True......which is why I was asking about the Cherokee :) But....we also had similar foods & they weren't in the "desert" per say......at least not compared where I am & they did have nuts.....I'll share more about what they ate. Maybe it'll be similar, at least for when the Europeans came into play. -----Original Message----- From: cherokee-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:cherokee-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Joyce Gaston Reece Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 10:19 AM To: cherokee@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Cherokee Circle] Granddaddy's crops Each tribe of Native Americans would have had different resources for their food depending on the environment of where they lived. What she is telling about would pertain to her tribe and WHERE they lived. With the Cherokee here in the southeast that, naturally would have been different. The Appalachian Mountains are known for having more species of trees and plants than any other place in the world with the exception of a very similar region in China. That one fact would highly influence what they grew and what natural resources they tapped into. Desert and plains Indians would likely have had a completely different diet and plant/grow different kinds of crops. (These Native Americans of the south began seen white influence as early as the mid 1500's.) For instance, here they would have had, use of 30+ types of acorns, beech, hickory, pecan, chestnut and several other nut producing trees. Swamp potatoes, cattail roots, the usual corn, squash etc. They would have had several different types of berries. Meats included turkey, grouse, chicken (introduced in the 1300's via south and central America), bison, deer, elk and, of course, fish. I realize these aren't all 'crops' but there ya go. Joyce Gaston Reece -----Original Message----- From: Alli :) Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 11:47 AM To: cherokee@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Cherokee Circle] Granddaddy's crops Never heard of that other Almanac. My original post was what the Cherokee's planted/grew before Columbus or the European Settlers had become an influence. Buffalo Bird Woman is a Hidatsa Indian & shared her family's & people's ways of what they had before the traders & soldiers came & afterwards. I found it fascinating & am interested in finding out what the Cherokee people had prior to the 100 yrs they were with the whites. :) She (Buffalo Bird Woman) was born around 1839 in an Earth Lodge along the Knife River which is in present day North Dakota. Her people moved upstream & built a new village in which they called it Like-a-fishhook village which they shared with the Mandan & Arikara. She became the expert gardener of the Hidatsa tribe. She used practices that were centuries old for her people. They grew corn, beans, squash, & sunflowers (which I became particularly interested in this) in the fertile bottomlands of the Missouri River. In the mid-1880's the US government for the villiage to break up & dispersed the families onto individual allotments on the For Berthold Reservation. He women continued to grow the veggies that provided the Midwestern Farmers some of their most important crops. She describes the field care, preparation, planting, harvesting, processing & storing of the veggies. Even gives some recipes & songs that they song. I don't know if the Cherokee people.....anyone has passed on such knowledge like this woman has made possible. But it'd be interesting to learn if they did. This village planted near a water source, they used natural fertilizer. They "dehydrated" their foods to preserve it & a few other things. I will go through it & list some of her ways...maybe they are similar to how others have done it too? -----Original Message----- From: cherokee-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:cherokee-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of jgreece55@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 7:15 AM To: cherokee@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Cherokee Circle] Granddaddy's crops Fran, Almost everyone in this part of the country planted by the signs. I am in southeast Tennessee. I would venture to say that the practive likely began with the ancient astronomers of Europe or Great Britian. BUT that is not to say that the Cherokee of the last few hundred years didn't exercise the practice. The Cherokee's and whites lived together here for a few hundred years. Joyce Gaston Reece ======*====== List archives http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=cherokee ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CHEROKEE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ======*====== List archives http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=cherokee ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CHEROKEE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message