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Maize agriculture began on the Great Plains about 900 AD. Evidence of agriculture is found in all Central Plains complexes. Tribes periodically switched from emphasis on farming to hunting throughout their history during the Plains Village period (950-1850 AD), probably based on climatic fluctuations and the periodic abundance of bison. [2] /
Before the arrival of Europeans in North America, the continent supported a diverse range of indigenous cultures. While some populations were primarily hunter-gatherers, other populations relied on agriculture. Native Americans farmed domesticated crops in the Eastern Woodlands, the Great Plains, and the American Southwest.
Lauck, Jon. "'The Silent Artillery of Time': Understanding Social Change in the Rural Midwest," Great Plains Quarterly 19 (Fall 1999) online; Lingeman, Richard. Small Town America: A Narrative History, 1620-The Present (Putnam, 1980) Longworth, Richard C. Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism (2008) online
The earliest cultivated plant in North America is the bottle gourd, remains of which have been excavated at Little Salt Spring, Florida dating to 8000 BCE. [7] Squash (Cucurbita pepo var. ozarkana) is considered to be one of the first domesticated plants in the Eastern Woodlands, having been found in the region about 5000 BCE, though possibly not domesticated in the region until about 1000 BCE.
Settlement of "America's breadbasket" led to ecological destruction. Widespread agriculture led to the near-complete extermination of the American bison in the late 1800s and the reduction of the tallgrass prairie to less than 1% of its former extent. [2] The plains are now largely agricultural, with large ranches and farms.
The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis (1998) Conkin, Paul. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 (2008) Gardner, Bruce L. (2002). American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: How It Flourished and What It Cost. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00748-4. Hurt, R. Douglas.
The Plains Village period or the Plains Village tradition is an archaeological period on the Great Plains from North Dakota down to Texas, spanning approximately 900/950 to 1780/1850 CE. On the west and east, Plains villagers were bounded by the geography and landscapes of the Rocky Mountains and the Eastern Woodlands , respectively.
The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography , referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains states .