Some Siouan cooking habits.

[ROOD DAVID S]

A tidbit from a different culture: I have never heard the Wichitas talk
about using bark this way -- after all, they relied on agricultural
products heavily.  But slippery elm bark (I always assumed the inner bark
that Bob describes) was used for ropes,for binding the grass of the houses
to the frames, and for tying twigs to make brooms.  Bertha said you had to
cut it and then dry it for storage, then wet it again when you wanted to
use it (to make it supple).  Did the folks who cooked with it actually eat
it, or were the chemicals released into the liquid and consumed that way?
It doesn't see to me like something that made strong ropes would make very
good chewing, even if cooked.


David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu