Do Native Americans Eat Pork? A Complex History

Many Indian groups, like the ones in the Florida area that Hernando de Soto explored, started raising pigs right away. This shouldn’t be a surprise. The people who lived there got pigs from Soto, stole them from his group, or caught them in the forests and quickly started raising them for their own use. When the English came to North America the next century, those people were even more likely to handle pigs. The English colonists tried to “civilize” the natives by showing them how to raise cattle on enclosed plots of land. To their disappointment, most Indian groups liked the pig more. Either feral or semi-domesticated, hogs simply fit in with native hunting practices better than cattle. They ate scraps, needed less care, and proliferated quickly. In the 1600s, American colonists noticed that some Indians came up with creative ways to use lard to make “pummy” and oil their skin instead of bear fat. [1].

In Mexico, most tribes seemed to take well to at least two imported livestock: chicken and pigs. In South America, the pig was also readily accepted by a number of tribes. Swine even gained new appellations from the Indians: chancho and cochi. The first one comes from the Spanish word sancho, and the second one from the phrase “a pig is nearby.” [2].

Almost all Indians had a relationship with pigs as soon as they came to the New World, whether it was good or bad. After all, they had little choice. Some tribes liked having an extra food source, but other tribes thought the animals were gross and dirty. When the price of pig or beef was much lower in Mexico, some people would still buy dog meat. [3] It’s clear that we should never assume that all Indians responded the same way to European goods and customs. For example, some native groups liked the pig, while others did not.

At first the Spanish prevented the Indians from raising their own cattle and horses. [4] On the other hand, pigs quickly made it onto the list of things that the Indians had to give to the conquerors as a form of tribute. Thus, the Indians were permitted (and often forced) to be swineherds for the Spanish. Spanish conquistadors like Cortés and Soto supported raising livestock, and religious orders that were preaching in the Americas also said it was a good idea.

Franciscan friars encouraged the practice of raising hogs whenever they established missions. This is especially true in California and Texas. There were 321,000 pigs being raised on these Franciscan plots by 1843, just a few years after the Spanish missions in Alta California were closed down. [5] Father Sahagún taught the Indians to eat “what the Castilian people eat, because it is good food; that is how they were raised; they are strong, pure, and wise.” You will become the same way if you eat their food. [6] In his Historia de las Indias, Casas writes out the full instructions that the Friars of Saint Jerome gave to the Indians when they were sent to the New World in 1516 to help them. The directives urge them to convince the Indians to move nearer the mines, and to raise livestock. Not surprisingly, the animals to be raised are predominately pigs:

Si pudiere, para cada pueblo de trenta vecinos, haya diez o doce yeguas y cincuenta vacas, quinientos puercos de carne y cien puercas para criar; estos son guardados a costa de todos, como fuere visto, y esto se busca mantener de manera comune hasta que sean hechos hábiles y acostumbrados para tenerlos propios. [7].

Pigs were the most common type of livestock on these rebuilt villages because they were especially good for early colonial work and were already easy to find in large numbers.

A similar practice occurred in Mexico following the conquest of the Aztecs. This is exactly what Cortés says in his 1524 work, “Ordenanzas Dadas por Hernando Cortés, Para el Buen Tratamiento y Régimen de los Indios”:

porque los Vezinos de estas Villas tenían niños de puercos y otros ganados para guardar y niñarlos, y un menor de indígenas para ello licencia. para que puedan sacar de ellos los que estaban menester para guardar lo que se ganó y no para otra cosa. [8].

Along with learning Spanish, the Indians had to feed both the Spanish and themselves, pay respect to their conquerors, and adapt to the Spanish way of life.

In the Viceroyalty of Peru also, the Indians were employed as swineherds. Vázquez de Espinosa says that the village of Villa Viciosa in Popayán in the 1600s had “countless hogs” and other animals. “In its jurisdiction, together with that of Pasto, it has more than 24,000 Indians. These Indians work as agricultural laborers and on the hog ranches. ”[9] South American Indians took to raising pigs quite naturally. The Urabá Indians of Columbia, for example, had already lived with peccaries before Columbus arrived. These animals are related to pigs and are in the Suidae family. Even though peccaries were never tamed, they were caught, and it seems that many tribes that were already familiar with the species quickly took to the Spanish variety when it was brought to their area. [10].

Yet even others in South America with no such background accepted and saw the benefits of domesticated pigs. Perhaps this phenomenon can be attributed to their familiarity with domesticated animals like the llama and alpaca. We’ve already talked about how lard was used to treat the mange disease in camels in Peru. This must have made pigs even more appealing to these tribes. In 16th-century Peru, both the natives and the Spanish who were coming to live there wanted pork and lard, so pigs were in high demand. The growing mining industry in places like Potosí was especially important because it needed food for the mostly native workers all the time. Because it was so cold and rough there, it was hard to raise animals, so the pigs were dragged up the mountains on their backs to Potosí, where they died, probably not long before the native workers they fed. [11].

Pork and lard were quickly added to a lot of tamales, which may have been one of the first examples of mestizo food. In pre-Columbian times, one type of tamale was filled with human flesh. Later, pork was used instead. The people who lived in the Andes learned that frying food in lard took half as long as boiling it in water and used half as much fuel. No matter how they sliced it, the pig had tangible benefits for the Indians. [12].

Pork is ubiquitous in the modern American diet but its history in Native American cuisines is more complex. Tracing back centuries reveals fascinating intersections between pork and Indigenous cultures. Did Native tribes eat pork before European colonization? How did pork consumption evolve among Native Americans over time? Let’s explore this meaty history.

Pork’s Pre-Contact Role in Indigenous Diets

Before European contact, Native Americans hunted and consumed wild boar as a protein source Archaeological evidence shows Paleoindians ate peccaries, pig-like mammals, 13,000 years ago Dogs provided meat for Southwestern and Mexican tribes.

But domestic pigs were not present. They originated in Asia and Europe around 5000 BCE. So most Indigenous peoples did not encounter or eat farmed pork prior to colonization, except perhaps Southeastern tribes. Free-roaming domestic pigs brought by 16th century Spanish settlers may have bred with native wild boars, exposing those communities to domestic swine earlier than other regions.

Overall, wild boar hunting occurred, but pork from livestock remained foreign to most Native groups before colonizer arrivals. This quickly changed post-contact as European settlements spread.

Early Pork Adoption and Resistance

The colonial era ushered in pork’s entry into many Native diets. Hernando de Soto’s 1539 Florida expedition brought 13 pigs, launching their dispersal. By his death three years later, the herd ballooned to 700, providing local tribes substantial pork.

In the early 1600s, colonists distributed pigs to the Creek, Cherokee, Iroquois and other Eastern tribes. But free-roaming pigs damaged native fields so severely that New York settlers had to ring pig snouts to limit destruction.

So while readily available via trade, raids, and hunting escapees, pork simultaneously displaced Indigenous agriculture. This complex dynamic meant some tribes prized pork for its fat and protein while others saw only an encroaching competitor.

Broad Embrace of Pork as a Dietary Staple

As pork spread through the Americas, many Native peoples recognized its rich flavor and nutritional value. Familiarity with wild boar meant livestock pork easily slid into Indigenous cuisines, especially as a versatile preserved travel food.

By the 1700s, pork sustained Native American warriors and was widely consumed across Eastern tribes. As pioneers pushed West in the 1800s, pork’s footprint grew via wagon trains, railroads, and burgeoning Midwestern meatpacking. This further increased pork access for Western tribes like the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow.

So over centuries, Indigenous groups broadly embraced pork despite its European origins. It became thoroughly incorporated into Native cuisine through traditional dishes and contemporary fusions.

Persisting Pork Avoidance Among Select Tribes

However, pork avoidance and taboos also persisted in some tribes:

The Pima and Tohono O’odham peoples of the Southwest resisted pork and viewed pigs as disgusting well into the 1900s.
Many Mayans disliked pork’s fat, possibly due to genetic differences in fat metabolism.
Sonoran missionaries noted Apaches shunned pork and risked starvation rather than eat it.
Some Navajo converts to the Native American Church rejected pork for symbolic spiritual reasons.

So while most Native peoples adopted pork, distinct cultural taboos led others to consciously avoid it. Pork became yet another way Indigenous foodways adapted on their own terms to colonizer pressures.

Modern Revitalization of Native American Pork Traditions

Today, pork enjoys an established, if nuanced, place in Native American food culture:

Certain tribes like the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw operate their own pork farms and businesses.
Porkappearsprominentlyattribaleventsandceremonieslikepowwows.
Native chefs are reclaiming pork in creative restaurant dishes as a way of celebrating and evolving food traditions.
Traditional Indigenous pork preparations remain popular for their nostalgia and cultural resonance.

Far from disappearing, pork persists in Native cuisines that honor the past while moving into the future. Over centuries of change, Indigenous groups have maintained pork traditions on their own terms.

Pork holds a complex place in Native American cuisines. Originating with colonizers, it was both prized as a new resource and derided as an encroaching menace. While broadly adopted, pork avoidance also endured among select tribes. This nuanced history reveals how Native peoples navigated colonial pressures to shape their food cultures under adversity. Today, pork remains integral to Indigenous food sovereignty through traditional dishes and cultural evolution. The history of Native American pork consumption provides insights into resilience, adaptation, and celebration of identity.

do native americans eat pork

An Unwelcome Guest at the Table

For many natives, on the other hand, the question of eating pigs was not even under consideration. They kept doing what they always did, which was growing corn and beans, and they didn’t see how these new farmers could help them. Even so, and pushed onto ever more marginal plots, these Indians were still affected by the European herds. Cattle were said to have grazed on and destroyed Indian croplands, and then pigs dug up the leftovers just below the surface. This led to a lot of fights between the natives and the colonizers.

Some scholars have reasoned that livestock were a primary cause of the Indians’ rapid decline. Estimates of the Indian population before and after the arrival of Columbus vary, but all are catastrophic. Mexico’s population of roughly 20 million was reduced to 1. 6 million by 1618. Diseases like smallpox that Europeans brought with them came from animals that were kept as pets and lived close to their owners in the Old World. Influenza, for example, is known to have come initially from pigs. There is no record of this disease spreading in the Indies until 1518, but it’s possible that strains of the “swine flu” were brought there with Columbus’ eight pigs. [13].

The most distressing indications of pigs transmitting disease comes from Soto’s expedition to North America. No Europeans were said to have come to the Mississippi Valley in the century after Soto’s visit, but by the time the French came in the 1600s, most of the cities and towns Soto had seen had been destroyed, resulting in a population drop of 90–96%. Ann Ramenofsky and Patricia Galloway think that Soto’s hogs may be to blame for the loss of many native people living in the area. Swine can spread brucellosis, leptospirosis, trichinosis, tuberculosis, and even anthrax to people who live in the area as well as to the deer and turkeys they eat. Only a few of Soto’s wandering pigs would have been enough to infect the entire region. [14].

Along with bringing diseases from the Old World with them, like their Spanish masters, cattle and pigs pushed the Indians off of their own land. Former Indian agricultural plots made way for large Spanish pastures for livestock. Fray Antonio de Remesal noted in 1532 that in the Antilles the natives protested the pigs:

It was agreed that anyone with poroches in any of the maizales would be killed without any punishment and their bodies would be taken away by the natural forces that threatened the people who lived in this villa. [15].

For at least five years, from 1577 to 1584, Indians in Quito said, “The Spanish savages eat their own children.” ”[16] Even the cropland that remained was often destroyed by escaping or free-roaming herds. [17] The number and similarity of these complaints prove that the issue happened again and again wherever the Spanish brought their animals.

The Indians complained to the Cabildo in Mexico City, and the Spaniards said that the Indians planted their crops exactly where the animals would roam, which was a rather lame excuse. [18] In 1544, the Cabildo petitioned the king to stop the Indians from “disturbing” the livestock:

This city has been told that yndios mess up the pastures of ganados and abrazaderos and sit on land that has never been grazed. asy mismo bea e probea lo suso dicho para que asy mismo cese el dicho daño e perjuyzio. [19].

In 1549, the Spanish Crown made it illegal to raise pigs near Indian farmland, but there doesn’t seem to be any proof that this rule was widely followed, since complaints kept coming in. In the same way, a royal order was made in 1549 for Cartagena “prohibiendo que los españoles crien puercos en los poblados indios de encomiendas”[21], but it’s not clear what effect it had.

It was not just these native groups put out of place by pigs that found them disagreeable. It’s interesting that many Indians who started raising hogs came to dislike pork. It is said that the Pausan and Julime Indians of Coahuila, Mexico, raised pigs but never ate their meat. Instead they sold or traded them to non-Indians. The Otomi Indians of Central Mexico raised pigs and sold their meat to mestizos, even for most of the 20th century. Pork was only eaten at ceremonies. For example, these examples show that not all Indian tribes wanted to eat pork, even when it was easy to get. This is still true for those who ate European chickens or lamb. [22].

On the other end of the spectrum, there are examples of Indians who were disgusted by the thought of dealing with pigs. Even though they were few in number, there are strong signs that at least some natives hated the pig very much. An Indian in Michoacán wrote in the early 1600s that lard, along with jail time and beatings, was one of the worst things the Spanish came up with:

Como hemos tenido que vivir según las cosas que los españoles han imaginado contra nosotros porque nos han traído los señores, que tenemos ahora en prison, en apoyo, y enlardar con manteca: con todo estamos esperando morir. ”[23].

The Mayan Indians in general had an aversion to eating fat. Sophie Coe has said that it’s possible that these Indians have a genetic difference in how they burn fat, just like some groups in other parts of the world have trouble digesting lactose or alcohol. It is known that Indian workers in the Antilles got used to eating pork faster than Indian leisure class members, who often got gout. This supports her theory. [24] This could mean that adding pork or other meats to the Indian diet might have been a shock to the body. This might not have been as bad for Indians who were very active and burned more calories during the day.

Such reasoning helps to explain why some Indians didn’t like the pig, but it’s not enough to completely explain it away. Like in the Old World, some groups—this time, it was certain Indian tribes instead of Jews or Muslims—clearly and firmly refused to eat pig. This story about the Indians in Sonora, written by the missionary Ignaz Pfefferkorn in the 18th century, is eerily similar to the Old World porcine divide:

Los puercos no se crían en Sonora aunque podría ser muy fácil la introducción de este animal. In some parts of Spain, there are so many that the manteca de puerco is used every day as the only alternative to the mantequilla. No puede esperarse que esta actividad se desarrolle en Sonora porque nadie quiere ser criador de puercos. If you hoped an English speaker did it, you would be insulting their sovereignty, and no Indian could be persuaded to do it—not because they are proud, but because they hate the ports so much. The Indian hates this animal so much that he would rather go hungry than eat a piece of domestic pork. [25].

Even stranger, these same Indians hunted and ate the peccary, which looks a lot like a pig, but the Spaniards wouldn’t eat it! When Pfefferkorn asked his Indian informant why, the person replied, “El seno [peccary], dicen, no es un cochi [pig], por eso lo comemos, pero los cochis mansos son españoles.” “The Sonoran Indians’ refusal to eat pigs seems to be a personal preference, maybe an insult to the Spanish.” Even though the link between the two isn’t always clear, Sonora still eats a lot more beef than pork. [26].

As we can gather from these accounts, the Indians responded to the pig in a number of ways. It’s odd that there doesn’t seem to be a similar question about sheep or cattle, which by the end of the 1600s had become more important in the New World than pigs. Franciscan friars said that some Indians were scared of the big cattle at first, but they quickly learned to like beef. Sheep were quickly valued for both their meat and their wool, and this new animal was likely well received in places where llamas and alpacas were already common. We can add the European chicken to this list of animals that were welcomed. In a strange twist, the Náhuatl word Caxtillan means “land of chickens,” and it’s likely that the Indians liked the chickens more than the Castilians. [27] The pig wasn’t just picked up without any problems like these other foreign animals were. This was probably because of its diet, its ties to the Spanish armies that were invading, and its “dirty habits.” In short, Indian views on pigs are just as hard to explain as Jewish or even older Egyptian beliefs that people shouldn’t eat pork.

The Iberian Pig in Spain and the Americas at the time of Columbus

Pigs were the most common type of livestock on these rebuilt villages because they were especially good for early colonial work and were already easy to find in large numbers.

Along with learning Spanish, the Indians had to feed both the Spanish and themselves, pay respect to their conquerors, and adapt to the Spanish way of life.

Do Indians Eat Pork Or Ham?

FAQ

Did the Native Americans eat pork?

Native Americans reportedly became very fond of the taste of pork, resulting in some of the worst attacks on the de Soto expedition.

What kind of meat do Native Americans eat?

Much of the food consumed in Native American tradition was wild, sourced by hunter-gatherer societies. Common sources of protein included bison, birds, deer, elk, salmon, trout, and nuts. Meats were often smoked or dried as jerky.

What culture Cannot eat pork?

Both Judaism and Islam have prohibited eating pork and its products for thousands of years. Scholars have proposed several reasons for the ban to which both religions almost totally adhere. Pork, and the refusal to eat it, possesses powerful cultural baggage for Jews.

Is it okay for Indians to eat pork?

Among Hindus, 83% say they are either vegetarians or have restrictions on what kinds of meat they eat or when. The survey also finds that most Hindus say a person cannot be Hindu if they eat beef, and most Muslims say a person cannot be Muslim if they eat pork (see Chapter 5).

What Native Americans eat?

Here are just some of the delicious Native American dishes worth trying. Corn is a staple food throughout many Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Mexico, with a sacred significance and being highly nutritious, especially when processed through nixtamalization.

Can one eat pork?

A cooked, medium pork cutlet or steak provides 239 calories, 34 grams protein, 10 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, 697 milligrams sodium, and 0 grams carbohydrate, if you eat only the lean part of the steak. Pork contains many of the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) found in beef and it is high in protein, but can be lower in fat than beef—depending on cut and preparation. Meat from any kind of mammal, including pork, can cause an allergic reaction (and some people who are allergic to mammalian meat also react to poultry).

Who demystifies Native American cuisine?

“Chef Lois Ellen Frank demystifies .ew Native American cuisine”. OnMilwaukee.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2019. ^ “Traditional Foods in Native America: A compendium of traditional foods stories from American Indian and Alaska Native communities” (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 11, 2017.

Did the Indians eat a grain-based diet?

Uncle Sam will never admit that the Indians were tall, lean and healthy just two generations ago. If ever someone wanted proof that humans weren’t designed to eat a grain-based diet, look at the American Indian population-almost all of them are battling overweight, diabetes, and heart disease.