Navajo Food

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In the basic four Navajo food groups, there is the Navajo corn and wheat category. That's bread and cereals to the mainstream. It includes kneeldown bread, Navajo cake, Navajo pancakes, blue dumplings, blue bread, hominy, steam corn, roast corn, wheat sprouts and squash blossoms stuffed with blue corn mush.

Wild foods are in the list of fruits and vegetables. There's corn silk, wild celery, wild onion, Navajo spinach (Beeweed and Pigweed), wolfberry, wax currant, sumac berry, juniper berry, yucca bananas, squash, melons and Navajo tea (Telesperma.)

Protein comes from mutton and nearly all parts of the sheep are eaten. These include organ meats, head and blood sausage, wild game such as deer and rabbit, pinon nuts, squash seeds, tumble mustard seeds and pinto beans. Corn was an improved source of protein when combined with beans or nuts.

In the milk and cheese group, there's goat milk and goat cheese. Wild edible clay was added to some foods, such as wild potatoes and some berries, which increased the calcium. Another source of calcium was the juniper ash in blue corn meal mush dishes.