Speaking of an encounter in Pennsylvania in 1775 British Colonel James Smith writes, “Sometime in the afternoon we came to a large camp of Wyandots” who “gave us a kind of rough brown potatoes which grew spontaneously and were called by the Caughewagas ohnenata. These potatoes, peeled and dipped in raccoon’s fat, taste nearly like our sweet potatoes.” Potatoes come South America. The term potato comes from the Quechua language of the Inca for the word papa. In North America brown potatoes grew wild and served as a staple among some indigenous people.