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Native American Strawberry
 As it was highly esteemed by American Indian nations as a sacred fruit, valued for its flavor, size, and abundance, the Native American Strawberry was immediately harvested and cultivated by European colonists. There are many varieties of strawberries native to North America: fragaria vesca, a temperate, eastern berry; fragaria chiloensis, a coastal berry that grows from Alaska to California; and the most common meadow berry that is primarily found east of the Mississippi, the fragaria virginiana. In the twentieth century, the fragaria virginiana and other native berries were pushed out of the commercial market by oversized, often tasteless, modern hybrids.
The wild strawberry is a sacred fruit to many American Indian peoples, and Strawberry Moon was a common name for the month of June. The word, strawberry, is a European import, whereas the word “heart berry” or “heart-seed berry” is used as a name for the fruit in most Indian languages. The Wampanoag Nation in Massachusetts is currently reviving a “Strawberry Thanksgiving” Festival in June.
American Indian cultures used many berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and mulberries) to make a staple food that preserved wild fruits by mixing them with corn meal to make bread or with animal fat to make a type of energy bars. Another recipe include corn meal and strawberries, which led to the creation of strawberry shortcake in modern America.
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