Bringing back Sagmite and other Native American cuisines from extinction.

Hello friends and family! I wanna talk about an old Native American stew called Sagmite, both the French settlers and tribes had centuries ago on this land. I wanna find out how I can make the ancient stew more healthier by making a vegetarian or vegan version of it. That recipe came from New France of North America. How can I bring back old recipes and stuff back into this modern time? I'm concentrating on the Peoria, Miami, Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk-Ioway nations for my community in Chicago to help bring back history and any of you know of any type of food and stuff the ancient Native Americans and early French Settlers had years ago? If you're from Montreal or Quebec, please drop in to share some ideas to help me make my Sagmite more historic without meat or oil to make it more fattening and sickening. I love being artistic with my stuff and don't mind continuing on. Come on by this board if you all got something to bring to the table. Adios!

Blake, I am curious about how you can change an ancient recipe to vegan and still respect the original.
Were there recipes that did not contain meat?

I have books in Ausatralia about canadian first peoples and the life they had, I guess the same books are in t=your area.

Poking around and looking at various recipes online it looks like adding extra fat, and using ground hominy to thicken it are the two consistent steps.  There are meat and vegetarian recipes and it looks like anything goes but if I were awarding points I would give extra for sticking to New world vegetables like squashes, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beans, sunchokes... Makes me crave some stew actually. Unless there's some cultural background I am missing it looks like a very reasonable way to use what up you have on hand day to day.  No matter the culture everyone should have a dish like that.

If you feel more comfortable with specific recipes
https://chuckfirstpeopleskitchen.com/en/season/2/recipes/6/sagamite-soup/  this person seems pretty confident about their vegetarian recipe.

Ground hominy is also known as masa harina and is the same flour used for corn tortillas and tamales.  I'd say grits were another option as they are traditionally made from hominy, but I suspect some companies are using corn that hasn't been nixmatalized. I see a lot of online articles claiming regular cornmeal is just as good.  That's inaccurate because the nixmatalizing makes the corns nutrients more available for your body.

Have you reached out to any members of these nations whose food ways you are interested in? I know most people think of them as a thing of the past, but there are still living people of that lineage who you could talk with and learn from. For example, the Miami nation still exists here in Indiana and have gatherings that are open to all. They even have a website! http://www.miamiindians.org/

I think bringing back the foods of these people is a great idea. I would be wary though of taking too many liberties with the recipes and still calling it their food. If I were trying to bring back native foods, I would talk to someone from that nation, ask for their guidance about how best to honor their traditions and abide by what they said. For example, I have wanted to talk with the Miami about the plants they grew here in the past, among other things, but feel that in order to do that in a good way, I would want to spend time with them, form more of a relationship and do what I could to help them before I asked them for anything. Alas, I haven't had the time to do that yet. Hopefully someday soon.