Before the Butterballs, Honeysuckles, and Jennie-Os





Before turkeys arrived in super markets with a shape like Dolly Parton and a pop-up timer, before Norman Rockwell painted his iconic picture, and before the Pale Faces landed on Plymouth Rock, Indians knew about turkeys. In Massachusetts the native people thought that the lean, bony, wild turkeys were an inferior kind of food, good enough for women and children perhaps but not for braves, who made use of the feathers for ceremonies instead.

Which may say something about their opinion of the Pilgrims and that first Thanksgiving feast. It has been rumored that they inspired Chief Massasoit to introduce into the Wampanoag language an equivalent of the slang term “turkey.”

Nonetheless, hungry pioneers hunted wild turkeys so assiduously that they were nearly wiped out in North America by 1900. They are wary creatures and can fly short distances when alarmed, but even Dick Cheney would have had a hard time missing this target, with toms sometimes measuring four feet tall and weighing more than 20 pounds.

When I was growing up in Massachusetts, the once-abundant wild turkeys were so scarce that I never saw one, but today these birds have been restored to nearly all the suitable habitat that remains in the contiguous states and the southern part of Canada. Their recovery is a testimonial to the hardiness of the birds and the good planning of wildlife managers.

In recent years, I have seen wild turkeys foraging on lawns Back East, waddling through the scrub in a public campground in Texas, strutting on a trail in the Coronado National Forest in southeastern Arizona, and strolling through piney woods and oak thickets of our Western Slope and Front Range in Colorado. On the west side of the San Luis Valley, wild turkeys have been reported near Pinos Creek, Cat Creek, and Cumbres Pass, although the gobblers there have eluded me, so far.

Wild turkeys are permanent residents, not migrating seasonally. Having bred in habitats that are widely separated geographically and ecologically, the birds belong to different subspecies with different names.

These subspecies all begin with one species name, Meleagris gallopavo. In Spanish, turkeys are simply called “pavo,” so “gallopavo” means, roughly, one heckuva macho bird.

Wild turkeys in the mountains of Colorado and west to Utah are popularly known as the Merriam’s subspecies, whereas those in eastern Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas are in the Rio Grande subspecies. In Eastern and Midwestern states, they belong to the Eastern (Sylvestris) subspecies, while a small population called Osceola or Florida hides out in Florida.

In addition, disregarding immigration laws and artificial boundaries, a few wild turkeys have sneaked across the border into southernmost Arizona and New Mexico from the Sierra Madre Occidental of northwestern Mexico. Their subspecies, Gould’s, has the largest body, longest legs, and biggest feet of any of the wild turkeys.

Farther south, ranging into Central America, Ocellated turkeys bear the nominate Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo. The first wild turkeys seen anywhere by the Spanish conquistadores, these birds even speak a foreign language, more like clinking and clanging than like gobbling.

Mayas and Incas had domesticated wild turkeys, and the males with their iridescent coloring, fan-shaped display of tail feathers, and fecundity seemed to suggest political power or spiritual grandeur. Archaeologists have found more evidence of ceremonial uses than of their food consumption, but the Spaniards valued the turkeys for their meat and introduced the birds to the Old World.

Closer to home, early-day Coloradans living in cliff dwellings, pit houses, and brush shelters also domesticated wild turkeys. Kept in pens, they served as food, like ordinary livestock, while the feathers provided raw materials for warm blankets and cloaks.

Early Spanish expeditions like those of Coronado and Alvarado in the 1500s received peaceful gifts at Pueblos, including large numbers of turkeys. Unfortunately, unable to sustain themselves, the expeditions also requisitioned great quantities of turkeys, feather blankets, and other foods and goods from Pueblos, thereby causing fear and enmity that haunted future relations.

The traditional customs and beliefs of Native Americans change very slowly if at all. Along with their more common livestock, some Pueblos still keep turkeys in small numbers, and among the 19 clans that organize the kinship and kiva systems of the Puebloan peoples, there still is a Turkey Clan.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!