Indian Winter

!±8± Indian Winter

I made my teepee where the hunting is good,

It stands on ground where a great wolf stood.

Its powerful spirit will protect my home

And keep me safe when I must roam.

The season draws near when I must kill the deer;

We will prosper or die before Winter is here.

Yellow Moon lay awake as the fading stars crept across the smoke hole. False dawn lightened the eastern sky while wakening birds shattered the silence. The day's list of chores filled her mind, an occasional elusive thought keeping her from completing the tally.

There were the constant problems of finding dry wood for the fires, the filling of their three precious water jars and the endless strips of pemmican to be smoked for the winter provisions. Quietly, Yellow Moon rose from her bed of bearskin covered pine needles, left the teepee to gather a supply of beef jerky, a pouch of dried berries and nuts. The basket of food would keep Gray Wolf strong for his hunt.

Only one more full moon would pass before the snows came. Yellow Moon hated to leave this beautiful spot they called home all Spring and Summer. Soon gathering enough firewood would cost Gray Wolf a day's journey and the best hunting lay a fortnight to the North.

From his perch in a larch tree, Gray Wolf waited for a sign of deer. A light snowfall hid his scent and muffled the sounds of the forest. He began to stretch his muscles, stiff from the hours on the tree branch far above the ground.

At last, he spied a young buck and two does browsing on tree bark only ten man lengths away. Their path would take them within easy striking distance. The arrow twanged against the bowstring, bringing instant death to the buck and a promise of survival to his family. Many moons south on the shores of a wide river a special spot lay waiting for the new Blackfoot home.

As much as Yellow Moon loved their home, a sense of adventure provoked exciting thoughts of the coming journey. A comfortable space on the travois lined with rabbit fur would secure the safety of their two winter old daughter, Little Feather. The tribe's herbalist told her of the many large fish living in the river and of the rich soil for the growing of crops. The bag of precious seed in its protective wrapping would ravel in a place of honor.

As Yellow Moon spun the bow to start the new day's fire, wild stories of white men's wind ships seen sailing upstream failed to mar her vision. Only the dangers of hunger and sickness hovered in her thoughts. A burning spark in her mind kept alive her will to survive, for in her body grew the seed of the future chief of the Blackfoot tribe.

Indian Winter

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The History of Beef Jerky

!±8± The History of Beef Jerky

Jerky was first introduced by the South American (Peru) native tribe called the Quechua (part of the ancient Inca Empire) in 1550. The product (Ch'arki), was boned and defatted meat (deer, elk, or buffalo) cut into slices and rubbed with salt. This meat was rolled up in the animal's hide for 10-12 hours and then sun dried or smoked over fires.

In South America, the Native Americans ate sun-dried venison and buffalo called tassajo, which was made with strips of meat dipped in maize flour, sun and wind dried, and then tightly rolled up into balls. North American Cree Indians mixed berries and suet (fat) with pounded cooked meat and pressed into concentrated small cakes to make pemmican.

Biltong came from pioneering South African forefathers who sun dried meat while traveling across the African subcontinent. Folklore has it that African tribesmen would place strips of venison under the saddles of their horses to tenderize and spice the meat! Seasoning became a blend of vinegar, salt, sugar, coriander and other spices.

The Indians and early settlers dried meat primarily from deer, elk or buffalo using salt, whatever spices they had and sun drying. As the Spanish arrived, the name evolved to charqui. Most travelers preferred to pound the charqui between large stones and boil it in water before eating. During ocean exploration and colonization, the Spanish sailors stocked the pacific islands with goats. What couldn't be eaten would then be cut into strips and hung in their ships to air dry. When the Spanish Conquistadors invaded the Americas, they were surprised to see the natives of North America drying meat as well. Soon, the natives adopted the Spanish term, Charqui, only adding their accent; the word "jerky" first came to be.

North American Pioneers would first dry meat by hanging it on the outside of their covered wagon sun drying (2-3 days). Another method was to build a scaffold over a slow fire and smoke the strips. While the heat and smoke would complete the process in half a day, the smoking method required a stopover; it wasn't long before awareness for disease and germs became prevalent and smoking became the norm.

Today jerky is made from thin strips of virtually any meat or from ground or chopped and formed meat. Manufacturers spice and dehydrate the product; some introduce smoke or using liquid smoke for flavoring.

The History of Beef Jerky

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