Native Americans were familiar with alcohol well before Columbus
If there’s one thing that definitely isn’t true about the folklore surrounding Thanksgiving, it’s that Pilgrims introduced alcohol to the Native Americans.
Wherever organic material has existed on Earth (which is literally everywhere), humans have found a way to turn it into alcohol. And that includes the estimated 100 million Native Americans that lived and thrived in the America’s before 1492.
In fact, the process of making alcohol is so simple a caveman can do it. The predecessors of Pre-Columbus Americans likely trekked the Bering Strait sometime in the late Epipaleolithic age (15,000 B.C.) searching for warmer lands with nothing more than stone hunting tools and the ability to brew basic low gravity alcohol from grass. Their passed down oral traditions and brewing knowledge trickled throughout time into the distinctly different cultures that sprouted throughout the America’s, where it is believed the first agriculture states began appearing sometime around 2000 B.C.
The most famous of these ancient civilizations was objectively the Mayans, dominating the Mesoamerican (prehistoric central America) scene from roughly 1800 B.C. to 250 A.D. The Mayans did a lot of things wrong; sacrificing innocent civilians, sparking intense civil wars between their own city-states, and predicting the world would end in 2012.
But, through all their faults the Mayans had balché, a mead produced from the honey soaked bark of a leguminous tree. Some archaeologist believe that Mayans consumed balché in enema form to maximize the effects, but accurate evidence of balché rituals and production were lost following the Spanish conquering of South America, who effectively banned the drink and burned the orchards from which it came.
Closer to home, Mississipian trade cultures flourished in what is now the southeastern United States. Complex mound cities formed next to riverbanks have been traced back to roughly 800 A.D., but cultural practices of larger tribes like the Creek, Cherokee, and Natchez continued well into the 18th century.
A lot of early anthropological evidence suggests these tribes foraged for wild berries and fruits to make tea-like ciders, most of which were extremely low in ABV content in comparison to post-colonial brews.
But if this berry-cider evidence were true and you currently live in Southeastern United States, it’s very possible the Creek and Cherokee tribes foraged for cocktail ingredients not far from where you’re sitting right now.
The Native American cultures that controlled the southwestern coasts and central plains on the other hand all had one thing in common—they were really good at growing corn. Maize was central to the Apache, Iroquois, and Pueblo way of life; likely the first instance of purposeful genetic mutation in the western hemisphere occurring over a 7000-year time span.
When tribes first came to the realization that maize didn’t spoil for a really really long time, chicha was the next logical step that took advantage of corn’s longevity value. Chicha has the universal definition for mild, fermented alcohol made indigenously from maize or yucca root, taking many different names (tepache, tejuino, cauim or tiswin) depending on which culture brewed it.
Across the pre-Columbus America’s, producing alcohol was an important part of everyday life just as it’s been for every other civilization throughout history.
Unfortunately, much of the practices and unique flavors specific to each individual Native American tribe were lost not long after 1492, and we can only speculate now as to how delicious each cultures drink of choice actually was.