Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Native Americans of the Mascouten and Potawatomi tribes in order to maintain
game habitat (Legge et al. 1995).
Human Settlement and Agricultural Transitions
The current human landscape of SW Michigan (Fig. 1.8) is largely a product
of its agricultural history, formed by demographic, social, and economic forces
interacting within an ecological context of climate, soils, and natural vegetation.
Rudy et al. (2008) provide a comprehensive and insightful account of the major
periods of agricultural transitions within the region.
Southwest Michigan was inhabited beginning with glacial retreat ~16,000
b.c.e. By 8000 b.c.e. Paleo-Indians foraged for fish and game in the area, and evi-
dence exists of at least one indigenous cultigen (a sunflower) by the start of the
Early Woodland Period in 1000 b.c.e. By the Late Woodland Period (1200 c.e.),
there was widespread incorporation of corn, bean, and squash cultivation around
semi-permanent villages. By 1670 c.e., when Michigan's Lower Peninsula was
depopulated by the Iroquois, the Potawatomi Indians had established large per-
manent villages with intercropped gardens of corn, pumpkin, squash, and beans
in fields cleared of trees by girdling and fire. Following repopulation of the area in
the early 1700s, the Potawatomi in the region's south and the Ottawa in the north
cultivated corn and other vegetables as well as fruit trees, which supplemented the
diets of as many as 10,000 Native Americans.
Figure 1.8 . Southwest Michigan counties that comprise the regional setting for KBS LTER
(Rudy et al. 2008).
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