9781422277485

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C onn ect i ng C u ltu r es T hrough F am i ly and F ood

Introduction

A Choctaw legend tells of two menwho go out on a hunting trip. As night falls and darkness comes, they stop to make camp and start a fire. They have very little food, however, just a single rabbit to share between them. They cook the rabbit, but before they can eat their meager meal, they hear the sound of crying. Upon going to investi-

gate, they find a woman all alone. She tells them that she has gotten lost and is hungry. Wanting to help, the hunters take her to their camp. Despite their ownhunger, they offer her the rabbit, but thewoman takes just one bite. Then she thanks them, and tells themto return thenext day to where they had found her. With that, she is gone.

Naming Rights

Several terms have been used to describe the people who first lived in the Americas, including American Indian and Native American. Some dislike these terms though, because the word “America” originated with Europeans, and Native people had been here long before the Europeans arrived. For that reason, some prefer to be called indig- enous peoples or, in Canada, people of First Nations. The title of this book uses “Native American” to most clearly refer both to the region now called North America, as well as to the people who first populated it. Throughout the text, however, a number of terms are used to recognize the diversity and different opinions within the Native community.