I wager that some of them probably did fart quite a bit depending on diet. There is I believe journal entries by Lewis and Clark about the "wind"produced by some of the western natives. If my memory serves it was due to the eating of camas bulbs which are high in the prebiotic indigestible fiber inulin. Ive eaten camas and other inulin containing native foods like jerusalem artichoke and I can confirm they do produce an abundance of farts. Long pit cooking used traditionally breaks down inulin more but not totally.
Having learned of the beautiful blue camas lily (Camassia quamash) from the writings of Lewis and Clark, Douglas paid close attention to the way local tribes dug, prepared, and cooked its bulbs even as he procured seed and packed his own dried bulbs in sand for the Horticultural Society. Douglas’s field notes include one family’s recipe for cooking camas in an earth oven, and he ended the account, as he often did, with a modest joke that included an historical nod to his predecessor. “Captain Lewis observes that when eaten in a large quantity they occasion bowel complaints. This I am not aware of, but assuredly they produce flatulence: when in the Indian hut I was almost blown out by strength of the wind.”[5
I wager that some of them probably did fart quite a bit depending on diet. There is I believe journal entries by Lewis and Clark about the "wind"produced by some of the western natives. If my memory serves it was due to the eating of camas bulbs which are high in the prebiotic indigestible fiber inulin. Ive eaten camas and other inulin containing native foods like jerusalem artichoke and I can confirm they do produce an abundance of farts. Long pit cooking used traditionally breaks down inulin more but not totally.
This is my absolute favorite comment of the month. Thank you for bringing this important overlooked data into the conversation.
https://lewis-clark.org/people/david-douglas/douglas-in-pnw/ Here is what i was thinking. Not the Lewis and Clark journals but a botanist who followed in their footsteps. :
Having learned of the beautiful blue camas lily (Camassia quamash) from the writings of Lewis and Clark, Douglas paid close attention to the way local tribes dug, prepared, and cooked its bulbs even as he procured seed and packed his own dried bulbs in sand for the Horticultural Society. Douglas’s field notes include one family’s recipe for cooking camas in an earth oven, and he ended the account, as he often did, with a modest joke that included an historical nod to his predecessor. “Captain Lewis observes that when eaten in a large quantity they occasion bowel complaints. This I am not aware of, but assuredly they produce flatulence: when in the Indian hut I was almost blown out by strength of the wind.”[5
Regarding differences in tribal diets in different parts of the world, take a look at "The Ancestral Diet Revolution" by Chris Knobbe.
I love these