Foods of the Subarctic Tribes

The subarctic area that spans the continent provided tribes such as the Beavers, Carriers, Chilcotins, Chipewyans, Cree, Ingaliks, Kaskas, Kutchins, andTanainas around Cook Island salmon, catfish, beluga whales, seals and otters as well as land animals and fowl, bears, beavers, berries, camas bulbs, caribou, hares, moose, roots, salmon, trout, and whitefish. To the north, in the vast arctic region that stretches 12,000 miles from the eastern Aleutian Islands to Greenland, Inuit peoples ate according to the environment: inland, mountain, coastal. They consumed salmon, whales, seals, caribou (and the partially digested greens in their stomachs), moose, squirrels, walrus, narwhals, shellfish, birds, berries, bears, wolverines, foxes. seals, polar bears, narwhal and beluga whales, cod and other Arctic fish, ptarigans, owls, guillmot eggs, and walruses. Although they ate mainly meats, historically those meats and fish were not polluted and they did not mix sugar and processed foods into their diets.

Taken from Devon A. Mihesuah, Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness (University of Nebraska Press, 2005).