FOOD, AGRICULTURE, HUNTING. FISI1ING. Ex cepting on the plains and in the frozen north, agriculture was the chief dependence of most of the tribes. Those on the coast, including the Haida, were naturally fishermen. Those of the upper lakes and about the head of the Missis sippi planted little, but gathered large quantities of wild rice and cranberries. besides sugar which they boiled from the sap of the maple. The equestrian plains tribes, excepting the corn-plant ing Pawnee and Arikara, were hunters pure and simple. Those of the Columbia were salmon fishers, root-chiggers. and berry-gatherers. Those of California and the Sierras were chiefly acorn and seed eaters. The Navaho, since the Span ish mission period, have lived principally by the flesh of their sheep and goats, while the preda tory Apaches were expert in preparing the edible roots and petals of various desert plants. The Pueblos may be considered as purely agrieul tural. raising large quantities of corn, beans. squashes. and other vegetables, as well as chile and native tobacco. The tobacco was also culti vated by the Arikara and others of the upper Missouri. and by most of the Eastern tribes, Wild plums. pecans, mesquite beans, the tubers of the pomme blanche, and the seed-berries of the wild rose, were gathered and eaten by the buffalo-hunting tribes of the plains. Agricul
ture furnished more than half the fond-supply of the Iroquois. the Atlantic coast and Cull tribes. corn standing first in importance. In the arid Southwest irrigation was essential to success, and the Indians were skillful in utilizing the scanty water-supply in this manner.
Almost every animal of the plains and forest was hunted for its flesh, skin, horns, teeth, or sinew. On the plains the great game animal was the buffalo, after which calm. the elk, deer, and antelope. Very few Indians of this region ate the meat of birds or fish, although averse to eat ing the horse or dog, while the Navaho and Apache refused to eat or even touch the bear, for some occult religious reason, and had an almost equal horror of fish. The Eastern Indians used fish, flesh. anti fowl indiscriminately, only being care ful not to put two kinds into the same pot. Salt procured from natural deposits or by boiling the water of saline springs was in general use on the plains and in the Southwest, as well as among some tribes of the Ohio Valley. In the Gulf States lye was used as a substitute.