What kind of food do native Americans eat from desert southwest?

Answer 1

Although from a distance, it may seem that the "Southwest" is all one place and culture in fact there are very different people, languages, lifestyles and climate in this area.

The geography and climate differs greatly with elevation some in general those in the mountains and high Colorado Plateau have a very different place to live than the low land Sonoran Desert areas. There was also a large difference between people who farmed and people who didn't. Among the farmers a steady supply of water versus not changed what they could farm. Living is a settled town or trading center effected how you ate. Being a herder of livestock or not did too.

The first big group was the many Pueblo Indian peoples. Although they were from many unrelated language groups they shared much. They all had corn, beans and squash and sunflower as their main crops and food. After the mid 1500s they had chillies, onions, melons and peaches too. Taos, Pecos and Zuni were huge trade centers, the hub of trade from as far away as central Mexico and the northern plans and the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Sea of Cortez.

So they had access to dried bison and elk and deer and after 1540 or so sheep and cattle. The type of crops grown was a bit different from east to west because the western Pueblos did not irrigate for the most part. They as everyone else ate wild food too such as pinon pine nuts, rabbit, prairie dog, wild greens, wild potato, yucca and cactus fruit, berries of many types.

The Navajo grew corn, beans and squash but lived spread out not in towns. After the 1540s they raised sheep and goats. They also added chillies, peaches and melons and other crops in the 1600s. They traded at the trading centers but did not live in them.

The Lipan and Kiowa Apache, and Comanche lived a a more Plains Indian life and buffalo was important to them. The Comanche ran the trade that came from the east in the French and Caddo lands.

The Ute hunted game elk, deer, rabbits, bison and foraged in the mountains and Colorado Plateau. After they gained the horse they lived and ate more like the Plains peoples.

Most of the other Apache foraged for wild food although they grew some corn. What they ate depended on their environment. For example, the Mescalero Apache are called that because their staple food was the mescal agave.

The Pima and the Tohono O'odam (Papago) farmed flood plains and grew beans, squash corn and later wheat in them. They ate deer, rabbit, birds fish mesquite beans, saguaro fruit, cholla buds, and prickly pear fruit and berries and wild greens.

The the different Pai peoples grew crops like the Hopi but spent the other half the year foraging for wild crops.

The Paiute foraged for wild food.

The Quechan or Yuma ran trade route to the Pacific and practiced agriculture where the environment allowed and gathered other places.

The Genízaro people are the descendants of native of Spanish captives. They were about 1/3 of the population of New Mexico in the late 18th century. They had lost their different tribal identities and ate a colonial Spanish diet.

Answer 2

Most Native Americans in the American Southwest purchase most of the food they need in local stores and markets. They eat whatever they wish and supplement what they purchase by growing some of their own foods.

Answer 3

They eat, pretty much, what you eat. They buy their food in supermarkets and go to McDonalds more than they should. Just like you.

Answer 4

Today most Native Americans have access to stores, markets and restaurants where they can purchase nearly any food they desire to supplement crops and livestock they grow for food.

Answer 5

They ate squash, pumpkins, beans, and bread! They also were farmers so they didn't really hunt for many animals!