Crops among the Cherokee

[downinmyback]

Blueflint think you for informing us of important things that the NA did. Could the barkless dog be the South Carolina swamp dog that is one of the oldest known breeds of dogs. I saw a story on the Discover channel where they named all of the first breeds and the SC swamp dog was one of the few that were still pure blooded.
What would the crops you named and said that were no longer raised used for ? Were the Cherokee and Choctaw tribe related to each other" The reason i asked was they seem to have developed the same farming practices. I hope i am not insulting you with all of these questions but you are opening my eyes to all of the things NA developed/ Thank You again for answering.

[Alan]

BlueFlint one thing I would like to ask you about Native Agriculture is which of the crops is your favorite to grow, and out of that crop which variety intrigues you the most? Also, aside from the Cherokee are there other tribes whos forms of agriculture you have found yourself very intriged by? If so which cultures, anything interesting about them that you would like to share?

Also of all of the old crops, particularly those from Mexico/South America that are no longer widely cultivated, is there one in particular that you think all gardeners should have experience with growing?

[plantsnobin]

Alan, I got the book yesterday, I haven't had a chance to really look through it yet, but if you are in the area sometime, stop by and you can borrow it.

[Blueflint]

Chenopod, Maygrass, Erect Knotweed and Little Barley were grown for the starchy seeds. Sumpweed was grown for the oily seed. I don't know about the barkless dog, I really never researched it. Choctaw and Cherokee were not related and spoke different languages but they did share much in their lifestyles as does most of the "Eastern Woodland Tradition" Native American groups/tribes.

It is this Eastern Woodland Tradition I am mostly interested in. Unfortunately these are the cultures invaded and either destroyed or assimilated early in American history and not much is really known. As tribes were moved around, they tried to retain their culture but cultures were changed, other things absorbed and some left behind so by the early 1900's, many things within a "culture" isn't what it was in 1500.

The farmers of America in 1500 were very accomplished. It took European settlers over 300 hundred years to surpass the acreage yields of the Natives.

My favorite crop would be corn and it is the one I worry the most about as it takes skill to keep it pure since it is very easily wind cross pollinated. Of the corns, my favorite is the White Cherokee Flour Corn of the original Eastern Band as it is very unique in many traits. I also love squash varieties and find it much easier to handle. I walk my squash patched twice a day at least. Just before dark I can walk thru looking at the flowers that will open the next morning (easy to know which ones will open after you play with them for the years I have), use a piece of painters tape to wrap the flower so it can not open and to mark them. The next morning early, I will remove the male flower, peal the petals off, open a correct female flower, hand pollinate it then re-tape the female flower close. I will also take a piece of tape and wrap the stem to mark that fruit as hand pollinated. There you have pure squash seed for the following years while growing several types in close proximity to each other. I also grow a lot of bean varieties but I love the corns the most I guess.

Blueflint

[cff]

My father and farming partner was telling me last week that the corn meal he had been buying at the local grocery store didn't have any taste to it anymore.

He always plants Silver Queen sweet corn but this year I have him talked into planting a heirloom white corn.
I would appreciate any suggestions for a good one to plant for corn meal.

Thanks

[Alan]

Thanks for answering me blueflint, I really appreciate your deep knoledge of the subject and willingness to share it with us, thanks so much.

CFF, I'm sure that Blueflint can give you a better answer on this than I can, but the old timers in this area mostly use Hickory King Dent corn to make flour, it also produces a nice "green" corn for bar-b-queing and makes a nice foliage crop.

-Alan

[cff]

Kewl .............. now if I can find a supplier who sells it by the lb

admin said:

Thanks for answering me blueflint, I really appreciate your deep knoledge of the subject and willingness to share it with us, thanks so much.

CFF, I'm sure that Blueflint can give you a better answer on this than I can, but the old timers in this area mostly use Hickory King Dent corn to make flour, it also produces a nice "green" corn for bar-b-queing and makes a nice foliage crop.

-Alan

[Alan]

If you can't find a supplier then let me know, I can get it here for really cheap in the spring and send some your way friend.

-Alan

[flowerpower]

I really like that method for the pollination. I have tied the female blossoms shut, when I hand pollinate. After a few yrs, it is easy to tell which flowers will open the next morning.

[downinmyback]

Blueflint how did NA keep their lands fertile. I have read of using fish to fertilize but what other items did they use or did they do as early European do and move when the land became wore out. Also i was wondering how they stored their harvest.
Did the men work the crops or did the men help.Also what would the Sumpweed that was grown for the oily seeds be used for food or ceremonial purposes.

[Blueflint]

By interplanting beans with the corn, beans would "feed" the corn by fixing nitrogen from the air into the soil thus not hurting fields too badly, also these fields were not as intensely farmed as modern corn fields thus they didn't strip the nutritients from the ground nearly as bad as today's corn fields are. Fields were not fertilized by Native Americans as a whole but a few tribes did plant hills and added a fish to each not knowing how but only it worked. Villages and or fields would be moved usually for other reasons other than poor yields as many fields (not all though) were "bottom lands" which flooded in the spring thus rejuvinating them.

As a side note...and keep this in mind from a corn nutrition point...open pollinated corns have nore nutrition, more protien, more trace elements, etc. than hybreds. Some more than others but they as a whole have more nutrition than hybrids do. Remember that corn is an "out-crossing" crop thus benifits by being hybridized...hybrid vigor...and yields per acre go up. But for the plants to produce "more" it has to give something up which ends up being the nutrition as a whole. Talk to the old timers about hybrid corn vs. open pollinated corn...everyone I have talked to state cattle and chickens preferred the O.P. varieties if given their choice. Several farmers also stated chickens layed better when fed open pollinated corns on less feed. Tests show O.P. corn typically has 4-5% more protein. This also comes back to taste too...the old varieties have more flavor (corn meal/flour). Then you get into white vs. yellow vs. red, flour vs. flint vs. dent types, etc.

Storing harvested grain differed in the east vs. the southwest vs. the upper Missouri areas. In the east, much was put into baskets, some burried, most put into the large central buildings of the village. In the deep south, Native Americans developed the corn crib remember, slatted floored covered buildings elevated from the ground. Squash of all types were sliced and dried for storage later to be used in stews. Beans were dried and put into sacks and baskest. Sunflower heads were seeded and stored in baskets and large pottery jars. Fields were mostly worked by the women, elderly men usually tended the tobacco patches but this differed from area to area. Blueberries (and other berries) were dried for winter use. Some tribes harvested honey and stored this for winter use. Iroquois tribes developed the harvesting and cooking down of maple syrup, even to the point of drying it for long term storage. Ohhh, another native crop is the wild rice (Zizania palustris) of the great lakes region used by the Ojibwa/Chippewa.

Sumpweed was grown for the seed as a food source as was sunflower here in the east.

When picking an old type of corn for multi purpose use (meal, grits, flour, livestock feed, roasting, etc.), old dent varieties are the best overall. Some dents are more "flinty" thus making better grits and meal while others are more floury making better ground flour. Colored corns have more nutrition as a whole. Grind your corn slowly and store in the fridge, grind no more than a month's use at a time.

Blueflint

[flowerpower]

Thanks Blueflint. I also thought some tribes had controlled burns before a new area was planted. There is an archeological dig going on in my county, in the town of Central Bridge. Pottery, arrowheads, tools etc... all about 40 ft above the floodplain of the Schoharie Creek.

The State Museum in Albany has a nice section on the Iroquois Nation. Including a nice replica of a longhouse. It was interesting to see the utilization of space. A place for everything and everything in its place.

[Alan]

I've heard about the controlled burns with agriculture too, I believe I might have read about that in Buffalo Bird Womans garden but could be mistaken and can't remember for sure. Was that a widespread practice?

[johno]

Burning was practiced by the Indians here up until about a generation before I entered the world. (The land I live on was owned by an old Indian before my in-laws bought it...) They did it to get rid of ticks and chiggers as much as agricultural pests - lol.

[jason]

The burning is interesting. Blueflint do you think the fish fertilizer was practiced before European influence? I know there is a bit of discussion on that topic. Thanks for all of your posts.