Re: pre-1500 winter survival in North America?

Eric Brunner Contra (brunner@cup.hp.com)
18 Dec 1995 16:19:54 GMT


bohuski@wkyuvm.wku.edu writes:
: As a matter of curiosity, I've been trying to learn about living condi-
: tions on this continent pre-1500. I've scoured my school's library, with
: little to show for it. One of the few "specifics," if you could call it that,
: when referring to Canadian groups, indicates that deaths from starvation
: during the winter were VERY numerous. The picture being described, supposedly
: based on reports from the Jesuits, was one of whole tribal units struggling
: across the snowy wilderness in search of food, with the very young and old,
: especially, dying in large numbers along the way, food being, understandably,
: rather scarce.

Please note that Jesuitical historical records in Eastern Canada begin mid-
way into the Early Beaver Wars period, so pathogenic events were present,
and larger scale warfare than pre-existed 1500. Due to pathogenic events,
towns were abandoned, along with corn harvests. Due to pathogenic events,
towns were repopulated by forcible incorporation of other towns (Laurentine
Iroquois, Huron, Neutral, ...), all at the "expense" of the areas of Jesuitical
presence and records. Hence during the period of Jesuitical records, Native
"New France" was under enormous military and negative demographic pressure,
which lead to the reduced use of settlements, and the abandonment of stored
(centralized) corn, as well as the systematic destruction of pre-harvest corn
to induce incorporations.

--
Kitakitamatsinopowaw (I'll see you again, in Siksika)
-- Eric Brunner
..and the resulting Requeriminto was even read to trees, which opens
   whole new vistas on the origins of European ecological thinking...