Canawa Pemmican Background

Providing the maximum nutrition with the minimum weight and bulk

Why Pemmican?

Pemmican is a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used to provide maximum nourishment with a minimum of weight and bulk. It was invented by the native peoples of North America and it was widely adopted as an emergency food by Europeans involved in the fur trade and later by Arctic and Antarctic explorers. Properly prepared and packaged, pemmican can be stored for long periods of time and is highly nutritious, portable and stable,

Vilhjalmur Stefansson working with the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology of New York set the standard for pemmican as part of his research for United States Government. In 1944 Stefanson developed the definitive manual for survival in the Arctic, prepared under the direction of the Chief of the Air Corps, United States Army. The reason it was developed goes back to Alaska’s first airplane tragedy. In 1929 Carl Ben Eielson, a famous aeronautical pioneer, was contracted to transport furs from Nanuk to Moscow. He was last seen flying over the northern Siberian coast. Many volunteers from Canada, the United States and Russia were involved in the search but he was not found alive. About three months later his plane and body was discovered; the wing tip had touched ground when he was banking for a turn and the plane had crashed.

The general coordination of the search effort was placed in the hands of Alfred Lomen (Lomen Reindeer Corporation) who had been living in the north for over 25 years, and was experienced in travel by air, dog sled and reindeer team. His company provided fur clothing to Artic and Antarctic expeditions. His experience bought with it, by necessity, knowledge of survival techniques, on how to provide safety and comfort with a minimum of equipment under the most severe conditions.

Like Eielson himself, the flyers that gathered to help in the search effort were not only good pilots but also good mechanics, able to maintain their planes under difficult conditions. Lomen was charged with educating and ensuring the safety of the search teams in Arctic conditions, however many of these skilled pilots were so ill prepared to take care of themselves on the ground that it appeared they would likely die after a safe forced landing in the wild.

This entire event brought to the forefront the need for a manual that could be used by flyers and travelers in the Arctic and Antarctic to provide instruction on surviving on the ice and on the land, navigating, building shelters, securing food, etc.; a survival guide for pioneers of the north. Furthermore, the Honorable Ross A. Collins, of the House Committee on Appropriations, thought there might be a war coming which would require troops to operate in areas where they would need Arctic techniques and knowledge of survival in Arctic conditions; critical not only to individual comfort and safety but to the success of military operations in which they might be engaged.

Eventually the need for such a manual came to the attention of the Secretary of War, George H. Dern, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Hugh A. Drum, and the Chief of the Air Corps, Brigadier General Oscar Westover. They ensured that an item covering the cost to develop a survival manual was included in the Army appropriations bill. The administration of this sum was put in the hands of General Westover who then hired Stefansson to complete research and develop a report and a manual on living and operating conditions in the Arctic.

Stefansson’s work included the most comprehensive research and analysis on the nutritional needs and special foods for cold weather travelers. This information is transferable to anyone who is concerned with how to secure a maximum of nourishment with a minimum of both weight and bulk, regardless of whether they are traveling in the north, traveling by water, camping in the wilderness, mountain climbing, sailing, mountain biking, urban biking, or any kind of high-performance athletics.

As part of this work, the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology of New York developed the standard for pemmican, which was considered an ideal emergency food. In fact Stefansson himself lived for one entire year, exclusively on pemmican in good health. They demonstrated that on average individuals daily requirements were supplied by about 2/3 to 1lb of pemmican. No salt was necessary. Although in the north, the meat may be bison, caribou, buffalo, elk, deer or musk ox, the weights they provided were for beef and beef or mutton tallow.

Importance of Adequate Desiccation
Commercially made products labeled as pemmican are often not historically authentic pemmican at all because they contain additional ingredients and because the meat is not thoroughly dried to create proper jerk.

Additional ingredients are usually added as preservatives and for flavoring, however to be properly labeled as pemmican, it must be made from meat and fat with nothing added. For festive occasions the native people’s at times added berries but this was not typical. The flavor has proven to be quite acceptable and even preferable to other foods once a person has grown accustomed to it.

That said the other determinant of pemmican is that it be prepared properly. If the meat is thoroughly dried when it is ground, and if the only other ingredient is beef or mutton tallow, no canning or refrigeration is necessary in order for it to keep for long periods of time. It has been known to keep in air-tight containers for years. Commercially made products usually have too high a water content.

Other commercial products may not contain tallow and in fact may simply be flavored jerk meat with water, spices and preservatives added.

In the past pemmican was made by guess and rule of thumb however this research has provided the most effective ratio of lean meat to fat. The research showed that a standard daily ration of 1 lb of pemmican, 1lb biscuit and tea with a little sugar for sweetening was satisfactory both in keeping up an individual’s strength and in that no-one got tired of it over the course of a journey. The biscuit they ate was called pilot bread or hardtack. Hardtack has a long tradition. It is dry bread made soft in tea or soup and eaten by northern sailors for centuries. Pemmican would often be heated over a fire or made into a nourishing soup and eaten with hardtack biscuits by explorers.

Canawa Pemmican is made in the traditional way according to the original standard set by Stefasson and his colleagues at the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology, as requested by the United States Military, and based on authentic native practices.