Food

The Sioux Indians' diet consisted largely of meat. They also ate many wild, fruits, nuts, and berries in addition to meat. Wild turnips, potatoes, and other roots were favorite foods which they added to soups. Meat wasn't always easy to get. Hunting was a difficult and dangerous job. A hunter often ate the raw liver of an animal as soon as he killed it. Its high nutritive value gave him the energy to butcher the meat and carry it back to his people.

The buffalo was the Sioux Indians' main source of food. A single buffalo provided a great amount of meat, the bulls averaging 700 kilograms and the cows averaging 450 kilograms. The meat was sometimes roasted on a spit or broiled in a skinbag with hot stones. This process also produced a rich nutritious soup. Also meat might have been hung on green branches over the fire to cook. The Sioux Tribe used the buffalo for many other things and none of the buffalo got wasted.


The Sioux Indians used a very simple process for drying meat. They cut it into very small strips and hung it on racks or sinew lines to dry. This jerky was used for making soups. Wild plants were added when they were available. Sometimes the dried meat was pounded into a powder and mixed with dried pounded berries and melted fat. This became a favorite food called pemmican, which could be carried on long trips or stored for winter. Meat preserved this way could be stored for years.