hog peanut
Amphicarpaea bracteata
no Arapaho name known, but called ‘hog potato’ in a traditional narrative
Food: staple. The term ‘hog potato’ may be a gloss of an unrecorded Arapaho term. The plant is described as “a black root; it has a dark skin, with real white seed, something like a turnip in shape” and good to eat (Dorsey 1903:221). In the narrative where it is described, a series of roots are mentioned, and are all called ‘potato’ in the English translation. However, when the roots are otherwise identifiable, they do not contain the word ‘potato’ in Arapaho. Thus the ‘hog potato’ in the narrative probably corresponds to the commonly eaten ‘hog peanut’. Since hogs were not native to North America, it is unclear what the Arapaho name may have been.