The Acolapissa were similar in language and culture to the Choctaw just to the north. Villages were relatively small (2-300 people) and located in the flood plains on both sides of the Pearl River about 20 miles inland from the Gulf. Because of poor soil near the coast, agricultural tribes usually lived inland. Most of their diet was provided by agriculture: corn, beans, squash, several varieties of melon, and tobacco. Fields were relatively small because of the difficulty of clearing underbrush and keeping them free of weeds. Larger fields were not really necessary since the growing season allowed the annual harvest of two to three crops from the same field. Farming was supplemented by hunting and fishing, and in what may come as something of a surprise, buffalo were a major source of meat. In fact, there were so many buffalo in southern Mississippi during the early 1700s, that the French considered capturing some and raising them for their WOOL! However, finding someone willing to shear a live buffalo proved difficult, and this remarkable idea was dropped.
Among the Chickasaw, women were responsible for tending the fields of corn, beans, and squash, while men hunted deer, bear, and buffalo. Fish was also an important food source.
In the Bayougoula tribe, hunting, using fire to drive the animals into the open, was important with buffalo, turkey, deer, and alligator, and fish being the major prey. However, the bulk of the Bayougoula diet was provided by their agriculture: corn, bean, squash, melons, sunflowers, and tobacco. Fields were relatively small, but the long growing season of the region allowed them to harvest two to three crops from the same field.
Agriculture was the responsibility of the women and easily provided the majority of the Chitimacha diet. Corn was introduced into the southeast United States from Mesoamerica sometime around 300 B.C. Blessed with several hundred feet of top soil and a 320 day growing season, the Chitimacha had little trouble raising enough for their needs and, unlike some of their neighbors, rarely went hungry. Beans, pumpkins, melons and several varieties of squash were also part of the bounty. The women supplemented this by gathering wild fruits, vegetables, and nuts, while the men provided meat from hunting (deer, buffalo, turkey, alligator) and fishing. The huge shell middens discovered near former village sites attest to a heavy dependence on shellfish. For the winter months, each village maintained an elevated community granary to protect their dried corn from rodents and other pests.
Agriculture provided most of the Houma diet, and the village was surrounded by fields in which they grew corn, beans, squash, melons and sunflowers. Hunting and fishing, using dugout rather than birchbark canoes, provided the remainder.
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