Some Siouan cooking habits.

[Rankin, Robert L]

> 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.

Gilmore (1919:24) included a comment on making ropes/cords:
 

 "The Omaha used to cook the inner bark with buffalo fat in rendering out the tallow.  They considered that the bark gave a desirable flavor to the fat and added a preservative quality, preventing it from becoming rancid.  When the rendering was finished the children always asked for the pieces of cooked bark, which they prized as titbits."  From this I assume the kids liked to chew (eat?) the bark after it had been in the cooking juices.

 

Gilmore adds:  "The inner bark was also used for making ropes and cords."  He doesn't say by whom, but he gives words for 'Ulmus fulva' in Dakota, Omaha-Ponca, Winnebago and Pawnee.

 

Bob