Daily Life in Olden Times Northeast Iroquois Nation What did they eat? Farmers/Agriculture: Farming provided most of the Iroquois diet. The Iroquois made tools for farming. One tool was a wooden rake for leveling the soil. Another was a wooden spade used to dig the soil. They used seeds to plant corn, squash, green beans, lima beans, kidney beans, pumpkin, melon, and tobacco. The women owned the land and tended the fields. The women harvested the crops. The clan mother was the boss. The Iroquois were very grateful for their harvests. They held six festivals each year to say prayers of thanks to their gods. Three Sisters Succotash: Corn, beans, and squash were the most important crops. They were called The Three Sisters. The Three Sisters were mixed together to make a vegetable dish called succotash. Boiled Corn Bread: They made a wonderful boiled corn bread. They made flour by pounding corn into flour. To make bread, they mixed water with corn flour. Sometimes cooked beans were added, or berries or nuts. The bread was kneaded and formed into small loaves. The loaves were dropped into boiling water and cooked until the bread floated. Boiled corn bread was served both hot and cold. They also used the same bread mix to bake bread by putting it on clay tablets in the fire. They used sunflower oil to fry bread. Recipe: If you want to try making Iroquois corn bread, mix flour, water, and a little salt. Knead it. Turn it out on a floured board. Keep kneading until you can handle the bread without it sticking to your fingers. Then either boil or fry it. If you want it to puff up, add a little baking soda. Wild Foods/Hunters and Gatherers Wild Nuts, Fruits, Vegetables, and Eggs: Women and children gathered wild nuts, fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, and eggs laid by birds and turtles. They gathered sunflowers to use to make sunflower oil, which they used to fry food. They also used sunflower oil to treat wounds and as a body lotion to protect their skin from hot or cold weather. Maple Syrup: The Iroquois learned to tap maple trees to harvest maple syrup. The Iroquois had a quite a sweet tooth. They loved maple sugar in many foods. They made a special treat of heated nuts rolled in maple sugar. Wild Game: The men usually left in the fall for the annual hunt. They used bow and arrows to kill black bear, elk, deer, rabbit, and wolves. They trapped wild turkey, ducks and other birds. They hunted turtles for their food and shells. No part of the animal was wasted. They did not eat raw food. They cooked everything they captured. Whatever the men brought back from the hunt was shared by the whole village. Fish: Spring was fishing season. The men used huge nets to catch fish. When the brought the catch back, everyone in the village pitched in the help dry the fish over fires. Much of the catch would be dried and then stored. If the store of food was getting low, the men would go out at night with torches. The light attracted fish into their nets. Everyone in the village got busy drying and storing dried fish. Storing Food: Dried fish was not the only food that was stored. Rafter Storage Racks: They built storage racks inside that hung from the rafters. Corn was braided, along with squash, and hung from the ceiling. Other foods were stored on the storage rocks. The racks worked really well. Down the center of the longhouse were the family fires, one after another. Each family had a space inside the longhouse. And each family had a fire or shared a fire with the people across from them. There were smoke holes in the roof of the longhouse. So, the smoke and heat from the fires went up, and dried and smoked meat, fish, and other stored food, on the way out. Buried Clay Pots: They also stored dried food in clay pots. The pots were lined with bark, which kept the mice out. Pots were filled with dried corn, meat, and vegetables. The pots were buried in bark lined storage pits inside or near the longhouse. Honoring Needs/Values: The Iroquois honored the needs of other people, just as they honored the land and animals. No one went hungry. Everyone in the village would share their food, even in the hardest times. The Iroquois believed in cooperation. Return to the Iroquois Index      All Rights Reserved Counter start date January 2006     Have a great year!