Native American Foods: Technology and Food Sources: Agriculture

In addition to their responsibilities for foraged and cultivated plant foods, Native American women were the primary agriculturists, selecting seeds, planting, cultivating, and harvesting. Male-conducted agriculture occurred in only a few pockets of the Southwest, the extreme Northeast, and the Lake Superior region. Individual women often had land rights inherited matrilineally and produced their family’s crop foods. Despite this somewhat formal distribution of land, women frequently worked communally, helping each other as needed. Men participated in the work by clearing land and occasionally helped to bring in harvests. Because the survival and welfare of the group depended on sufficient plant food, general cooperation was a necessity.