Bear's Den: "How Sweet... the 'Tater Is"

Good ole midsummer. Warm days and cool nights make both living, and sleeping… well… kind´a dreamy. It´s also the time of year when kesa´thwa (the sun) has traveled half-way. Yep, summer´s half over. From this point on, the days are getting shorter and the sun is scooting, ever faster, into the pak-shi-moki (west). It´s sad… but true. Still, there are some things worthwhile happening. I mean, mi-hik-oh-pina (red potato) greens are ready to pick and eat, and although I´m the first, and dare I say… ´only´… one to admit how sweet I am, nothing beats the sweet tater for a midsummer´s sugary trance.

The other day, after work, I stopped and picked my 86-year-old mom a mess of poke (polk salad). She likes this wild form of spinach, and so do I. I went from plant to plant, taking leaves here and there. Indians have eaten these and other greens for eons in this land. Um-hmm, the mi-hik-oh-pina, also known as the sweet potato, has some tasty greens, too. Sweet potatoes are native to the Americas. Uh-huh, like the white potato, tomato and corn, it was originally found here and no place else on the Earth Mother. And sweet tater greens are good stuff. Once they´ve risen to the height where a few leaves can be plucked from the plants, you can gather some. Like any greens that you´re harvesting, as long you´re careful, and pick sparingly, the plants will survive, and you can have a mess of greens in the meantime. The young vine tips and leaves of the sweet potato are cooked like polk salad, mustard or turnip greens, and they´re mighty tasty. They were a summer staple for the American Indian and remain a favored "Midsummer´s Nights Dream"… for the green lover. But let´s talk about the ´root´ of the problem here, shall we?

In lawa´kweeki (the south), where my folks hail from, sweet potatoes are a fixture in the cuisine. I´m sure that most folks have heard of sweet potato pie, hmm? Yeah, well, just so you know, the sweet potato is totally different than the yam. People often get them mixed up, but they´re not the same. Yams are native to Asia and Africa and they aren´t even distantly related to sweet potatoes. Although native to the Americas, the sweet potato has been radiocarbon-dated in the Cook Islands to 1000 AD, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 AD (possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back) and they spread across Polynesia to Hawaii and New Zealand from there. But another train of thought is that it´s possible that South American Indians brought it to the Pacific. Who knows? But this is a fact. While sweet potatoes and yams aren´t related, the me-ash-ee-tha-ke (white potato) is, indeed, a distant cousin to the sweet tater. And like the greens, white and red potatoes alike, were a reliable food source for American Indians. The sugary sweet tater had the added benefit of providing all kinds of good stuff for your health, too.

Sweet potatoes are rich in dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates, beta carotene (a vitamin A equivalent nutrient), vitamin B6 and vitamin C. Yes´sir, and despite the name "sweet", they may actually be beneficial for diabetics, as some studies on animals have revealed that they help to stabilize blood sugar levels and to lower insulin resistance. They have other uses, too. The red tubers provide an important starch, which is used commercially in laundries, in sizing textiles and papers, and in manufacturing adhesives. In fact, some Indian nations used to make a crude form of paper from the old sweet tater. And, while all of that´s nice, the likes of a fat ole Indian like me… finds eating the most appealing.

Now here´s something you may find surprising – the same genus that contains the sweet potato also includes several garden flowers called morning glories. Uh-huh, I said morning glories – yep. That term is not usually given to the ´sweet tater´ but they´re in the same family. The sweet potato is small compared to the yam and the outside peel color of the root ranges between red, purple, brown and white. The inside ranges from white to yellow, orange, and purple. Conversely, yams are most always orangish-yellow – inside and out. Sweet potatoes can be harvested from the time the leaves turn yellow till the plant dies. The longer they stay in the ground after the leaves turn blonde, then the more nutrient rich they will be. But, they have to be picked once the plant dies or the roots will rot.

Indians fixed sweet potatoes lots of ways. They were added to stews and baked in stone ovens, but one the most important uses was as a winter staple or traveling food. Sweet potatoes were sliced into thin chips and sun dried. This made them a super healthy food for travel and a winter sustenance that would last through the koonas (snows). Me, well, I´m really partial to just a baked sweet tater and butter – you´betcha. And, like I said, while I´m the ´only one´ to admit how sweet I am… nothing beats the sweet tater for a midsummer´s sugary trance.

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David Walks-As-Bear is an Inter-Tribal Elder and Kispoko Shawnee Indian. He works as a private game warden and detective captain, and is a novelist and syndicated newspaper columnist living in Northwest Michigan. Contact him at The White Lake Beacon: 231-894-5356 or visit his website at: www.Walks-As-Bear.com