried the
experiment Of raising corn, but the others
called them suuaws and other names that
do not agree with the Indian temper, and
the crop was never harvested. Some OF
them grew wild rice, but the cultivation OF
crops was a task that never appealed to
the naughty BruleS and their kin, n that