How did the native Americans get food in the winter when they couldn't grow crops until the spring?

Question

How did the native Americans get food in the winter when they couldn't grow crops until the spring?

Answer 1

It depends on the tribe and the region they lived in. The Salish tribes live in a region with plentiful food inland on the Columbia plateau.  They had a strong trade route with the Nez perce and the tribes west of the mountains. The coastal tribes or those living in the Puget Sound area like the Lummi, Makah, and Skagit  had the shore and forest with mild winters. They did not all stay in one place even if they had permanent villages so they had a broad variety available either through trade or by traveling to summer hunting camps. They often traveled through the passes or along the Columbia. Tribes like the The Nez Perce seasonally migrated throughout their territory but all came to fish when the salmon were running.

They had a bread or cake with berries boiled then dried for winter food. The berries were a type of currant. They cooked this with water to make porridge. They used various plants to flavor food including big leaf maple leaves to line the steaming pit when cooking. They dried fish, seal, migrant water fowl, game birds and venison they could make soup from. Bulbs like wild onion, or camas stored well and leaves of many plants dried well for winter use as flavorings for soup. They had rose hips from  Rosa nootka for vitamin C.  They used whale, candlefish, or salmon oil like Greeks used olive oil. Many roots like wild carrot, seeds from sun flowers and nuts from pine trees store well to be used all winter for starch sources. The one thing they did not have was a type of cereal grain.

The tribes traded for food, elk meat might trade for whale oil.

Answer 2

They hunted.

Answer 3

Hunting, fishing, and saving/hording crop supplies through the winter.

Answer 4

well not all of us lived on buffalo meat that's for d**n sure.  that's just a plain generalization.  There were many meat sources to tap into.  Depending on the area, like mentioned by a few, there was the obvious of buffalo, but there were deer, elk, mountain goat, salmon, halibut, tidal goods like clams, crab, oysters.  Every tribe had their own way of preserving it.  some smoked it, some dried it.  some was dried and then shredded and added to lard and berries.  But that's just meat.  many tribes stored food in underground "freezers."  obviously not freezers, but the next best thing for them.  They dug down to the permafrost level, lined with logs and flat slabs, added shelves.  Contrary to belief we were quite adept at living.  Sure there were times when it got rough, but with careful planning no one went hungry.

As for plants and veggies, same for that too.  In the old days, there was no such thing as a lazy native.  Everyone had a job to do, or someone starved that winter.  Even children as young as 3 were taught how to recognize  berries that were good to eat, how to dig roots and store them for food later.

Answer 5

The whole point of cultivation (raising crops) is to harvest MORE than you will use.  The excess corn, for example, could be dried and ground into cornmeal.  Excess meat could be turned into jerky.  And, of course, they could still hunt and fish during the winter.