CHICHIMEKAH FOODWAYS

We will continue to highlight the fact that not all peoples of La Gran Chichimecah were solely nomadic hunter gatherers. We did not completely eschew agriculture either. Often times, our lifeways and the landscape required a mixture of both movement and cultivation. At the heart of the Chichimeca diet was our profound knowledge of Aridoamerica’s flora and fauna. We had an ancient, intimate understanding of plants and their uses, which included various fruits, nuts, seeds, and tubers. 

Contrary to the dialogue of food scarcity and harsh living conditions that academics have long purported, the Gran Chichimecan landscape provided us an abundance of food sources like our great Tunal food forests.

Nopal was a central part of our lives, its pads along with its tunas were eaten fresh or preserved via drying. The nopal cactus offered vitamins, minerals, and water, sustaining many of our physical needs within the desert landscapes. The slimy part (baba) is also known as a powerful preventative for many illnesses. 

Teosinte, maize’s ancestor, was another staple of our diet. Teosinte has been traced back to the Balsas River Valley of southern-central Mexico and is the crop that gave life to our beloved maiz. Just like we do with maiz, we ground Teosinte into flour and turned it into tortillas or bread. Maiz would also play a role in our diets later on. 

Although Teosinte is mostly consumed for its stalk, which is chewed for its sweet juices, similar to mesquite pods - our ancestors long ago learned how to breed out its hard outer casing, which made it an almost inedible grain, and that mutation is what lead to maiz. However, the mutation of this plant also meant that it could no longer grow wild. No outer casing meant no protection. So what is now known as maiz, is almost fully dependent on human farming.

Teosinte grew as a wild grass, and we ate other wild grasses and grains as well. We ate roots and tubers like jicama and wild potatoes, which provided carbohydrates.

Our often mountainous landscape provided shelter and environments for many game animals like deer and rabbits. The great bisonte also roamed Aridoamerica and was part of our hunting cultures.

We were expert archers, creating our tools out of what our lands provided us and would embark on hunting expeditions that depended on extensive strategies, landscape manipulation,  and intertribal planning.