Plant Use & Agriculture

[painshill]

Posted by [Chase]
Plant Use & Agriculture Through Prehistoric Times

There's a good article "Prehistoric Cultural History" from the US Forest Service that discusses the changes in Native American plant use and agriculture through the prehistoric time periods available for download here:

www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_002284.pdf

[painshill]

Coconut Use by Native Americans

There is evidence for the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) being indigenous to the Pacific coast of South America in pre-Columbian times and it certainly became well established subsequently – including the coastal regions of Southern Mexico.

The surveyor Charles Vignoles also recorded an abandoned Coconut grove four miles North of Jupiter Inlet, Florida in 1823 and it was estimated the trees had been established in 1807. There is evidence for the Miccosukee Seminole (who migrated into Florida in the early 19th century) using coconuts in post-contact times. William Sturtevant notes in his 1954 thesis “The Mikasuki [sic] Seminole: Medical Beliefs and Practices” that they had used the nuts for food and the shells to make dance rattles, spoons and cups.

The Seminole spread as far north as Oaklahoma (the coconut palm of course did not), but not quite into the Mid-West.