Southern New England Algonquian cuisine

The diet mainly consisted of agricultural staples such as the 'Three Sisters' of maize, beans and squash, augmented with the additions of meat, shellfish, game and various plants that were foraged from the surrounding area.

Foods such as clam chowder, baked beans, succotash and corn on the cob are part of the traditional repertoires of contemporary Native and non-Native households in the region.

The earliest evidence of these activities in New England begin after 13000 BC when the Paleo-Indians followed the Pleistocene megafauna, such as the mastodon onto the newly exposed tundra in the wake of the receding Wisconsin Glacier.

Over-hunting and warming climate led to the extinction of the megafauna, and sites throughout New England show heavy reliance on following herds of caribou, although smaller numbers of moose, deer, hare, fox and marine mammals along the coast were also taken.

By the late part of the Archaic Period, most of the foods known to be gathered up until the arrival of the first settlers were utilized at this time, particularly shellfish as evidenced from the large shell middens that occupy numerous coastal sites in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

[6] Even with the development of agriculture, which ushered in the Woodland Period around 1000 BC, the Southern New England Algonquian peoples continued to rely on long-held hunting, fishing, collecting and foraging activities to supplement their diets.

[8] Agriculture developed in eastern North America independently with a series of domestication events, with the crops and methods of growing them spread by trade routes.

Other crops include the tubers of the Jerusalem artichoke and Cucurbita pepo, ancestor of various pumpkins, melons and squashes, but the first domesticated varieties were used mainly for gourds and edible seeds.

[10] Although foods hunted and gathered from the wild, fish and shellfish supplemented the diet, for coastal peoples, it represented a bulk of the caloric intake.

[11] The inhabitants of New England during the Archaic Period shared genetic profiles more closely associated with Catawban such as the Waccamaw, but had absorbed the Algonquian migrants and adopted their language and culture.

The people of the interior generally clustered around large lakes and rivers, which provided access to water, more fertile lands for farming and fish.

Like the uplands, the interior regions were still less populated than the coastal areas, allowing for easier access to hunting and plentiful lakes, rivers and ponds for fishing or foraging freshwater shellfish.

[16] In traditional Algonquian culture, women were tasked with collecting foods from the wild in addition to their duties in the farmed fields of corn, beans and squash.

Leaves, shoots, tendrils and buds were generally gathered in spring, when the first growth was not fibrous or at stages when the plant was least toxic and could be made edible with preparation.

[36] Large mammals were valued for their meat, furs, skins that could be turned into leather for clothing and shoes, bones that could be fashioned into pins, needles, beads and hooks and sinews that were chewed into bowstrings and strong thread.

Large mammals were valued for their meat, furs, skins that could be turned into leather for clothing and shoes, bones that could be fashioned into pins, needles, beads and hooks and sinews that were chewed into bowstrings and strong thread.

[37] For coastal peoples, seals were often clubbed or speared when they fell asleep onshore and whales were captured in the large dugout canoes, such as that of the Wampanoag, or harvested when they beached ashore.

Aside from the larger waterfowl and turkey, the most important birds were likely the extinct passenger pigeon, whose dense, large flocks allowed for hundred to be caught during their migration.

[70][71] 'To go wigwassing' was a term adopted into colonial New England English for night fishing using torches to attract eel, squid and herring to the surface, from Massachusett weequash (weeqahsum)[72] /wiːkwɑːhsəm/.

Elaborate fish-weirs, such as the Boylston Street Fishweir, were constructed to channel the fish in rivers, or trap them with the outgoing tide, where they could be easily netted, speared or simply gathered in baskets.

In New England today, many fish species are referred to with different names in the local dialect of English, many coming directly from Algonquian origins such as 'chogset,' known as the 'bergall' elsewhere, and the 'tautog,' which is better known as the 'oysterfish,' 'chub' or 'black porgy' in other regions of the United States.

[75][76] Mollusks such as clams, snails, oysters and scallops were dug from the sands at low tide or picked off the rocks and was another traditional activity of Native women along the coast.

Although men typically cast weighted nets and traps for lobsters and crabs, women would often catch ones stranded in pools during low tide.

It is known that the Native peoples would resort to eating bark, the youngest pine leaves and certain types of lichens in winter or when traveling long distances.

Since the European settlers did not understand how much foraging and gathering contributed to their diet, many Indians died of starvation or were forced into dangerous and menial work as their lands were usurped or forcibly sold by colonial and later state governments.

As these clay pots were heavy and prone to breaking, they were seldom moved, and required that more permanent places of habitation were always located near convenient sources of freshwater.

Fattier cuts, oily fish and mollusks such as lobsters, crabs, clams, squid and snails had to be smoked as they were prone to spoilage even with proper drying.

Foods were traditionally not consumed to the same sweetness as the English colonists, although through colonial contact, Native cooks began to adopt molassess, honey and sugar and the preparation of fruits and jellies in their fashion.

The Native peoples, dependent on seasonal abundance, were said to eat plentiful foods during times of abundance, labelled as 'gluttons' by the English colonists, but during lean times, war, hunting expeditions or travels between seasonal encampments, Native peoples could go days without a proper meal, subsisting on dried slices of squash and a spoonful or two of parched cornmeal and whatever could be foraged along the way, enough just to stave off the hunger.

In colder weather, water was heated in shallow clay vessels or soups were made extra runny to in order to provide warmth and needed hydration.