Hunger shaped the early Northeast. As Native peoples fought back against the invasion of British and French colonizers, everyone experienced, used, succumbed to, and survived hunger.
Haudenosaunee and Wabanaki peoples had spent generations honing their subsistence strategies to their environments. Colonizers, by contrast, struggled to adapt to North America and found themselves deeply dependent upon Native American foods.
In response, colonists constructed myths of starving Native people to justify colonialism and spent centuries attacking Native food sovereignty. [Read more…] about Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast