New book digs into Indigenous cuisine through archaeology, culture and ecology

And it’s all part of “cuisine,” write the book’s editors in their introduction to “Ancient Indigenous Cuisines: Archaeological Explorations of the Midcontinent” (University of Alabama Press, $39.95). Jodie O’Gorman, editor of Ancient Indigenous Cuisine (Courtesy Jodie O’Gorman)The book is written by and for professional archaeologists and students, but it could interest anyone curious about Indigenous food culture. The book explores wild rice’s role in Indigenous cuisine, its habitats and its deep connection to Indigenous identity in the Great Lakes region, said Susan Kooiman, assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University. “Manoomin is highly important to certain Anishinaabe identities and cuisines.”Autumn Painter, an editor of a new book about Ancient Indigenous cuisine. Kooiman said the book seems to have come at a “perfect timing” along with a growing public interest in Indigenous foodways.