I'm currently in the middle of a research paper about the origins of traditional "southern food". Of course, right next to the fried chicken and greens, in many of our minds, is a solid hunk of cornbread. I'm actually having an extremely hard time finding any sources about cornbread itself; specifically if Native Americans were preparing anything similar to what we see today as cornbread, or if they stuck more to cornmeal and grits style products. Anything that could be shared on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
The Native Americans didn't have ovens to bake cornbread in metal cake molds, but they made flat pancakes and "crepes" with corn instead (for example the Hopi Indians still make something similar to tortilla as well as a paper-thin bread called piki with blue corn). According to Encyclopedia of American Foods And Drinks:
"Native Americans roasted their corn and ground it into meal to make cakes, breads, and porridges...The new cereal was precious and helped the early settlers to survive those first harsh years. ..Before long uniquely American dishes were being developed on the basis of this new grain, including an Indian bread called 'pone' or 'corn pone' (from the Algonquin word 'apan,' [meaning] baked) made of cornmeal, salt and water. This was later called 'corn bread' and has been a staple of American cooking to this day...Once the [corn] crops took hold throughout the colonies, cornmeal foods were everyday fare..."