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In this chapter I summarize and interpret the archaeobotanical remains that have been reported from Creek Indian archaeological sites. Since plant remains can also contribute to our understanding of the paleoenvironment, some of these results are discussed in Chapter 2. The paleoethnobotanical analysis is based exclusively on macroplant remains that are interpreted in conjunction with the historic record, and it consists of three parts. First, the historic data are reviewed for ¤rst-person insights into the character of early historic Creek subsistence. These data include both historic accounts, including government records, and signi¤cant scholarly interpretations of these texts. Second, there follows an assessment of archaeobotanical remains reported from excavated Lower Creek sites in Georgia and Alabama.Third, a paleoethnobotanical model of early historic Creek subsistence and ecology is advanced based on the joint consideration of historic and archaeobotanical data. HISTORIC OVERVIEW Several European-Americans recorded their ¤rsthand impressions of early historic Creek ecology and economic activities, with varying degrees of scienti¤c notation, accuracy, and ethnocentrism (Adair 1968; Foster 2003a; Harper 1998; Romans 1999, among others). I summarize historically documented details of the human-plant interaction at the lower Creek town of Cussetuh and the upper Creek towns known collectively as Okfuskee (Piker 2004).Creek towns and villages shared many culture traits, yet each possessed unique social and natural environments to which its people responded, possibly generating local variants of subsistence strategies. Thus, overgeneralization to other towns and villages must be approached with caution (Piker 2004). Cussetuh Town (9CE1) is the probable locus of an eighteenth- to nineteenthcentury Creek administrative and ceremonial center (Foster 2005a; O’Steen et 6 Botanical Remains Mary Theresa Bonhage-Freund al. 1997). The town experienced regular ®uctuations in population as a function of the annual ceremonial cycle. Historic documents indicate that this complex system relied on ¤eld agriculture (Brannon 1925). In the 1830s, agricultural soils proximate to Cussetuh town were in decline, and the town itself showed signs of preparing for relocation (Foster 2003b, 2005b). However, the villages associated with Cussetuh town exhibited well-fenced ¤elds that were cultivated by plows.They raised cattle,hogs,and horses.Some villages planted apples, peaches, and grapes (Foster 2003a). In the early 1770s, Okfuskee (Oakfuske) was likely positioned at a ford on the Tallapoosa River where a major trade route traversed the river. The Okfuskee Creek took full advantage of this location, practicing a mixed subsistence strategy which almost certainly included agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting , trade, and bounty hunting of runaway slaves (Piker 2004:91, 111–112). Josh Piker documented some details of these activities. Women collected¤rewood and wild plants, often accompanying men on hunting trips to perform these and other domestic tasks. In these temporary encampments, people fashioned lean-tos of bark and poles. In late March through early April, men and women together planted small ¤elds with maize, with a second round occurring in May when larger ¤elds were seeded with maize and other “provisions .” By the 1750s, economic pressures obliged men to remain in hunting camps until the Busk in mid-July, leaving only brie®y in April to plant the¤elds. Unfenced communally farmed ¤elds were located some distance from the town, but by the 1760s and 1770s each household maintained a fenced kitchen garden (Piker 2004:113–115). Women alone planted and maintained the private gardens. The maize planted in these in¤elds was a quick-growing variety which ripened in about two months, in contrast to the more slowly growing types planted in the communal out¤elds (Piker 2004:118). Piker argues that an intercultural frontier exchange economy developed in Creek country during the second half of the 1750s, but the Upper Creek towns such as Okfuskee did not participate until this system was about to collapse in the 1760s. By then, Creek Indians and colonists in Georgia and South Carolina informally exchanged small amounts of food. Creeks traded venison for produce and other provisions. The Lower Creek Indians probably participated in this exchange economy. Chapter 7 describes animal remains found at archaeological sites. In the early eighteenth century, Yuchi was the second largest of the Lower Creek towns (Boyd 1949). Benjamin Hawkins reported that the E-ne-hau-ulgee , or those men second in command to the town’s Micco, supervised the preparation of the communal agricultural ¤elds (Foster 2003a). They also prepared the ceremonial tea known throughout the early historic Southeast as the “Black Drink” (Hudson 1976). This highly caffeinated tea was typically preBotanical Remains / 137 [3.138...

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