Before contact
Domesticating maize meant that people who had originally been hunters, gathers, following herds of animals, could...
partake in settled agriculture. - so they were able to develop villages and complex societies. - that isn't to say they stopped hunting or gathering but they began staying in one place.
Iroquois-speaking peoples lived in structures called longhouses. What did they tend to be made out of?
Bent saplings for supports, leaves for thatching, and bark for shingles. The long houses resembled long, half cylinders.
Historians credit the ___________, _____________, and ____________ as the first farmers in America.
Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam
Lesson summary: Native American societies before contact
Summary of key events and concepts in North America prior to European contact. Before Europeans arrived in North America, Native American groups developed into distinct and complex societies in response to the unique environments they inhabited.
Common food practices: a shift towards three-sister farming
The Hopewellian period in the Eastern Woodland region spread over the cultural shift from hunting and gathering to budding agricultural systems. Some historians estimate that Native Americans were farming squash in Illinois as early as 5000 BCE. Corn farming spread through trading networks to the Ohio River Valley from the Southwest by 350 BCE. Native peoples tended to their crops carefully and religiously. They soon also began to plant and grow beans. Together, the corn, squash, and beans, became known as the sacred "three sisters," a term coined by the Iroquois people. According to the Iroquois, the three crops would only thrive if planted close together. Algonquians retained hunting and gathering as a source of food, while beginning to farm. Women would gather berries and cultivate the corn fields, while men would hunt and occasionally aid in farming. Northeastern American Indians living near the various rivers in the area would fish salmon and collect shellfish, as well. With an abundance of food, Iroquois and Hurons made intricate pottery to store the surplus. They also wove baskets to aid in the farming process.
Three sisters-
"Three sisters" refers to corn, squash, and beans. Farming all three plants together helped to establish more permanent and larger settlements.
Review question
How did environment and geography determine migration and hunting patterns for pre-Columbian societies?
For example, the Southwest Plains and the Great Basin-- quite dry. A lot of desert. -And so societies in these regions adapted to the dry climate in several ways.
-For example, Native American groups that lived on the Great Plains continued their hunting and gathering way of life. Hunting bison, and following the herds of animals in teepees, which were dwellings that were easy to set up and then to take down. -People in the Southwest, like the Ancestral Puebloan people, dealt with this dry environment by creating very complex irrigation projects so that they could water their maize crops using what little moisture there was. -The Puebloans lived in large cave complexes as agriculture allowed them to grow their population.
Brief overview of native societies before contact to give you an idea of just how diverse and complex these societies were, as native groups adapted to and interacted with their environments.
-By the time Europeans arrived in the late 1400s there were perhaps 50 million people (king of a mid-range for the estimates historians have made) living in the Americas and of those 4 to 6 million were living in North America. -So how did these societies develop?
Corn (Maize)-
A major crop in the Americas that contributed to the development of large and complex settlements for Native Americans.
Hunter-gatherer-
A person who obtains most or all of their food by hunting, fishing, and foraging.
So how did these societies develop?
A really big moment around 5,000 BCE when people in Mexico domesticated corn, or maize as it is also known.
Pueblos-
A tribe of Native Americans who settled in the present-day American Southwest.
Societal organization: villages and pueblos
Agriculture dictated the way the Ancestral Pueblo people lived. With surplus food and stability, they became more sedentary, living in stone and adobe houses. Equivalent to massive present-day apartment complexes, these buildings had multiple stories, each with multiple rooms. The Ancestral Pueblos, regarded as highly developed for their time, tended to live in larger towns with thousands of people and intricate dwellings. Chaco Canyon, a center for the Anasazi people, was home to over twelve thousand people and became a trade hub. The Chacoans, a branch of the Anasazi people living in the canyon, created over four hundred miles of roads that connected the town to other disparate villages in the region. The Chacoans mostly traded away turquoise, traveling west for sea shells from California, south for exotic birds from Central America, and north for minerals and ores from the Rocky Mountains.
Ancestral Pueblo people had a thriving agricultural society, as opposed to more nomadic societies. What's the big trade-off for prioritizing agriculture over hunting?
Agriculture-based societies have a more reliable source of calories, but are more vulnerable to drought. In order to farm, native societies could set up more permanent places to live with more permanent sources of nourishment--as long as there wasn't a drought.
Societal structure: villages and communities
All "three sisters" quickly became cash crops, a crop which was in high demand by Plains and West Coast Indians, who were eager to trade. They received large shells, pearls, copper, and silver in return for the foods. Tribes throughout the region would trade food and commodities with other Northeastern peoples, depending on their area's niche good. For example, the Susquehannocks of Pennsylvania traded wampum beads for nets and furs from the Hurons of the Great Lakes region. Native groups in the Northeast generally lived in villages with a few hundred people. Hochelaga, modern-day Montreal, was inhabited by several thousand people and surrounded by extensive corn fields. If they were close to a river and therefore a supply of fish, groups would not rely on their village as much, and live in smaller bands. However, most lived in villages close to their crops. In agricultural Hopewellian societies, men planted and harvested, while women worked in the home, took care of the children, and processed the crops. Hopewellian culture began the tradition of mound-building, which would extend down to the Southeast into the next century. All throughout the Ohio River Valley, Native Americans built mounds in the earth where they would bury their deceased. Other archaeologists argue that they were intended for ceremonial purposes. Either way, large mounds and animal-shaped earthworks still exist throughout this area today.
Social and religious norms: establishing alliances and democratic principles
As the Northeast became more agricultural, paradoxically, the region became more urbanized. Although we consider agricultural areas less densely populated today, the farming industry required people to begin to live together and create more fortified villages to protect their harvests. They lived in longhouses that would extend up to one hundred feet. Since Algonquians farmed while also maintaining hunting and fishing, they "commuted" from less permanent villages of wigwams. But as certain tribes, like the Iroquois, began having immense farming and thereby trading success, intertribal violence intensified. Due to trade competition, the Iroquois and Algonquians had an ongoing conflict (into which the French would later insert themselves). In hopes of ending intertribal conflict in upstate New York, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas established the Iroquois League, or the Great League of Peace. Historians disagree about when the League was established, most likely between 1100 and 1400 AD. During this time period, the Iroquoian Indians met for about a year to devise a solution to this cyclic pattern of violence and retribution between tribes. They devised a system by which each tribe could maintain a level of autonomy over local affairs, but the League would unite over trade policies and diplomacy issues. The Iroquois Confederacy put forth republican principles, and a dual system of federalism, or balancing local and national powers, for the first time on American land. Therefore, many historians argue, the League, which would later become known as the Iroquois Confederacy, was the first American democracy, established at minimum four hundred years before the US Constitution of 1787.
Social and religious norms: the spirit of the crop
Farming, the Southwestern natives believed, was a more sustainable way to ensure their society's sustenance than hunting and gathering. But that hypothesis proved false in the face of natural disaster. A persistent drought, lasting from about 1130-1180 CE, decimated the Anasazi crops, while a major flood in 1358 destroyed the Hohokam irrigation system. These disasters led the Ancestral Pueblos to hold spiritual ceremonies, praying to their gods for a bountiful harvest and good weather. They would pray to natural entities, like plants and animals, for agricultural, hunting, and personal success. These religious ceremonies brought together lots of people to create larger religious communities than social units like the family. The extended family lived and worked together, both male and female participating in the traditionally-women dominated agricultural process. Since the Pueblos did less hunting, men helped with farming. In addition to farm labor, women raised children and performed household tasks, while male heads of households would participate in an informal council to make community, or band, decisions. Band leaders generally had more impact on decision making and public relations than the tribe, a more loosely configured political organization. While the band would deal with public happenings and unrest, the tribe provided an ethnic identity for the regional people. Ultimately, most of the Ancestral Pueblo fled the area probably due to the drought. The Spanish encountered a hodgepodge of remaining descendants of the Ancestral Pueblos in the mid- 1550s who then became commonly remembered as the Pueblos.
Common food practices: introduction of agriculture
Historians credit the Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam as the first farmers in America. Corn, the first crop the Ancestral Pueblos cultivated, permeates many creation stories of the Pueblo people. The Ancestral Pueblos regarded the harvest of corn not only as a nutritional necessity, but a spiritual gift. Although agriculture seemed to represent the society's development, the Ancestral Pueblos had a much healthier diet when they hunted and gathered, as opposed to the limited diversity in a diet dominated by corn. In the arid climate of the Southwest, the Ancestral Pueblos developed complex irrigation systems which maintained crops even in the hot sun. In 800 CE, the Hohokam had created one of the largest irrigation systems to date, stretching through most of what we call Arizona today. This new irrigation system allowed the Pueblos to begin planting beans and squash, in addition to corn.
Core historical theme
Impact of environment on Native settlement patterns: Geographical and environmental factors shaped the development of Native American societies, including their migration and settlement patterns throughout the United States. Some Native societies created innovations in agriculture, like irrigation, to help sustain permanent settlements.
Societal organization: sedentary and mobile, then more nomadic
In earlier, more agrarian societies, Plains Indians would set up larger societal networks that had more sedentary bases in earth lodges. Highly agrarian groups, like the Wichitas, built grass homes near the crops. Mostly in the eastern part of the Plains, where the Hidatsa and Mandan people of North Dakota cultivated maize, they established trade networks along the Mississippi River. They made bull boats by stretching bison skin over a wooden frame to trade goods along the rivers. They traded elaborate baskets and leather for metal and furs from the Northeast. As the Plains Indians became more focused on hunting, they became more nomadic. This is not to say that all Plains Indians were nomadic or they had no societal structure—in fact, their societies were well organized and mission-aligned, just mobile. The teepee—a conical tent made out of a buffalo skin and wood—was easy to put up and take down if a band was following a buffalo herd for hunting. Sometimes, Plains Indians lived in a combination of nomadic and sedentary settings: they would plant crops and establish villages in the spring, hunt in the summer, harvest their crops in the fall, and hunt in the winter.
Where's the *Bering Strait*, and what does it have to do with the history of the North American continent?
It's a waterway that separates present-day Siberia from present-day Alaska; historians theorize that humans made their way across a now-vanished land bridge from Asia to North America. Historians believe that a small land bridge, called Beringia, once allowed humans to cross the Bering Strait from Asia and enter North America.
Overview
Many different groups of American Indians, with distinct cultures based on their resource allocation and climate, inhabited the western region of North America. Hunting, gathering, and fishing supplied most of the food for native peoples throughout the West, especially along the Columbia and Colorado Rivers. Although hunting and gathering could be challenging and unpredictable, the bountiful West provided ample food and trading goods, which allowed natives to establish sedentary villages.
Overview:
Many distinct Native American tribes populated the southwest region of the current United States, starting in about 7000 BCE. The Ancestral Pueblo tribes—the Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam—began farming in the region as early as 2000 BCE, producing an abundance of corn. Navajos and Apaches primarily hunted and gathered in the area. These ancient southwestern tribes deserted the area around 1300 CE, probably due to crop failures; European colonists encountered a group of people partially descended from the Ancestral Pueblos in the mid-1500s.
Societal structure: the pre-Columbian urban centers
Mississippian culture continued the mound-building traditions of the Hopewellian people and extended them into the plains and southward. Mississippian mound societies were larger and more complex than previous communities, indicating unprecedented population growth and wealth. Cahokia, near modern day St. Louis, was home to an estimated 40,000 Cahokian people, after whom the city was named. It became the major urban trade center along the Mississippi River and remained the largest city in North America until Philadelphia surpassed it over 500 years later, in the mid-eighteenthth century. Monk's Mound, at the center of Cahokia, is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork in modern America, expanding 955 feet in length and 100 feet in height. Cahokia declined sharply around 1250, probably due to environmental factors like overhunting or deforestation. Poverty Point, another mound city, linked large trade networks throughout the Americas. Located in northern Louisiana, the city provided a place to export stone and clay items on dugout canoes up the Mississippi, towards the Great Lakes. In return, flint and soapstone came to the South from the Ohio River Valley. Historians also hypothesize that Poverty Point had religious significance, indicated by large plazas most likely used for worship. Most people lived in hamlets, or villages, which would form political units of under one thousand people. Seminoles, in modern Florida and Georgia, constructed villages out of chickees—buildings with thatched roofs and open walls.
Common food practices: hunting, gathering, and fishing
Most Western native people fished, hunted and gathered in the bountiful land. Along the Colorado River, Native Americans gathered a variety of wild food and planted some tobacco. Acorns were a pivotal part of the Californian diet. Women would gather and process the acorns. They removed toxins from the pulp inside the nut and made it into flour, creating a less perishable source of nourishment. In the Pacific Northwest, people foraged for pine nuts, wild plants, and more. American bison also roamed the Pacific Northwest, proving an easy target for hunters. Along the coast of modern-day California, natives hunted small mammals, snakes, and lizards. In the Great Basin, fishing sustained the native people. Salmon was plentiful along the Columbia and Colorado rivers. Native fishermen would use large harpoons to stab the fish swimming through the rushing water, along with complex trapping systems. However, a natural disaster like a mudslide or earthquake could completely disrupt the salmon patterns. The Great Basin natives were the first to create canoes to aid the fishing process and secure a surplus of fish in preparation for times of scarcity. Evidence suggests that the Western American Indians had an extremely healthy, protein- and nutrient-rich diet, much more so than other groups in the Plains or Northeast who relied on farming.
Algonquians-
Native American peoples of the east coast who spoke related languages.
Mississippians-
Native American peoples who lived in modern-day Missouri and Illinois.
How did Native American societies develop?
Native American societies developed around their natural environments, using the resources that were available to them.
Native North America
Native societies in North America developed strong regional distinctions based on their environments.
Overview:
Northeastern Native Americans began to rely primarily on agriculture during the Hopewellian period, from 200 BCE to 500 CE. "Three-sister" farming of squash, beans, and corn established more permanent and larger villages throughout the Ohio River Valley. The Iroquois League, an agreement established between five Iroquoian-speaking groups in the late 1300s, curbed intertribal violence.
Native American Societies before contact
Often when we think about the beginning of American history or 1776 with the signing of the declaration of independence, or maybe 1492 when Columbus arrived in the Americas... but the history of America really begins about 15,000 years ago when people first arrived in the Americas.
Overview:
Plains Native Americans lived in a variety of sedentary and nomadic communities. They farmed corn, hunted, and gathered, establishing diverse lifestyles and healthy diets. When horses arrived on the Plains along with the Spanish colonizers, or conquistadores, they disrupted agricultural norms and intensified hunting competition between Native American groups.
Common food practices: introduction of corn, but shifts back to hunting and gathering
Plains Native Americans planted the three sisters—beans, squash, and corn—as they arrived from the Southwest around 900 CE. Agriculture was most commonly practiced and most fruitful along the rivers. Also, Plains Indians first harvested plants for medicinal purposes; for example, chokecherries were thought to cure stomach sickness. Women farmed and gathered, while many men continued to hunt. Hunting became a more dominant practice when a drought struck in the 1300s. It is a common misconception that all Native Americans hunted buffalo, atop horses, wearing elaborate headdresses. In practice, Plains American Indians hunted large animals early as the 12,000 BCE. Before the arrival of horses with the Spanish in the 16th century, Plains Indians practiced a mixture of agriculture and hunting on foot, using large spears with Clovis points at the end. Clovis points, sharp points carved out of stone, have been now discovered all across the United States. Archaeologists estimate that a spear with a Clovis point at the end could kill animals the size of African elephants, corroborating the idea that Native Americans used these two centimeter spearpoints to hunt massive animals, like mammoths, buffalo, and bison. Horses did not arrive until 1519 with the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés. Cortés brought with him about 600 horses throughout his expeditions, and later, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and Juan de Onate would bring more. When horses became widely available in the 1600s, Lakota and Cheyenne people gave up agriculture altogether to become nomadic buffalo-hunters.
Societal organization: distinct, yet connected communities
Salmon dominated trade networks as well as diets. The Dalles, the area upstream of Long Narrows on the Columbia River, became a central trading point for networks that extended to the Plains and to the Pacific. The Chumash Indians of the region near modern-day Santa Barbara were known for their trade fairs, where they would trade marine mammals for shells from the Pacific Northwest and hides from the Plains. Acorns were often used as currency. Many Western Indians, including the Acjachemen native people of California, lived in compact, easy-to-build, and easy-to-move wikiups made of wood, leaves and brush. Others, in resource-rich areas mostly in the Pacific Northwest, lived in more permanent and established villages. The structure of shelter oftentimes indicated the sustainability of the food source—the more plentiful the fish and acorns in the area, the more likely the native peoples lived in intricately-designed homes within societies that were there to stay.
Common food practices: corn farming booms
The Mississippian peoples were excellent farmers. Notably, Cherokee women planted and harvested the crops. They planted beans, squash, corn, tobacco, sunflowers, and more. They supplemented their diets with gathering acorns, nuts, seeds, and fruits. Since they did not use any fertilizer, they had to burn the fields and create new ones every season. This required immense amounts of time and labor, but ultimately had impressive output. While they had great farming success, Southeastern Native Americans also continued to hunt and fish. They hunted deer with bows and arrows, as well as fished the rivers and Gulf of Mexico for protein. In southern Florida, Calusa people developed complex fishing and trapping systems for clams, mussels, and saltwater fishes. Mississippians are also remembered by archaeologists for their intricate pottery and arrow points. They fashioned elaborate serving utensils and dishes for their bountiful food, as well as intricate weaponry to continue hunting larger animals.
Three Sister Farming
The Mississippians and other East Coast native peoples relied a lot on what's known as three sister farming. In which people would plant corn, beans and squash, together, which was mutually beneficial to all three plants, as the corn served as a trellis for the beans, and the squash protected the root system of the corn. All three together create a very nutritious diet, which allowed for a relatively high population density on the east coast.
Geographic and temporal setting: across the flatlands
The Plains region spreads to the east of the Rocky Mountains, up to 400 miles across the flat land of the center of the present-day United States. It covers parts of ten central states, including Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. The Plains were very sparsely populated until about 1100 CE, when Native American groups including Pawnees, Mandans, Omahas, Wichitas, Cheyennes and other groups started to inhabit the area. The climate supported limited farming closer to the major waterways, but ultimately became most fruitful for hunting large and small game.
Overview:
The Southeastern region of North America was an agriculturally productive region for many different Native American tribes living in the area. Mississippian culture, dominant in the Southeast, drew in immense wealth, allowing natives to build enormous mounds and organized urban centers. The Southeastern American Indians, namely the Five Civilized Tribes, created chiefdoms and later, alliances with the colonists. This earned them the "civilized" title, yet in practice, many of the tribes became socially and economically stratified.
Geographic and temporal setting: the Pueblo desert
The Southwest region, expanding through present-day Arizona and New Mexico and into Colorado, Texas, Utah, and Mexico, was home to a variety of Indian groups and cultural practices pre-colonization. In this region dwelled several groups we collectively call the Pueblo. The Spanish first gave them this name, which means "town" or "village," because they lived in towns or villages of permanent stone-and-mud buildings with thatched roofs. The three main groups of the Pueblo people were the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi. The Anasazi, sometimes called the Ancestral Pueblos, resided in the Four Corners region — where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet; the Mogollon lived mostly in southwestern New Mexico; and the Hohokam dominated the desert of southern Arizona. Historians estimate that these three tribes reigned over the region from approximately 200-1500 CE, and either dissolved or evolved into the Pueblo Indians—whom the Spanish encountered and who still reside in modern New Mexico. They have also transformed into the Zuni and Hopi tribes. The Apache and Navajo tribes arrived in the Pueblo region around 1200 CE from the Pacific Northwest and remained distinct from the Pueblo people living in the region.
Geographic and temporal setting: the diverse West
The West of United States, extending from the top corner of Washington, through California and into parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho, was home to a diverse array of Native American groups living off bountiful natural resources much before Lewis and Clark ever discovered the region's riches. It is hard to generalize about the cultural practices of native groups in the West since the climate and resources varied immensely, creating microenvironments which different groups used to advantage. Some tribes that lived in the Pacific Northwest include the Makah and the Kwakiutl people. Over one hundred federally-recognized tribes lived in modern California. The Great Basin—the vast expanse of land between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas—was home to the Mono, Paiute, Bannock, Shoshone, Ute, and Gosiute peoples, among others.
Social and religious norms: stratifying economic wealth
The agricultural boom of the Mississippian culture concentrated wealth at the top, further stratifying developing societies. The Creek people in Georgia enslaved people, mostly prisoners of war, and forced them to work their fields. Furthermore, the Southeast Native Americans were the first to organize villages around chiefdoms, in which families were ranked by social status and proximity to the chief himself. Chiefs lived in elaborate wooden structures atop large mounds, indicating their supremacy. Societies oftentimes had both peace chiefs and wartime chiefs—distinct for their purpose and their leadership strengths. Historians know little about the religious practices of the American Indians in the Southeast. Yet, they agree that the groups had a spiritual connection to the land and used the mounds for ceremonies worshipping different natural features, including the sun, corn, and water—the elements which sustained their fields, trade, and lives.
Geographic and temporal setting: the Hopewellian period
The cultural area of the American Indian Northeast extends from the province of Quebec in modern-day Canada, through the Ohio River Valley, and down to the North Carolina Coast. The Northeastern landscape is dominated by the Appalachian Mountains, which include rolling hills and prominent peaks. Native Americans settled extensively in this area, especially during the Hopewellian period from 200 BCE to 500 CE, primarily due to the temperate climate, accessible waterways, and good farming conditions. The tribes most notably connected to this area include the Algonquians, Iroquois, Susquehannocks, Mohicans, and Hurons, among others.
Social and religious norms: resources dictate wealth
The great concentration of resources also created rigidly stratified class structures throughout the West. Villages were comprised of thousands of people, organized by a complex social system in which men would hunt and fish and women would harvest and prepare the meat for food and trade. The Chinookan people, whose strategic position along the Columbia River ensured fishing and hunting success, practiced slavery to complete the laborious tasks required to process large animals like bison. In less densely populated areas, sociopolitical organization and tribal relationships were constantly evolving. People generally identified with family-based bands called tribelets. A tribelet would include a few hundred to a thousand people that aligned culturally, but hunted and gathered in smaller units of 10-12 people. In areas with sparse natural resources, native groups were more nomadic and less connected to other groups. Even monotonous tasks like hunting and gathering had spiritual significance to Western American Indians. Some groups would pray for good hunting luck, and others developed rituals around such processes. In the Great Basin, Sahaptin-speaking people would throw salmon bones back into the Columbia River as to rejuvenate the supply of fish for the following season.
Irrigation-
The process of redirecting bodies of water through channels to supply farmland.
Social and religious norms: competition and trade puts pressure on social order
These hunting-agrarian groups were mostly divided at the level of the band. A band could consist of a dozen to a few hundred people who lived together, hunted together, and travelled together. Oftentimes, bands would unite in a village setting to farm or hunt a large group of bison. Villages usually had quite fluid populations and little to no political structure. Pawnees, however, were comprised of 19 autonomous villages who united politically. Religiously, it is nearly impossible to generalize the traditions of the Plains region, since every tribe had their own practices. Rituals often revolved around the sun and nature, regarding the Earth as the mother of all spirits. Cheyennes, for example, performed the Sun Dance, which forced people to sacrifice something personal for communal benefit. Lakotas believed that certain individuals were blessed to be spiritual leaders or medicine men. Plains Indians regarded the buffalo and their migration patterns as sacred. With the introduction of horses, Plains Indian societies became less egalitarian; men with the most horses had the most political impact, social status, and economic power. As European colonists arrived, the Sioux, in particular, began to trade with them. They received guns and horses by giving the Spanish, French, and Dutch buffalo robes, blankets and beads. Resources were no longer shared, but a means with which to compete and distinguish one's tribe. Intertribal conflict increased due to this heightened competition. Tribes would steal other tribes' horses in order for economic gain and glory. This began a pattern of violence between the Native American groups and Euro-American colonists as they encroached across the Plains during the centuries to come.
Geographic and temporal setting: the Mississippian period
This region stretches down the Mississippi River and into the area surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, through some of the most fertile land in the modern United States. Native Americans, not plantation owners, were the first to take advantage of such promising agricultural conditions. The prominent Native Americans in this area are known as the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. Mississippian culture, dominant from 1000 CE onward, developing from the beginnings of farming in Hopewellian culture, which dominated a few centuries before in the Northeast.
Why is it important that the Three Sisters agricultural system combined beans, corn, and squash?
Those three crops together provided complete nutrition; no single plant can provide all the nutrients a human body needs to survive. Humans could exclusively eat the three sisters and have enough nutrients to sustain themselves.