Anthills and cranberries.

Long ago, Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains would celebrate a great hunt by feasting on sizzling chunks of buffalo meat. in other parts of the country, tribes hunted other game, tended gardens, and fished.

Groups of Native Americans that lived on the northwestern coast of the United States fished for salmon, cod, and halibut in the rivers and ocean. Tribes that lived east of the Mississippi River hunted deer, bear, and other animals in the heavily wooded forests.

To create a balanced diet, the native settlers planted gardens. And many tribes harvested the plants that grew in the wild.

Apaches in the desert Southwest roasted mescal, a spineless cactus, to make a highly nutritious dessert. They also harvested the pinyon nuts, prickly pear cactuses, acorns, yucca, sunflowers, mesquite, and saguaro that grew wild in the area.

Native Americans in the coastal forests of the Northwest dug camus roots and harvested cranberries and blueberries.

Many groups made meals out of things that would seem very unappetizing to people today. Those who lived on the plains raided anthills in the early morning. They washed the ants, crushed them into a paste, and made soup from the paste.

Other tribes dried, boiled, or roasted, and then ate grasshoppers. Some boiled wild peas with meat fat.

Besides these unlikely meals, many Native Americans also ate turtle eggs, wild artichokes, morning-glory roots, cottonwood bark, and wild onions. They gathered wild fruits such as buffalo berries, serviceberries, and wild plums.

How well and how often the native settlers ate depended mainly on whether they had a permanent home. Some lived in one place and resided in permanent lodges. Others were nomads and traveled around in search of food. The nomadic tribes did not fare as well as the groups that lived in established communities.

The Mandans lived in permanent homes along the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota. They grew squash and pumpkins and stored the harvest to eat during the lean winter months. But the Paiutes, who roamed the deserts of the West, hunted rabbits, ate insects, and frequently starved during the winter.

Several groups of nomadic Native Americans settled in communities and began farming. These people grew vegetables and corn, which they stored in caches dug in the floors of their homes.

Many farming tribes lived along the Missouri River. They grew beans, squash, pumpkins, and corn in the fertile bottom land. Common foods they ate included pumpkin soup and boiled corn soup.

To the Pawnee, who lived along the Platte River in Nebraska, maize, or corn, was the most important crop. In fact, the corn plant was sacred to them.

The Navajos of the desert Southwest raised corn, wheat, and melons near rivers and lakes. They also herded sheep and goats. They took great joy in their peach orchards. At one time, the Navajos nurtured more than five thousand peach trees.

Many of the nomadic groups followed the buffalo herds. After the men in the tribe killed the bison, the women sliced the buffalo meat into paper thin strips. The meat was then hung on racks to dry in the wind and hot summer sun. They saved the buffalo jerky to eat during the winter months.

The cooks also prepared pemmican. Pemmican was made by combining equal parts of buffalo fat, dried deer meat or other game, and dried fruit such as berries, plums, or cherries. The mixture was pounded in a hollow rock, formed into bricks, and then dried. It was eaten raw, or it was simmered in water and made into a thick soup. The pemmican was also stored and kept for the long winter months.

Whether the Native Americans followed the buffalo or farmed, they all celebrated the arrival of spring. For the warm winds brought fruits to be picked, nuts to be gathered, and ample game to be hunted.