HISTORY
A BRIEF LOOK AT THE PAST
Early Agricultural Advice.Indigenous agriculture has a long history with the most recent archaeological evidence suggesting it has been practiced in the Americas for at least 10,000 years, almost the same length of time as in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Production of domesticated crops such as potatoes, squash, beans and corn from South and Central America progressed northward and cold tolerant varieties were being developed by Indigenous peoples in the northeast by 200 BCE.
Pre-contact Indigenous people in what is now New Brunswick (the Mi’gmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Peskotomuhkatiyik) were hunter-gatherer societies and well adapted to the natural world. They employed intricate systems of seasonal movement to hunt, fish, gather and grow foods and medicines. The seasonal cycles generally consisted of moving downriver in spring to fish and gather and plant crops and to hold annual gatherings, travelling to saltwater in summer to harvest seafood and berries, returning to harvest planted crops and prepare for winter before dispersing in smaller family groups to winter hunting grounds inland and upriver. While some of the crops cultivated and harvested would be familiar in a contemporary agricultural context (maize, beans, squash) these Peoples also cultivated and managed fields and natural stands of species native to the region such as groundnuts, berries, butternuts, and fiddleheads.
