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structures made of marsh reeds woven and sewn into mats stretched over bent saplings at least 5.5 meters (18
feet) in length. These oblong dwellings housed extended families in the agricultural villages, and circular
houses for individual families were also constructed as winter hunting quarters and moved as needed.
The natives of coastal Maryland and Virginia had access to a large and varied larder of natural foods. Some
1,100 edible wild species have been identified. Two of the most important were tuckahoe (arrow arum) roots
as a source of starch and greenbrier leaves for greens. Freshwater marshes on wide floodplains of the region's
meandering rivers were virtual breadbaskets, producing tuckahoe as well as the starchy seeds and tubers of
pickerel weed, wild rice, and spatterdock, or cow lily. Abandoned fields sprouted blackberries and raspberries,
which lured game animals such as raccoons and opossums.
In many areas the deciduous forests grew to the waterside. In autumn the many nut-producing trees yielded
acorns, walnuts, beechnuts, hazelnuts, and chestnuts, and these in turn attracted a variety of game, including
deer and wild turkeys, staples in the native diet. Fowling for geese and dabbling ducks was an important winter
activity. Fish weirs constructed of stones and pole-and-reed fences might be operated year round, but were
most productive in spring when anadromous fishes, such as shad and alewives, were running the rivers. If all
else failed, oystering in the bay's shallow waters or clamming along the beaches of the Atlantic shore and the
back barrier bays staved off hunger. Middens indicate that Chesapeake's famous blue crabs were also a favored
food.
When John Smith arrived on the scene, perhaps fifty thousand Native Americans— Algonguian-, Iroquoian-
, and Siouan-speaking—lived in the Chesapeake Bay region. Within a century, European settlers in Virginia
and Maryland outnumbered natives. Africans arrived, first as indentured servants and later as slaves. Today the
bay is surrounded by 16 million inhabitants, a number expected to reach nearly 18 million by 2020. The most
important factor affecting the Chesapeake environment has been the post-World War ii population boom,
which witnessed a doubling of bay residents. Although parts of the precolonial ecosystem remain intact, it has
been drastically altered by urbanization, agriculture, and the denuding of the original forest. The excess nutri-
ents and sediments pouring into the bay have had an overwhelming impact on this once-clear-water aquatic
habitat, clouding its future.
 
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