I don't know where this stuff about Native people and barbque came from, but they were not doing what we call barbque. Open flame cooking has been done through out history. However, what Americans call barbque was created on plantations and historians are very clear on that point. Even the word "pit master" comes from the plantation and it means something:
"...While the culinary art of BBQ has certainly been practiced internationally since humans invented fire, in the United States,
the classic BBQ that Americans know and love was primarily cooked by slaves in the South in pits for large social gatherings held by slaveowners on plantations beginning in the colonial era of American history.
The term
“Pit Master” refers to an elderly slave who was an expert cook and led the effort to prepare the BBQ for the slaveholders. Younger slaves worked under the “Pit Master” to learn how to prepare a whole hog for a BBQ.
Pigs were then slow roasted in a pit in the ground, with the fire constantly tended for a the long, slow cooking process. Then the pig was removed from the pit, and the pork and ham were served at BBQs in the South, which were a common social gathering before and even after the Civil War. Many “Pit Masters” continued to pass on their BBQ traditions to younger generations, and even into the present day.
Slaves were not allowed to have the best cuts of meat, whether it was beef or pork, and were often given the ribs or other undesirable cuts of meats that slaveholders did not want.
Slaves became adept at taking marginal cuts of meat such as ribs and preparing them in such a way that they were quite tender and delicious, which as time went by became staples of modern BBQ preparation, and ironically for many, the preferred cuts of meat for BBQ.
Slaves were allowed to keep chickens around their slave quarters, and it was a common practice by slaveholders to give slaves Sunday off of work to attend church. Following worship services, it became common for slave families to prepare chicken for Sunday dinner following church services.
Slaves who were cooks for slaveholding families developed pan frying and grilling and smoking cooking techniques for preparing chicken, which was a weekly respite from their labors as slaves during the week.
These traditional cooking techniques were passed down from family member to family member until they have become the fried, grilled, and smoked chicken that we enjoy today in American cuisine..."
https://www.republic-online.com/new...cle_113b15e2-f1d4-11e9-8631-c353b4b1f564.html
