Clams Reference library
Joseph M. Carlin
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2 ed.)
...), ocean quahog ( Arctica islandica ), hard-shell clam ( Mercenaria mercenaria ), soft-shell clam ( Mya arenaria ), and Manila clam ( Tapes philippinarum ). Before Europeans arrived in America, Native Americans harvested clams. Huge piles of clamshells or kitchen middens identify old Indian campsites. Native Americans used the hard-shell clam, also known as a quahog, as a source of food and medium of exchange and for sealing friendships. The purple part of the shell, along with the white part of periwinkle shells, were fashioned into beads, strung on sinew,...
Native American Foods Reference library
Alice Ross, Alice Ross, and Alice Ross
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2 ed.)
...were caught for their meat and their eggs and were often cooked whole in the shell. Freshwater and saltwater eels were also caught by spearing, sometimes in basket traps. In the winter, hunters sometimes used their bare feet to locate eels hiding dormant in the mud and then caught them with their bare hands. Shellfish was easy to obtain. Quahog and soft clams, razor clams, whelks, and oysters abounded and were simply available for the taking. The presence of large middens (shell deposits) along the East Coast and eastern rivers attests to the mammoth...
