Scientists have discovered intact evidence of an ancient agricultural site in northern Michigan, and it is likely one of the largest ever found in the United States. The finding was made after researchers surveyed more than 300 acres with a laser-equipped drone during a brief period when there was no snow cover, but prior to leaf growth on trees. The investigators created a precise map of features of the ground, and identified parallel rows of earthen mounds, which are probably the remnants of ancient raised beds. The ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin likely grew beans, corn, and squash here for centuries before European colonizers arrived on the scene. The findings have been reported in Science.
The researchers noted that this is an unusual find for a location that is so far north, where growing conditions were likely poor. "Why are they investing so many resources into cultivating maize where it's very, very difficult to cultivate maize? It's an interesting puzzle, to be sure," senior study author Madeleine McLeester, Dartmouth anthropologist, told NPR.
This massive agricultural site, which continued even past the area that was analyzed, does not seem to have been close to any large population centers, either. No other significant settlements were found nearby, only some tiny villages, added study co-author Jesse Casana, a professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College. "So it's really shocking in this case to see this level of investment in an agricultural system that would require really enormous amounts of human labor to make happen."
The perception that historical Native Americans were nomadic, or hunter-gatherers, "is very incorrect," said Casana. "By the time colonists arrived, what they were encountering were a lot of pretty sedentary communities all over North America who were practicing various forms of farming."
But since there isn't much preserved evidence of indigenous agriculture, it's tough to know just how extensive agriculture was. European settlers usually took the most fertile land and developed it for themselves, which erased evidence of ancient indigenous methods.
Casana noted that this discovery may just be "the tip of the iceberg," of intensive farming that was happening in northerly locations that are not really used for farming now. "One of the interesting things about this study is that it kind of shows us a preserved window of what was probably a much more extensive agricultural landscape."
