Survival Food: North Woods Stories by a Menominee Cook

Publisher's Description (Wisconsin Histoical Society): In these coming-of-age tales set on the Menominee Indian Reservation of the 1980s and 1990s, Thomas Pecore Weso explores the interrelated nature of meals and memories. As he puts it, “I cannot separate foods from the moments in my life when I first tasted them.” Weso’s stories recall the foods that influenced his youth in northern Wisconsin: subsistence meals from hunted, fished, and gathered sources; the culinary traditions of the German, Polish, and Swedish settler descendants in the area; and the commodity foods distributed by the government—like canned pork, dried beans, and powdered eggs—that made up the bulk of his family’s pantry. His mom called this “survival food.” These stories from the author’s teen and tween years— some serious, some laugh-out-loud funny—will take readers from Catholic schoolyards to Native foot trails to North Woods bowling alleys, while providing Weso’s perspective on the political currents of the era. The book also contains dozens of recipes, from turtle soup and gray squirrel stew to twice-baked cheesy potatoes. This follow-up to Weso’s Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir is a hybrid of modern foodways, Indigenous history, and creative nonfiction from a singular storyteller.

Author's Biography (Wisconsin Historical Society): Thomas Pecore Weso is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Nation of Wisconsin. He is the author of Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), which won a national Gourmand Award, and the children’s book Native American Stories for Kids. Weso is an alumnus of Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas, where he earned a master’s degree in Indigenous studies. He is a born-and-bred Cheesehead and a happy family chef. He currently resides in Sonoma County, California.

Resource type: Book (Non-fiction)

Age recommendation: Grades 7-9, 10-12, Post secondary

Keywords: Indigenous food memoir, food, memoir, Menominee, Indian, Wisconsin, reservation, rez, commodity foods, instant meals, memories, moments, stories, eating, WWII, World War Two, World War 2, Korean war, international cuisine, traditions, hunting, fishing, farming, hunt, fish, farm, recipes, Wolf River, Potawatomi, Jell-O, forest, frybread, beer, coffee, Ojibwa, Ojibwe, Ojibway, Wausau, Menominee Reservation, lard, logging, meat, smoke, tobacco, Catholic, Banana Island, kitchen, potatoes

Year of publication: 2023

Publisher information: Wisconsin Historical Society Press