Since least 2000 BC, most Native Americans lived by agriculture. Maize was the most common grain, but certain grainlike plants were also popular, notably amaranth in Mesoamerica and quinoa in the Andes. Several varieties beans and squash were grown maize; many varieties potato were cultivated the Andes; and manioc, a tropical tuber, was raised the Tropical Forest area South America. All these plants, as well as peanuts, chili peppers, cotton, cacao (chocolate), avocados, and many others, were domesticated and developed as crops Native Americans.

Livestock was less important Native Americans than peoples on other continents. the Andes guinea pigs were bred meat and llamas transport and meat, and Mesoamerica turkeys were domesticated. Protein was often obtained plants, especially beans. Maize-growing peoples obtained calcium soaking maize a lime solution as a step preparing it to eat. Throughout the Americas additional protein was obtained fish and game animals, especially deer. Outside Mesoamerica and the Andes, many Native American communities game ranges were regularly burned improve pasture, thereby maintaining favorable conditions deer and, the Plains, bison. Mesoamerica and Peru, land was too valuable pasture (v) animals; instead, land was cultivated, intensively irrigated, and, mountain regions, terraced.
Hunting and fishing techniques were highly developed Native Americans, particularly regions not suited to agriculture. Traps of all kinds were common. Plains peoples relied corrals hidden under bluffs or in ravines; herds bison were driven into the corrals, where they were easily slaughtered. Inuit and Subarctic groups drove caribou into corrals, or they ambushed them in mountain passes or river fords. Guanacos were similarly hunted in the South American Pampas. Fish were usually taken nets or weir traps (where a fence or enclosure is set in a waterway catch fish), except in the Northwest Pacific Coast area, where tons of salmon could be speared at the river rapids.
Techniques food preparation varied according the type of food and the culture area. maize-growing regions, tortillas remain common, as does a similar flat bread of manioc flour in the Tropical Forest. Techniques drying foods, including meats, always important. In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes, nobles indulged elaborate feasts richly prepared dishes.



"Native Americans," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.