Scapula Hoe
Great Oasis House
Bone Fishhooks
Oneota Culture Sites
Bear Claw Necklace
Paleo-Indian Clovis Spearpoint
Upper Republican and Nebraska Cultures
Great Oasis Sites
Mill Creek Sites
Copper Awl
Glenwood Culture House Floor Plan
Glenwood Culture House The First Farmers
Nomads
For thousands of years prior to
European settlement, Native Americans practiced agriculture in the area now
known as Iowa. However, the first known group to reside in Iowa were likely
the nomadic, big-game hunters called Paleo-Indians. By piecing together bits
of information, archaeologists believe these people roamed Iowa about 12,000
years ago, hunting large mammals. Mammoths, mastodons, caribou and extinct
forms of bison were their main source of food and clothing.
Other early inhabitants of Iowa existed primarily as nomads as well, but artifacts
indicate that people gradually started settling near rivers as they learned
agricultural techniques. Prehistoric people chose to settle by rivers because
soils close to the rivers or on river terraces were much easier to farm than
upland soils. The rivers also provided the major transportation routes for
people and for trade.
Cultures
There are several Native American
cultures that spent some time in Iowa. Arriving from different directions,
in different time periods, and settling in various regions, each culture had
slightly different tools and methods of farming.
About 2,500 years ago a culture originating in the eastern woodlands of what
is now called Ohio and Illinois spread into present-day eastern Iowa. This
group, which became known as the Woodlands, practiced a more settled way of
life than had been previously experienced in the Iowa region. Their dependence
on agriculture required a more settled life, although hunting remained an
important occupation to supply food as well as skins for clothing.
It is believed that the Great Oasis people developed from the Woodland culture
and existed in Iowa from 900 to 1300 CE Evidence suggests that they occupied
villages during the fall, winter and spring. During the summer they may have
gone on communal hunts, or perhaps family groups traveled up and down the
river to establish small agricultural plots.
Also around this time the Glenwood people lived in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. They lived in small
clusters of houses and farmed. They interacted little with other tribes. By
1300 these people disappeared from the Glenwood area. It is believed they
moved out of Iowa and merged with other tribes.
The Mill Creek people lived along the Little Sioux River of northwestern Iowa.
They relied on hunting and farming to survive. They lived in a group of farming
villages that first appeared around 1000 CE The Mill Creek culture grew
their crops in a garden area composed of numerous mounds of earth that archaeologists
refer to as "ridged fields." The Mill Creek culture remained for
several hundred years but had disappeared by the time Europeans arrived. It's
possible pressure from nearby Oneota groups or climatic changes that made
agriculture unproductive caused them to move elsewhere.
By 900 CE the Oneota inhabited most of the state. They relied on agriculture,
plant gathering and hunting for their subsistence. The combination of agriculture
and hunting allowed them to establish permanent villages, which they occupied
during the agricultural growing season. These early farmers worked the tillable
bottomlands along the rivers.
Most experts believe that the Ioway Indians, found living in the region during
the late 17th century, were descendents of the Oneota.
Crops
The crops that were tended by the
early inhabitants include many familiar plants. Some of the plants continue
to be cultivated, while farmers often do their best to get rid of some of
the others that are now considered weeds. Also, just as the farmers of today
rotate crops or experiment with entirely new plants, Iowa's earliest farmers
were willing to try new things. For example, corn was introduced about 800
CE, but did not become a staple
crop until later.
The Woodland people cultivated corn, beans and squash, as well as the native
gourds, sumpweed, goosefoot, sunflower, knotweed, little barley, tobacco,
mashelder and maygrass. The Great Oasis grew corn, goosefoot, sunflower, little
barley, sumpweed, smartweed, wild plum, hackberry and walnut. The Glenwood
people domesticated corn, beans, sunflowers, goosefoot, gourds, squash and
tobacco. They also cultivated little barley, barnyard grass, knotweed and
marshelder. The Mill Creek people grew tobacco and cultivated maize,
goosefoot, marshelder and squash. The Oneota grew maize, squash, beans, pigweed
and goosefoot.
Tools
While most of the native plants
needed little special care to thrive, as the early farmers introduced crops
such as corn, beans and squash they developed tools to make their cultivation
tasks easier. The Great Oasis people made hoes from the shoulder blades of
large mammal bones. The Glenwood people developed tools including bone hoes
fastened to wooden handles and sickles made from the jawbones of deer. They
used manos to grind corn and
other seeds. Artifacts show the Mill Creek people possessed a wide variety
of tools including bone fishhooks, awls, scraping tools, needles, mano, metate
and elk horn dribbles. They made large hoes from the scapula (shoulder) of
bison and used these to till the ground.
Iowa has a long history rooted in agriculture. Modern farmers follow in the
tradition of their ancestors. Even many of Iowa's native peoples knew the
value of Iowa's rich soil. These early Iowans didn't know it, but their farming
practices set the stage for many generations of farming in the land known
as Iowa. They were just the first in a long line of people who thrived as
farmers on the rich soils of Iowa.
Sources:
- The Iowa Heritage: A Guide for Teachers, Iowa Public Television, Johnston, IA.
- Schwieder, Dorothy. Iowa Past to Present: The People and the Prairie. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State Press, 2002.
- Schwieder, Dorothy. Iowa: The Middle Land. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State Press, 1996.
