The Look Back

Native American farming and the rise of agriculture

Taylor Bailey: Have you ever enjoyed a squash? Summer corn? Sunflower seeds? If so…

[laughs]

If so, you’ve eaten foods related to plants that were part of Native diets in this area for centuries. Wisconsin today is filled with farmland.

Kacie Lucchini Butcher: And it’s not just dairy farms, though I do love a good cheese.

Taylor: Everything from corn to cherries to soybeans and more is grown here, but this region’s agricultural history is way older than most people realize. Starting thousands of years ago, Indigenous farmers in this region were growing and using a wide variety of plants.

[upbeat music]

Sissel Schroeder: People in the past cultivated plant foods, and they also domesticated certain plants that they grew in garden, but overall, it reflects the management of food resources by Indigenous people.

Edith Leoso: You know, we were placed here, we say, by the Creator, and we were told by the Creator that everything that we needed to live a good life is already here. We just had to observe everything and give it a name. Before Europeans came to this continent, we’ve been doing things like ricing. We still do that today. We still do it exactly the same way.

Taylor: What’s the story behind Native agriculture around the Great Lakes and eastern North America?

Kacie: This history goes back about 5,000 years when Indigenous people in the area began cultivating and domesticating seed-bearing plants.

So, what is the difference between cultivation and domestication?

Sissel: So, cultivation is intentionally planting seeds in the ground in order to grow crops in particular areas. Domesticates are when the plant has gone through genetic changes that signal it is a domesticate. So, domesticated plants typically have a larger seed than wild plants. And then, domesticated seeds typically have a thinner seed coat, an outer seed coat, compared to wild.

Liz Leith: So, this is a wild sunflower seed.

Taylor: Oh, they’re so tiny.

Liz: And this is, like, you know, are the regular, now sunflower seeds today. So, as we grow different foods, we want to eat more, right? We want to grow less so that we can eat more. So, we want the plants to get bigger, so we’ll grow the crops to get bigger and bigger. That’s why we usually see domesticates as bigger plants.

Sissel: People probably were actively selecting and choosing the plants that had the bigger seeds or produced more seeds, and then setting those aside to plant the following year. That sort of interaction with the plants over many, many years results in domestication.

Kacie: In eastern North America, plant domestication began during what’s known as the Archaic period in Native history. About 6,000 years ago, climate and environmental changes created a landscape that was ideal for cultivating plants. This included fertile, stable river valleys with good soil. From about 5,000 to 3,700 years ago, there were at least four plant species that were domesticated by Indigenous peoples in eastern North America.

Taylor: The first seed-bearing plants to be domesticated in this region were squash, or gourds. This was followed by sunflower, marsh elder, and Chenopodium.

Kacie: These plants are a part of what’s known as the Eastern Agricultural Complex. Three of these plants, squash, marsh elder, andChenopodiumgrow really well in soil beds that are disturbed by annual flooding in certain areas. They also produce a lot of seeds. For people cultivating them, this meant the potential for a big return without needing a lot of work.

Taylor: But these resources also needed careful tending and smart harvesting practices. Today, these are still important aspects of Native agriculture.

Edith: And I remember berry picking with my grandmother, and she said, “Go fill up your bucket over here. But don’t take ’em all.” You always leave some behind, because we never take more than what we need. We should always leave something behind, which helps it reseed, which helps it for the next year.

Kacie: What are some foods that are native to this region of Wisconsin, or to Wisconsin as a whole?

Sissel: Well, wild rice.

Taylor: Ooh, okay.

Kacie: Yeah.

Sissel: Yes. And we know that wild rice, from an archaeological perspective, was being cultivated at least 2,000 years ago, but probably even longer than that.

Liz: This is wild rice, but we actually see it burned in the record. So, this is some burned wild rice versus the real.

Taylor: Plant cultivation and domestication wasn’t just happening in this region. It was taking place all across the Americas. And as different groups traded with each other and traveled, it meant the spread of certain plants to new regions.

Kacie: This is what happened with corn and beans, which were domesticated by Indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica. Corn, or maize, arrived in this area in about 200 BC, during what’s known as the Woodland period. Within a few hundred years, it became a very important crop for some Native cultures. This included Oneota groups, who also incorporated beans into their agricultural practice. Another food resource that was especially widespread were nuts. There is evidence from across North America that people were using nuts like walnuts, hickory, acorn, and hazelnuts. These could be eaten as is, or used to make oils for cooking.

Sissel: And there is some evidence that Indigenous peoples were managing the forests in a way that ensured that these nut-bearing trees would grow and grow close to the sites where they were living.

Taylor: But trees produce more than just nuts and fruit. Some of them can also make sap that can be turned into delicious maple syrup. This has been done by Indigenous groups for centuries.

Kacie: The practice of knowing when to tap a tree for its sap shows how attentive Native peoples were to their environment. This is still true for many people preserving these traditions today.

Edith: There is one particular thing that happens, and it’s when the snow is still on the ground, when you put your foot through the snow, and it’s kind of powdery underneath, but it’s crusty on the top. And that’s when the waters begin to flow again. And so, we watch that, and the water that flows in the trees is the first to start flowing. It tells you that it’s time to start tapping the trees to make maple syrup, maple sugar.

Taylor: It’s important to note that farming and plant practices were not universal across this area. Different cultural groups used a wide variety of food resources and approaches.

Kacie: Some relied more heavily on crops and agriculture, while others chose to prioritize hunting and gathering. For those groups who focused on increasing cultivation of the land and plants, this could lead to some significant cultural shifts as well.

Sissel: And the more and more that people invested in managing these food resources, plant food resources on the landscape, they really started settling down, returning to the same site or community year after year. They had invested in clearing the fields, so we really see a shift in the ways in which people use the landscape as they became more and more engaged with agriculture.

Kacie: Indigenous people in the Great Lakes area and eastern North America had a wide variety of plants in their diet. This included everything from wild plants to carefully cultivated crops like corn, beans, squash, and sunflower.

Taylor: Today, many of the plants that were domesticated in the Americas are a staple of cuisines all over the world. Do you know the history of your favorite foods or the history of your culture’s cuisine? See if you can find out the stories behind these treats. Everything we eat, from snacks to celebratory meals, has a story to tell.

Liz: We’ll find some cobs that are preserved, that are dried out.

Taylor: Oh, I thought these were…

Liz: So, that’s what they would look like.

Taylor: I thought these were pine cones.

[all laugh]

Liz: Those are corn cobs.

Taylor: Okay, wow. They’re super tiny.

Sissel: I thought you were gonna say poop.

[all laugh]