SAND and SAGE - An Adventure in Grasshoppers



Figure One - CLICK for SAND and SAGE 

My new historical fiction novel SAND and SAGE takes place in the latter part of the 17th Century in the Rocky Mountain states of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Just as some people fare better than others in today's society, some northern Plains Indian tribes fared better than others in the 17th Century. While some Plains Indian tribes feasted on bison, elk, and deer, a few tribes survived on 'less appealing' cuisine. The short passage below provides an example of one of these less fortunate tribes called Snake from my book SAND and SAGE. The Snake tribe is not trapping bison or deer or antelope in this passage from the book, they are trapping grasshoppers. You read it right, grasshoppers. Our young hero in the book named Ouray is helping his tribe gather these teeny beasts. I will meet you on the other side of my book passage.

Figure Two - Native American Grasshopper Trap
(Courtesy of ancestralarts.net).

A loud call imitating a yipping coyote signaled everyone to start walking toward the trap. The people marched forward, flailing away at the tall grass with tree branches and sticks. The people yipped and howled and barked like coyotes. The Snake People were making an awful racket. Winged insects by the hundreds burst out of the tall grass. Snapping wings crackled through the air. Ouray advanced, beating the grass with a bushy branch from a juniper tree. Bugs darkened the sky as they flew ahead of the people. A few insects landed on Ouray, hanging onto him with their sticklike legs. Ouray jerked the bugs off as fast as he found them, throwing them in the direction of the trap.

The march continued with people pummeling the ground and howling up a storm. The clacks and buzzes from hundreds of airborne insects joined the chorus of shouting. Hoppers took flight, staying in front of swatting switches and coyote calls. As the swatters neared the trap, the distance between each person decreased, reducing the avenues of escape for the grasshoppers. Ouray glanced to his right and noticed that the buhagant was way too close to him. The buhagant was flinging his tree branch around with no regard for Ouray’s safety. Ouray moved to his left, holding his right arm up alongside his face, just in case Sani got too wild with his switch.

“You are letting them get past you!” Sani screamed at Ouray. “Come my way!” 

Figure Three - Yummy 

Grasshoppers are supposedly tasty. I write 'supposedly' because I wouldn't know how they taste, and don't plan on finding out. Take a look at the photograph in figure three and tell me you could eat one. I remember swallowing a grasshopper whole once when I was riding my motorcycle. It went down my throat before I knew what happened. That's the closest I will ever come to dining on another grasshopper. Our German Shepherd Maggie May just loves eating them. She will pluck them right out of the air and crunch them right there on the spot. She would eat them all day long if she could. Maggie May needs to be careful because the average grasshopper has 82 calories each. Maggie May is not a good judge of cuisine. She eats a lot of things that I wouldn't touch. Let me leave it at that.  

Grasshoppers are healthy food. They are high in protein and fiber. A United Nations report promotes the eating of grasshoppers and "maintains that these critters are simple to cook, and especially tasty when roasted and seasoned with onion, garlic, chili or soy sauce. Their nutritional content makes them a hearty snack or addition to most meals". I don't think so. The United Nations report further contends that "the protein content in grasshoppers comes pretty close to that of a similar-sized serving of chicken breast, but with a bit more fat". I am not convinced yet, nor shall I ever be. I would have to be pretty hungry, i.e. starving to death, to partake in these crunchy insects. 

In my book, SAND and SAGE, the Snake tribe did not have a choice but to eat grasshoppers and grubs. The people were surviving from day-to-day. Most of the Snake people felt blessed to have the occasional grasshopper to eat. In my book SAND and SAGE, something came along that changed the fortunes of the Snake people forever!!  

Read SAND and SAGE to find out what that 'something' was. It is not what you expect. In the meantime, here's looking at you and bottoms up.