Video
Culinary Creativity
Transcript
Hello and welcome to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. uh My name is Chris Mather and I'm a cultural resource manager for the National Park Service. Uh, The land at which the monument sits was acquired from the Cook family and established as a national monument in 1965. If you're not familiar, with the location of Agate, we're actually in the western panhandle of Nebraska sandwiched in between the towns of Harrison and Mitchell, Nebraska. James Cook made his way to Nebraska in 1870s. ah It was during this time uh, he befriended uh a Lakota Sioux leader named Red Cloud. uh, As their friendship grew, uh Cook and his family would often invite Red Cloud and his people to the ranch where they would exchange stories and gifts. Uh, Some of those gifts we'll see today, ah but they also, include ah things like beaded moccasins, painted hides, and uh smoking pipes.
Ah, for today's discussion, we'll actually be taking a closer look at some of the um culinary tools and food processing items that are found here at the Cook collection. Okay, so among the items that we have here today, we're first going to start off with
um, some uh bowls, and and plates. So typically, when you're eating, (laughs) obviously, you're eating on something.and it was no different for Red Cloud and his people as well. So the first thing we have here is actually a wooden bowl, and so bowls are typically made from wood or stone, and this one in particular was made from walnut. Ah, Walnut was a higher quality wood and more desirable wood and uh while this one was made from the trunk of a tree. And you might actually be able to see ah, the marks inside the bowl here. The tree rings, um, it was more desirable actually, to carve a bowl from a knot or a burl of a tree.That way it was kind of also already had a round shape to it, which made the less work for processing, and it also lasted, it was, had a stronger integrity to itself. Um, Now we trip our bowls are typically and plates are made from porcelain or even metal. This is an interesting piece here because this is a plate that's actually made from a piece of rawhide. So you can see here they've kind of folded it up like a taco, or uh transportation or just, just for storage um and it's also been decorated.
So here uh and I'll come closer to the camera, you can see some bead work on the outside of the vessel, and also these tin cones. Ah, These tin cones were pretty popular decoration item and at the end of the cone here you'll see we have dyed red horsehair. So pretty neat. uh, Wouldn't always think of, uh you know, your plate would be to fold up like this but certainly reusable. And then along with bowls or other like food processing items, uh, here we have a pestle and mortar. And so mortars were typically created from rock or stone, and they were used to grind up um really grain or make medicines uh with different um natural remedies. And, so you can see it's kind of concave on the inside, and it's kind of, you know, has a flat base to hold on it and the pestle which would be used to grind whatever material was in the mortar has a kind of a rounded flat edge to it, or here... and so that's doesn't occur naturally obviously, that's over years of grinding. The material ah, in the mortar. This is a unique piece because while most pestles are made from rock, which this you know in some cases is, this is actually a fossilized femur.
So, um, we're here at Agate Fossil Beds. Uh, you're likely to find a few fossils here in the collection as well. So, kind of a neat piece. Um, so when we do eat, ah, we typically use utensils when we eat, and we're probably more familiar with utensils like this.This is a just a metal fork with three tines and it has, you know, a wood handle. Now you might actually have one of these in your drawer at home. This is a more fancier knife; this is a butter knife, and it has a, um, nice pearl handle attached to it here. So,um, these come from Cook's family. But more traditionally, um, ah, we'll find other utensils that are made or modified from other things in the environment, so, like this piece here is a spoon that was made from the horn of a buffalo or bison. So, you kind of can see how and they've
used it or modified it to serve a purpose, and so it's kind of a that's a big spoon for me, but (laughs) maybe not so much for other people. Some spoons, uh, or ladles were made from horn as well.So, this is a horn From a big horn sheep, and you can see how it's been hand crafted and modified. um, It's still pretty sturdy and strong um, and, ah, probably not something you find at your house every day. And here's a smaller spoon made from uh uh bighorn sheep as well, and you can see they've actually decorated it with a different assortment of beads, and uh, there's, uh, let's see if that's in focus.
There we go. Okay, so, when, ah, we think about processing food, ah we have several methods that we use today that the Cooks certainly used, um, back in the late 1800s
and early 1900s. and that's you know, when you're making mashed potatoes, for instance, you might come across a potato masher. Uh, This one's a bit older than probably what you have at your house, but we'd use, you know, we 'd mash the potatoes, or maybe we would actually, um, spin,
uh, Gee, uh. What is this?
[Voice from behind the camera]: beater
Yeah, use a beater. (laughs) uh, We'd maybe use a beater to, to mix the potatoes or mix something else. Um, Traditionally speaking, uh mashing and pounding and mixing things was done through, what are referred to as malls, or we might call it a hammer. And there were several sizes of um malls and so, first, a er a mid or a middle-sized mall.
You might see something like this. So, it's a piece of stone that's wrapped in rawhide to give it stability and it's attached to a handle. Now this is a particularly interesting mall because it not only has a traditional rawhide cover, but it's also beaded. and you guys take a good close look at this here really nice bead pattern, and then at the head of the maul here, you can see a distinct different color. It's much different than the stone,
and this is residue from its use and it's likely from a different assortment of berries, um, or, or some sort of fruit that it was used to mash and kind of pound the, ah, fruit to a, a different consistency. So, mauls in general, like I said were used to kind of pound and soften foods. A large maul like this would actually be used to break bone. So, you can see uh this maull is actually heavily wrapped in rawhide and it actually has a piece of
wood inside to help it, uh, help the head be stable while in use. um, So, a maul of this
size would be used to break bone, most likely bison or buffalo bone to get at the marrow of the of the bone and it was a really, tasty treat.
Okay, so, we're just discussing uh kind of some of the products or uses of the maul, and here we're actually going to look at something that was made by a maul and that's pemmican. So, if you're not familiar with pemmican, it is essentially, ah, meat, or in most instances, it was bison or buffalo meat ah, mixed, mixed and pounded together with berries or local cherry sources like chokecherries, things like that, ah, and then mixed together with tallow which is a sort of animal fat, and together it would be made and mounded into these uh cakes, And, so, uh, we might think of something in today's um world like jerky, you know. And, so, these are actually pemmican cakes. You can see them here in this jar. Uh, These were made in 1932, and, um, if this jar would open, and you're adventurous, you might actually want to try a piece and see if it still tasted good. But, actually, uh pemmican, if, um, stored properly and well-made could last for over, uh, about a year. And, so, it was a very, uh, good source of food for long travels or even over the winter. So, it was a fairly popular food choice from the area.
Um, Here we have an assortment of scrapers, uh, so, or fleshers. So, a flesher or scraper was used to scrape off hides Uh, get the kind of, get some of the meat material off the hides. And there are three types of scrapers that we here have here today. This is a more of a traditional scraper which is made from bone, and you'll notice and see it has no metal edge.It's just been a modified ah piece of bone that you would use to then,
you know, scrape or remove material from the hide. Now, as we see, you know, um more trade, more extensive trade and obviously the westward migration with immigrants, um, these scrapers would be become modified. So, here's a scraper that's made from bone, but you'll see that it's been modified with a metal edge. So, obviously having a sharp metal edge would be, ah, would require less work to, and probably a better result, and finished product from scraping. Ah, This is a scraper as well that's in the collection. Uh, this is an interesting piece in itself, because it's actually, uh, from the
bore of a of a rifle that's been modified. Um, and it's been, uh, kind of transformed essentially to use, to use as a scraper. You'll also notice it's ,it's in a much different shape. It doesn't have a hook edge on it anymore. It's just more of a straight and ah blunt.
So, um, a pretty popular method of packaging and transporting items were rawhide bags. These are commonly referred to as parfleche bags, but, ah, the collection here has a very large assortment of it. Here's a kind of a small flat parfleche bag. You'll see these colors and geometric kind of shapes is very popular design on parfleche bags. So, a bag like this would have been most likely used for travel. It's flat in nature so it could be easily stored; ah, also, a good place to store your pemmican if you don't have a jar, would be in a bag like this. Um.
So kind of a neat, a unique little piece here. Um, This is a much larger, uh, what I would say, more of like a luggage (laughs) case or box. And again, it's made from rawhide. Ah, These pieces, though they're made from multiple pieces of rawhide, are actually one single piece of rawhide. So they would, you know, stretch the rawhide out. They would cut the rawhide and then they would fold it and sew it or stitch it back together to make the object that they wanted, whether it was a big box or a small pouch. These square or more rectangular, um, parfleche bags is what we'll call, I guess, uh, we became more popular kind of the end of the or late 1800s. As you know horse and buggy became more accessible, um, stacking and moving things, uh, through a wagon, it was much easier to stack things if they were in a box.
This is not parfleche at all. This is actually, um, the bladder of a bison and so this is just a good example of how, uh, some things were repurposed to serve other purposes from an animal. Uh, we've already seen a couple examples with the bone and the horns, but this is a bladder. So, a bladder was very durable um, and once removed could be used for a variety of things. Uh, This one is decorated with, ah, feather, uh, and beads and so this was likely used as just a catch-all bag you might say. So, if you're collecting, um, porcupine quills or maybe, uh, collecting some berries, for instance, you might take this bag with you and fill it up with that material. Uh, Bladders have also been used for canteens or liquids, things to store liquid in as well. But this one's a little more decorative and probably had a bunch of multiple uses.
So, while we don't have knives with us out here today, we do have a few interesting knife sheaths. So, knives are very important ah trade item on the plains, and, um, certainly, when you're processing an animal ,um, a knife would be much handier than, um, you know, using a bone or rock, something of that nature. So we have a, you know, what you would expect and what you might have at your own house is a, a leather uh knife sheath with riveted ends here to kind of keep it tight. Um, there's some leather work on here, as well, so this is probably a more traditional, ah, knife sheath.
This one's a little more interesting. So we just talked about parfleche bags. Ah, This is a knife sheath that's actually been repurposed from a parfleche bag. And it's, ah, pretty easy to tell that because if we go look back at the other material, we always see these, ah, geometric shapes and these color patterns on the parfleche bag. So, this was a bag that maybe it ripped or torn, and, uh, they decided to repurpose it as a knife sheath. So, ah, pretty neat. And then this item here, and you might see this in your powerpoint presentation, is, a just, a really ornate beaded knife sheath, and, um, you can see again there's some geometric shapes here. We have a nice red outline border. We again see our, um, tin cones and, uh, there were the ends of them were feathered. They were decorated with feather and then it has these nice tassels here as well.
So, I hope you guys, uh, learned a few things about uh some of the culinary or food processing tools here we have at the Cook Gallery and we’ll catch you when you come here! (Laughs)
Description
Explore some of the culinary tools and food processing items that are found in the Cook collection at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. These are items used by Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribe members. They gifted these items to James Cook and his family when they were invited to the Cook ranch named Agate Springs Ranch, which would later become the monument. NOTE: Audio Description is built into the main video.
Duration
20 minutes, 41 seconds
Credit
Nebraska Writing Project
Copyright and Usage Info