In The Revenant (book), there are several instances of dogs being eaten as a luxury foodstuff. The Pawnee are specifically mentioned as being in the habit of eating dog once in a while.
Outside of feasting or "special times," what was their relationship to their dogs? Were they pets? Guard dogs only? Did they participate in hunts? Or were they much like free-range chickens - just kind of low maintenance "meat on the hoof."
The indigenous peoples of central and southern Mexico kept hairless dogs, related to the modern Xoloitzcuintli breed, for companionship and food for thousands of years. The majority of the shaft tombs of Colima contain ceramic dogs in various poses including being played with, eating corn, and sleeping. These dogs are all depicted as rather pudgy and with short legs, leading experts to believe that they weren't used for hunting or fighting and were predominately used for food by the ancient people of Colima. Some of the dogs are shown wearing human masks which historians believe to be related to the belief common throughout native Mexicans that dogs serve as guides for souls in the afterlife. The remains of dogs and depictions thereof are found in the tombs of numerous other indigenous Mexican cultures including the Maya, Toltecs, and Aztecs.
While I'm not sure how frequently plains tribes ate their dogs, I do know that dogs were very important work animals before the arrival of the horse. Because plains tribes were mobile, large dogs were used as pack animals. Belongings would be loaded onto a small travois and pulled behind the dogs. In fact, the Blackfoot originally called horses "elk dogs" when they first began encountering them. One story of the arrival of the horse, "The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog," implies that when they weren't working, some dogs were background annoyances.
Now he was like a beaten, mangy dog, the kind who hungrily roams outside a camp, circling it from afar, smelling the good meat boiling in the kettles but never coming close for fear of being kicked.
However, others would treat dogs similarly to how we treat them now: loyal companions. Later on in the same story, Long Arrow returns to "where his faithful dog greeted him joyfully."
As for the food aspect, they probably wouldn't be eaten too frequently simply because they served other purposes. In rough winters, perhaps, but I don't think they'd serve as a delicacy. I teach near a reservation and kids will joke that there are no stray dogs on the Cheyenne reservation...
Here is an interesting site with a summary of dogs and their relationships to different tribes and suggests that plains dogs were used as pack animals, occasionally as food, as alarms for intrusions, and sometimes as aids in hunting.
Hi, you might be interested in some previous threads about dogs. Check out this one, which has links to a few more. (Although offhand I don't recall examples of dogs raised for food)
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Thanks all for the answers - anything about Plains Indians and their, um, cuisine? Were certain dogs "meat" dogs?
