Wetland Soils and Ancestral Menominee Maize Agriculture in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Wetlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Today, the dense forests of the northern Great Lakes seem an unlikely place for expansive ancestral Native American agricultural fields, especially ones dedicated to sun-loving crops, like maize. The short growing season in these northern climes, dense forest, alternative staples like wild rice, and past settlement history all would suggest a limited production of maize. However, our recent drone lidar survey documented expansive fields in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, challenging long standing conceptions of the intensity of maize agriculture. Here, we describe our ongoing efforts to document the expansive raised fields at the threatened Sixty Islands archaeological site in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. These fields were constructed with organic-rich wetland soils, illustrating the prowess of ancestral Menominee farmers to overcome the environmental challenges of these northern latitudes and the critical way that wetlands are utilized in intensive farming.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Wetlands   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39710.0