more able and skillful hunters. Each tribe had different methods of hunting, preservation, and preparation of meat (Cox, Jacobs 98). One method of the nomadic plains tribes for cooking was to use rawhide cooking vessels which came from the hump of the buffalo, staked over a mound of earth and left to dry in the shape of a bowl. The pot was put in a shallow hole near the fire, and then carefully selected stones that would not shatter easily would be put in the fire and transferred to the bowl with wood or bone tongs to heat the contents of the pot. Some items that they would be cooking would be thinly sliced or diced fresh or dried meat, wild vegetables, and tubers (Cox, Jacobs 98).Another method of cooking was to use a paunch of freshly killed animal suspended with stakes, of which inside it was placed water and meat, along with organ meats and the stones (Cox, Jacobs 99). The plains hunters leading a mobile life would find ways to reduce bulk to become efficient in moving there belongings, which was one of the reasons foods were dried such as jerky. Jerky consisted of thinly sliced meat spread out and dried in the sun. Other ways of preserving the meat to reconstitute later into a broth would be to bake the meat over the coals, pound with stones into a pulp, mixed with bone marrow and packed into rawhide containers. The tribes would also trade with river and eastern tribes for dried corn, squash, and wild rice (Cox, Jacobs 99).The tribes who were nomadic to pursue hunting buffalo would trade dried meat, tanned hides, and decorated garments for vegetables of the tribes that were raising vegetables. Corn, beans, and squash were all dried to reduce bulk. Corn could be left to dry in the fields, gathered and shelled to make into hominy by boiling with ashes. Corn was also parched by baking in pottery containers over fires. Later it could be pounded into a coarse flour mixed with either sunflower seed flour, shelled nut meats, service berri...
