ition to the hunting of seals. Both freshwater and marine fish were eaten along with a wide variety of birds, including swan, grouse, goose, cormorants and turkeys. Among the plant products that were gathered were berries, grapes, chestnuts and acorns. Fresh vegetables are ill preserved in the archaeological record and so may well have been important, but it is impossible to discern this absolutely from the evidence that remains (Trigger, 1978, pp. 161-2).
Indians of this region, as noted above, certainly supplemented their food collection activities with horticulture. The major crops of the natives of this region were maize, kidney beans, squash, Jerusalem artichokes and tobacco. These were planted in fields from which the smaller plants had been cleared and the trees cut down (the stumps removed when the roots died). Spades were made of hardwood to help in the cultivation and fish were used as fertilizer (although this practice may have been borrowed from the Europeans). Fields were allowed to lie fallow if they were no longer sufficiently fertile and were burned before replanting, a relatively efficient means (given the level of technology available) for returning nitrogen to the soil in a usable fashion as well as a quick way of clearing fields of recent growth. Most of the agricultural work was done by women, who stored the grain in woven sacks or baskets that were then interred in trench-like earthen granaries (Trigger, 1978, pp. 162-3).
The material culture of the natives of this area was simple, consisting of simple, multi-purpose tools along with bows and arrows (the arrowheads made of stone, antler, eagle claws, bone and horseshoe crab tails and soon after contact metal). Dugout canoes were commonly used
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