Week 04 Lecture 01 Native American Forestry …franker/Week04agtechnology.pdf_____. 2005 Edible...

Montclair State University Department of Anthropology

Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World

Dr. Richard W. Franke

Week 04 Lecture 01

Native American Forestry

Management and Agricultural Technology

Weatherford chapter 5

Pages 75—98

Second edition pages 102–127

Week 04 Native American Farming Technology 1Last Updated 16 November 2013 and

04 Sept, 2019

2




Native American Forestry Management and Agricultural Technology

The learning objectives for week 04 are:

– to understand the nature of North American Indian agro-forestry

– to appreciate how modern science is making use of Native American farming practices

– to appreciate how modern science is making use of Native American land management practices

– to understand and appreciate some of the most important medical contributions of Native Americans to the world (Week 04 lecture 02)

Week 04 Native American Farming Technology

3





Terms you should know for week 04 are:

– back fire

– conuco

– polyculture

– the three sisters

– quinine

– curare

– ipecacWeek 04 Native American Farming Technology

4


Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World: Dr. Richard W. Franke


Week 04 Sources:

Cronon, William. 1983. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York:

Hill and Wang. Where the Europeans saw a wilderness with savages, modern ecological studies find a

managed environment.

Densmore, Frances. 1974 [orig. 1928]. How the Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine and Crafts. New

York: Dover Publications.

Jacke, Dave with Eric Toensmeier. 2005 Edible Forest Gardens: Ecological Design and Practice for Temperate

Climate Permaculture.Volume I: Vision and Theory. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing

Company. Esp. page 174

_____. 2005 Edible Forest Gardens: Ecological Design and Practice for Temperate Climate

Permaculture.Volume II: Design and Practice. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing

Company. Esp. pages 531-34

Mt. Pleasant, Jane. 2001. The Three Sisters: Care for the Land and the People. In James, Keith, ed. Science and

Native American Communities: Legacies of Pain, Visions of Promise. Lincoln: University of Nebraska

Press. Pp. 126–34;


5


Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World: Dr. Richard W. Franke


Sources (contd):

Thornton, Russell. 1987. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. Norman:

University of Oklahoma Press. Surveys the various estimates of the native population of the New World at

the time of European contact. The population figures play an important role in the debate over the extent of

Indian forest management described in the Michael Williams book below.

Weatherford, Jack. 1991. Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America. New York: Fawcett Columbine.

More details on the topics first taken up in Indian Givers.

Williams, Michael. 1988. Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press. Chapter 2 -- "The forest and the Indian" -- pages 22-49 -- describes the many ways Native

Americans managed the forests of North America. Surprises galore await the reader of this text.

Wolkomir, Richard. 1995. Bringing ancient ways to our farmers' fields. Smithsonian 26(8):99-107. November

1995. Describes the work of Iroquois agronomist Jane Mt. Pleasant of Cornell University who is studying

the environmental and agricultural output consequences of the Iroquois "three sisters" system of corn, beans

and squash that preserve soil fertility.





Native Americans Among the World’s Greatest

– Plant breeders

– Biodiversity protectors

– Agricultural technologists

– Environmental managers – including advanced forms of agroforestry and other land management techniques

Week 04 Native American Farming Technology 6




Modern Scientists Have Discovered That…

– Plants require 18 essential elements to live

– Most from the soil

– Carbon, oxygen and hydrogen from air and water

– Nitrogen most difficult to get from air – …

Week 04 Native American

Farming Technology

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Nitrogen thus a crucial “limiting factor” in plant growth

– Modern agriculture gets from oil and natural gas see the Haber-Bosch process described later in this lecture

– Expensive and amount is ultimately limited by fossil fuel availability

– Easy to over-fertilize…excess can run off into local water systems and poison humans – this “reactive nitrogen” a major problem today





Nitrogen thus a crucial “limiting factor” in plant growth

Native Americans solved the problem by planting “nitrogen accumulators” near their food plants

– Black locust, mahogany, bayberry trees

– New Jersey tea shrub

– Peanuts and related plants

– Vetch and bean plants; also most acaciasSources: Jacke, Dave with Eric Toensmeier. 2005 Edible Forest Gardens: Ecological Design and Practice for Temperate Climate

Permaculture.Volume I: Vision and Theory. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. Esp. page 174

_____. 2005 Edible Forest Gardens: Ecological Design and Practice for Temperate Climate Permaculture.Volume II: Design and

Practice. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. Esp. pages 531-34





Other plants used to “accumulate” or “fix”

– Phosphorus – may be facing a world shortage, see later slides

– Potassium

– Calcium





Fertilizers• Native Americans understood value of animal

dung for plants

• Used seaweed and…

• Guano – the giant bird droppings fields in Peru

• Inca had regulated the guano supply

• Peruvian guano helped England overcome soil fertility decline





Vanilla• Native Americans taught Europeans how to

grow

• Also how to cure by aging 4 – 5 months to release flavor

• Fertilized and tended by hand





Other Native American Farming Technology Achievements…


Farming Technology

13




Milpas• Plant crops on mounds rather than in rows

• Leads to less erosion

• May be a way to preserve soil in modern agriculture

• Peruvian potato mounds shown in The Columbian Exchange a sophisticated version of the milpa





Chinampas• “Floating gardens” of Aztecs

• Did not float

• Artificial islands built up on lakes

• Very rich soil; high output





• Chinampas were food base for the Aztec empire

• Among the most productive farming land ever created





Conuco• Use root or sprout cuttings to develop

genetically desirable traits

• Cassava, sweet potato and pineapple all created this way





Polyculture• Mix various plants on same field instead of

row planting

• Makes natural barrier against pests and diseases

• Preserves long-term biodiversity and soil structure

• See Iroquois three sisters example later in the slides Week 04 Native American Farming Technology 19




Mixed Farming and Polyculture:

North American Forest Management

Before the Europeans


Farming Technology

20




Recent Research Shows Native Americans Practiced Sophisticated

Forest Management Techniques

Before the Europeans


Farming Technology

21




Native American Agro-forestry

1. Most Europeans saw North

America as a wilderness inhabited

by uncivilized “savages.”





2. Later researchers – following the

anthropologist Alfred Kroeber –

estimated the pre-colonial

population of North America at

about 1 million persons.


Farming Technology

23




3. In the past 20 years an entirely

new understanding of the

aboriginal conditions of North

America has emerged.


Farming Technology

24




4. Two basic points are now widely

accepted:

4.2 The pristine forests of NA were

actually managed ecosystems.

4.1 The population of NA was at least 9

million and could have been 18 million.


Farming Technology

25




5. The total population of the

Western Hemisphere, in fact, may

have been greater than that of

Western Europe.


Farming Technology

26




6. If point 5 is true, why were such

low population estimates made

for 500 years?


Farming Technology

27




7. Historical demographer

(population studies) Henry Dobyns

combed thru hundreds of

accounts of diseases and

epidemics that struck the Native

American population on contact

with Europeans after 1491.


Farming Technology

28




8. He found 41 major smallpox

epidemics from 1520 to 1899.


Farming Technology

29




9. 15 major measles outbreaks, 10

recorded influenza epidemics, and

incidents of bubonic plague,

diphtheria, typhus, cholera,

scarlet fever, and other diseases

not easily identifiable from the

account.


Farming Technology

30




9.1 The disease counts and other

information only make sense if the

native population had been many

times larger than 1 million.


Farming Technology

31




10. The relative genetic isolation of

Native Americans from the Old

World diseases had rendered

them uniquely vulnerable to

European and African pathogens.


Farming Technology

32




Even Dobyns’ strongest critics now agree that the population of North America was probably around 7 million





11. Epidemics played a major

role in the European conquest

of Native Americans.


Farming Technology

34




12. The horrible death toll

Dobyns retrieved from the

historical record has the

scientific effect of recasting

our estimates of the 1491

population of North America.





13. Higher population estimates

lead to many changes in our

understanding of Indian life prior

to the introduction of Old World

diseases.


Farming Technology

36




14. In Eastern North America the

native peoples lived in villages

surrounded by fields on which

they grew a great variety of crops.


Farming Technology

37




15. We discussed these

crops in a previous

class and they are

described in

Weatherford’s chapters

4, 5 and 6 and in the

video “The Columbian

Exchange.”The video is #2324 Part 6 in

Sprague Library

See also the book →Crosby, Alfred W. Jr. 1972. The Columbian Exchange:

Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.

Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Monday, February 22, 2010 Week 04 Native American Farming Technology 38




16. To grow these crops the

Indians used a “managed

ecosystem” approach.





17. Partial clearings were

hacked out of the forest and

fire would burn off the

underbrush.





18. Areas around the village

would be in various stages of

regrowth – a process

ecologists call environmental

successions.





18a. Environmental succession:

a process by which plant communities move from grassland to forest climax…

…in which they…

– accumulate biomass; and

– soil nutrients move from mineral form to organic matter


Farming Technology

42




19. A European visitor painted the Indian village of Secota, Virginia in 1585






20. Much of the right side

of the painting shows corn

in various stages of growth.




21. To the left of the corn next to the pathway one can see pumpkins





22. By using fire and other devices to

maintain environmental successions,

the peoples of the NA Eastern

Woodlands maximized output of grains,

seeds, nuts, and berries; and attracted

deer and other game to the edges of

their villages.


Farming Technology

46




23. By NOT opening up large

monocrop cleared areas,

however, they allowed the forest

successions to maintain species

diversity (also called

“biodiversity”).


Farming Technology

47




24. By not disturbing the

forests too much, the Native

Americans maintained the

root connections among

various plants, allowing them

to exchange nutrients.





25. Modern plant

biologists have

recently discovered

the importance of

mycorrhizae (fungus

roots) that link forest

plants together into a

single healthy

ecosystem.

Source: Jacke, Dave, with Eric Toensmeier. 2005. Edible

Forest Gardens: Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate

Climate Permaculture. Volume One: Vision and Theory.

White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing

Company. Pages 11−12; Capra, Fritjof. 1996. The Web of

Life. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books. Page 253.

(Sources added: Sunday, September 23, 2012).





26. The fires may also have

stimulated the growth of

mycorrhiza and the fires also were

sometimes used to drive game

into traps.


Farming Technology

50




27. Fires also stimulated the growth

of berry bushes, an important food

source.


Farming Technology

51




28. Native Americans invented the

“back fire,” a fire used to burn off

the path of an oncoming

uncontrolled natural fire.

Backfires are still used in modern

forest fire fighting today.


Farming Technology

52




29. Recent archaeological and

historical research suggests that

groups such as the Iroquois

moved their villages about once in

20 years to adjust to the various

forest successions. Some villages

may have been permanent.


Farming Technology

53




30. Most of the

meadows and

parklike forest areas

described by

colonists were

almost certainly the

products of Indian

ecological

management.





31. It now appears likely that even

much of the prairie with its pure

grass stands – an unnatural

environment – was a product of

Indian ecological management

thru the use of fire.


Farming Technology

55




32. Far from being a pristine wild

and natural environment, it now

appears that the North American

continent was largely what

ecologists would call a “human

induced fire based subclimax.”


Farming Technology

56




33. The predominance of pine trees

in many NA forests is itself

evidence of human eco-

management – pine trees are part

of an ecological succession.





34. Native American eco-

management practices are now

influencing the theory and

practice of sustainable farming.

Also goes by the name

“permaculture”





35. Some Sources:

Cronon, William. 1983. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang.

Dobyns, Henry F. 1983. Their Numbers Became Thinned: Native American Population Dynamics in Eastern North America. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

Jacke, Dave, with Eric Toensmeier. 2005. Edible Forest Gardens: Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture. Volume One: Vision and Theory. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

Thornton, Russell. 1987. American Indian Holocaust and Survival. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Williams, Michael. 1988. Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography, esp. pp. 22–49.


Monday, February 22, 2010 Richard W. Franke Part 02 Slide 60

Permaculture:

consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships in nature while yielding an abundance of food, fiber [and other products?] for human needs.

David Holmgren

Sometimes also called

“biomimicry”but actually involves much more than that…

18 September 2008 Richard W. Franke Part 02 Slide 61

Ecovillage Ithaca: Laboratory for Sustainability?

Much remains to be learned about permaculture’spossibilities, especially the potential of edible landscapes.

Find out more about permaculture at:

https://fingerlakespermaculture.org/what-is-

permaculture/

https://fingerlakespermaculture.org/what-is-permaculture/




The Three Sisters

Native American

Agriculture:

Iroquois “Three

Sisters” Farming





The Three Sisters

The best known example of Native American agricultural sophistication comes from the three sisters system of the Iroquois


64

Montclair State University Department of AnthropologyAnth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World


The Iroquois are Mostly Famous in U.S. History for the

League of the Iroquois

– Founded by Hiawatha and Deganwidah between AD 1000 and AD 1450, under a constitution called the "Great Law of Peace"

– The League of the Iroquois united 5 Indian nations:

65

Montclair State University Department of AnthropologyAnth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World


League of the Iroquois

– Mohawk: People Possessors of the Flint

– Onondaga: People on the Hills

– Seneca: Great Hill People

– Oneida: Granite People

– Cayuga: People at the Mucky Land

66

Montclair State University Department of AnthropologyAnth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western WorldDr. Richard W. Franke

League of

the Iroquois

Source: Grinde, Donald A. Jr. 1977. The Iroquois and the Founding of the American Nation. San Francisco: The Indian Historian Press. Page 18.




The Three Sisters

37. Early European

explorers were

astounded at the

large amounts of

corn stored up in Iroquois villages.





The Three Sisters

In 1535 Jacques Cartier, and later

Henry Hudson, noted large granaries

filled with corn.


Farming Technology

68




The Three Sisters

In 1779 Continental Army general John

Sullivan reported destroying 6,000 bushels in

the village of Genesee New York and 160,000

bushels along the East Side of Seneca Lake

and surrounding areas.Lewandowski 1987:78


Farming Technology

69




The Three Sisters

Iroquois

agriculture was

based on the

“three sisters:”

corn, beans,

and squash.





The Three Sisters

The three sisters are also part of the origin stories of the Iroquois and other Northeast North American groups.


Farming Technology

71




The Three Sisters

The Iroquois farmed without the plow and without commercial fertilizers – such as today’s petroleum based ammonia to fix nitrogen.





The Three Sisters

Instead the women planted a few corn seeds at a time in holes set about 3 ft apart.

Modern agricultural scientists now recommend 5 ft between the corn plantings.





The Three Sisters

When the corn sprouted they weeded and

mounded up the soil around the stalks.


Farming Technology

74




The Three Sisters

The mounds exposed the soil to the air,

helping it warm up in the spring; and

helped drain the soil.


Farming Technology

75




The Three Sisters

Two weeks later the

women planted

beans next to the

corn and then

squash between the

mounds.





The Three Sisters

The “3 sisters” were now ready to help each other:

– The corn provides a pole for the beans to climb on.





The Three Sisters

The big squash leaves reduce weeds and help retain soil moisture.

They are thus a

natural self-

generating mulch.





The Three Sisters

The beans change atmospheric nitrogen into a form it can be absorbed (“fixed”) in the soil – an important nutrient for the corn.

They function as a substitute for the high-tech Haber-Bosch system to be described soon.





The Three Sisters

The mounds prevent soil erosion and help

recycle the nutrients, especially when the

plant residues at harvest time are thrown

back on the mounds.

Weeding is made easier by moving from

mound to mound.Wolkomir 1995; Hart 2008:87-88





The Three Sisters

The Seneca, one of the Iroquois nations, are known to have used at least one organic-biological pest control: seeds were soaked in Hellebore (Veratum album or “false Hellebore”) extract. This made the plant repellent to birds and other pests.

Lewandowski 1987:82






The Three Sisters

It is not clear whether Native

American biological pest

control devices have been tested by

modern scientists.




The Three Sisters

The Three Sisters system in the Finger Lakes region of New York state where many of the Iroquois lived is at least 650 years old.

Hart, J. P. 2008. Evolving the Three Sisters: The Changing Histories of Maize, Bean, and Squash in

New York and the Greater Northeast. In Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany II. New York State

Museum Bulletin 512, edited by J. P. Hart, p. 90. The University of the State of New York, Albany,

New York.

Lewandowski, Stephen. 1987. Diohe’ko, The Three Sisters in Seneca Life: Implications for a Native

Agriculture in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Agriculture and Human Values 4(2-3):

77.


https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staff/details.cfm?staffID=37

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staff/details.cfm?staffID=37

https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staffpubs/docs/16673.pdf





The Three Sisters

The Three Sisters system, however, could be 6,000 years old, based on findings in Mexico that corn and beans were being planted together in the same fields at that time.

Lewandowski 1987:78


Farming Technology

84




The Three Sisters

The system may have thus migrated up through North America before being adopted by most of the Northeast woodlands groups from modern Ohio to New England.

Hart 2008


Farming Technology

85




The Three Sisters

The unique contribution of the Native Americans in the Finger Lakes area then would have been to adapt and adjust the system to the area by choosing and/or selecting appropriate varieties of each crop.


Farming Technology

86




The Three Sisters

The Iroquois are known from the research of the famous American ethnologist Lewis Henry Morgan in 1850 to have cultivated at least 3 types of corn. More recent studies show they knew of at least 5 types: soft, flint, sweet, pop and pod.

Lewandowski 1987:89





The Three Sisters

As well as at least 60 varieties of beans.

Lewandowski1987:89





The Three Sisters

And many types of squash including bottle gourds used for containers, utensils and rattles as s well as several types of pumpkins.

Lewandowski 1987:89-90.


Farming Technology

89




The Three Sisters

The 3 sisters together provide a fairly

balanced diet of vitamins, minerals,

carbohydrates, and the full complement

of amino acids for proteins.Hart 2008:88; Mt Pleasant 2001 and 2006





The Three Sisters

Corn is low in the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, but beans, it turns out, have ample amounts of those two essential protein builders

Lewandowski 1987:84

Corn has a 9.2% overall protein content, compared with 8% for brown rice and 7% for white rice.





The Three Sisters

The Seneca made corn into hominy by

soaking it in wood ash – this made it

easier for humans to absorb the niacin

and some other nutrients – in other

words, it made the corn healthier to eat

– corn is the grain weakest in niacin.Lewandowski 1987:84


Farming Technology

92





The Three Sisters

The manufacture of hominy is probably an ancient Native American craft, known from Mexico (as nixtamal) and throughout much of North America.




The Three Sisters

The Huron, whose diet was probably similar to the Iroquois, and whose diet was studied in some detail, ate 65% corn, 15% beans-squash-pumpkins 10—15% fish and 5% meat.

They ate 1.3 pounds of corn per person per day.

Lewandowski 1987:84Week 04 Native American Farming Technology 94




The Three Sisters

The Seneca ate in addition: succotash*, cornbread with fruit or beans, hominy soups and stews, maple syrup, and berries.

Lewandowski 1987:84

*Succotash comes from the Narragansett language, an Algonquian language like that spoken by the Iroquois. It means “boiled corn kernels.”





The Three Sisters

The rising cost of petroleum and natural gas-

based nitrogen fertilizer makes the Iroquois

approach appealing – and the threat of a

worldwide phosphorous shortage adds to

the comparative advantage of the three

sisters approach.

Source on the looming phosphorous shortage: Bates, Albert and Toby Hemenway. 2010. From Agriculture to Permaculture. In State of the World 2010: Transforming

Cultures – From Consumerism to Sustainability. Washington, D.C. The Worldwatch Institute and New York: W. W.

Norton. Page 50.





The Three Sisters

Using the natural fertilizers in the soil and

returning them at harvest time makes the

farming more “sustainable,” a goal now

widely accepted in environmental and policy

circles.





The Three Sisters

Sustainable farming may be even

more crucial than the slide above

suggests – because other

problems also loom in the near

future





Bosch

Many scientists consider the Haber-Bosch process to be among the most important discoveries of the 20th Century

In 1909 German chemists Fritz

Haber and Carl Bosch invented

a way to turn atmospheric

nitrogen into a form that could

be applied as liquid or pellets

on agricultural fields. Haber ↓





One-half of all nitrogen fertilizer used today is made from the Haber-Bosch process – the other half consists of natural crop and animal wastes

Haber-Bosch today generates more than 500 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer while utilizing 1% of the world’s total energy budget – mostly natural gas burned in the chemical alteration process

Some observers claim

that up to 40% of all

humans alive today exist

only because of Haber-

Boschhttps://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/haberbosch.html

https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-haber-bosch-

process.htm


https://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/haberbosch.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-haber-bosch-process.htm

Sunday, February 21, 2010 101

Montclair State University General Education Program

Gened 303 Globalization and Sustainability

Profs. Richard W. Franke and Barbara H. Chasin

The Earth’s atmosphere near the surface (up to about 18 km or 11 mi) has lots of nitrogen: 78% and 21% oxygen.




But Haber-Bosch has two limiting factors: oil →

If energy descent theory is correct, Haber-Bosch will be difficult to sustain →and along with it the food production that depends on it

It requires tremendous amounts of heat

and that currently means burning large

amounts of fossil fuels, mainly

petroleum and/or natural gas.





2013 Update: Haber-Bosch Today

The October 21, 2013 New Yorker Magazine contains a

book review essay by Elizabeth Kolbert that includes an

interesting discussion of some of the current debates on

population growth and world environmental problems that

she connects with the Haber-Bosch discoveries.

To access the article, click here.

Week 04 Native American Farming Technology 103This slide was added 16 November 2013

https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/10/21/131021crbo_books_kolbert?currentPage=1




The Three Sisters

A second problem with Haber-Bosch results from its very success: we now have too much nitrogen in the soils and fresh waterways of earth. When nitrogen is a gas in the atmosphere, it is considered “non-reactive.” In soil, rivers and lakes, however, the nitrogen reacts with other chemicals – too much nitrogen causes all kinds of harmful side effects





The Three Sisters

The 2005 Millennium Ecological Assessment considered reactive nitrogen one of the most serious environmental threats to the entire earth’s life support system.

Consider a few of their findings as described in the next few slides…taken from their report – all basically a consequence of Haber-Bosch


Millennium Ecosystem

Assessment Findings

Slides taken from the Millennium Assessment Report

Largest assessment of the health of Earth’s ecosystems

Experts and Review Process

▪ Prepared by 1360 experts from 95 countries

▪ 80-person independent board of review editors

▪ Review comments from 850 experts and governments

▪ Includes information from 33 sub-global assessments

Governance

▪ Called for by UN Secretary General in 2000

▪ Authorized by governments through 4 conventions

▪ Partnership of UN agencies, conventions, business, non-governmental organizations with a multi-stakeholder board of directors

Changes in direct drivers:Nutrient loading

▪ Humans have already doubled the flow of reactive nitrogen on the continents, and some projections suggest that this may increase by roughly a further two thirds by 2050

Estimated Total Reactive

Nitrogen Deposition from

the Atmosphere

Accounts for 12% of the

reactive nitrogen entering

ecosystems, although it is

higher in some regions (e.g.,

33% in the United States)

Changes in direct driversImpacts of Excessive Nitrogen Flows

Environmental effects:

▪ eutrophication of freshwater and coastal ecosystems

▪ contribution to acid rain

▪ loss of biodiversity

Contribution to:

▪ creation of ground-level ozone

▪ destruction of ozone in the stratosphere

▪ contribution to global warming

Resulting health effects:

▪ consequences of ozone pollution on asthma and respiratory function

▪ increased allergies and asthma due to increased pollen production

▪ risk of blue-baby syndrome

▪ increased risk of cancer and other chronic diseases from nitrate in drinking water,

▪ increased risk of a variety of pulmonary and cardiac diseases from production of fine particles in the atmosphere

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1875 1925 1975 2025

Fossil Fuels

Agroecosystems

Fertilizer

Total Human

Additions

Natural Sources

Teragrams of Nitrogen per Year

Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment




The Three Sisters

Here are the notes from the previous slide:From: MA Synthesis Figure 14. Global Trends in the Creation of Reactive

Nitrogen on Earth by Human Activity, with Projection to 2050 (R9 Fig 9.1)

Most of the reactive nitrogen produced by humans comes from

manufacturing nitrogen for synthetic fertilizer and industrial use.

Reactive nitrogen is also created as a by-product of fossil fuel

combustion and by some (nitrogen-fixing) crops and trees in

agroecosystems. The range of the natural rate of bacterial

nitrogen fixation in natural terrestrial ecosystems (excluding

fixation in agroecosystems) is shown for comparison.





The Three Sisters

Notes continued…

Human activity now produces approximately as much reactive

nitrogen as natural processes do on the continents. (Note: The

2050 projection is included in the original study and is not based

on MA Scenarios.)

MA Synthesis SDM: “Since 1960, flows of reactive (biologically

available) nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems have doubled, and

flows of phosphorus have tripled. More than half of all the

synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, which was first manufactured in 1913,

ever used on the planet has been used since 1985.”


Percent Increase in Nitrogen Flows in Rivers

Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Some results of excessive reactive

nitrogen: eutrophication

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

Source: NOAA

The World’s 405 Dead Zones as of 2008;

up from 49 in the 1960s

Source: Biello, David. 2008. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oceanic-dead-zones-spread

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oceanic-dead-zones-spread

Source: Biello, David. 2008. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oceanic-dead-zones-spread

This is no small economic matter. A single low-oxygen event (known scientifically as hypoxia) off the coasts of New York State and New Jersey in 1976 covering a mere 385 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of seabed ended up costing commercial and recreational fisheries in the region more than $500 million. As it stands, roughly 83,000 tons (75,000 metric tons) of fish and other ocean life are lost to the Chesapeake Bay dead zone each year—enough to feed half the commercial crab catch for a year.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oceanic-dead-zones-spread

https://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=thunder-hail-fire-what-does-climate-change-mean-for-us




The Three Sisters

57. The 3 sisters are thus part of a new

farming movement called

“permaculture” that began in Australia

in the 1970s and is now taught at many

major US agriculture schools.





The Three Sisters

58. A key element of permaculture is that food production fields should “mimic” natural environments to the greatest extent possible.


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The Three Sisters

59. Iroquois 3 sister intercropping is not like big US corporate farms where a single crop is grown overa large area

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Technology120




The Three Sisters

Large monocrop farms offer short term labor efficiency advantages but in the long run are more vulnerable to disease, infestation, soil erosion and loss of soil fertility


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Ant 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World

Dr. Richard W. FrankeThe Three

Sisters

By contrast, the 3 sisters system promotes biodiversity –now recognized as a key element in both organic pest resistance and in long term sustainability.





The Three SistersSources on The Three Sisters:

Hart, J. P. 2008. Evolving the Three Sisters: The Changing Histories of Maize,

Bean, and Squash in New York and the Greater Northeast. In Current

Northeast Paleoethnobotany II. New York State Museum Bulletin 512,

edited by J. P. Hart, pp. 87-99. The University of the State of New York,

Albany, New York;

Lewandowski, Stephen. 1987. Diohe’ko, The Three Sisters in Seneca Life:

Implications for a Native Agriculture in the Finger Lakes Region of New York

State. Agriculture and Human Values 4(2-3): 76-93.


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http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staff/details.cfm?staffID=37

https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staffpubs/docs/16673.pdf





The Three SistersSources on The Three Sisters: Mt. Pleasant, Jane. 2001. The Three Sisters: Care for the Land and the People.

In James, Keith, ed. Science and Native American Communities: Legacies

of Pain, Visions of Promise. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Pp. 126–

34;

Mt. Pleasant, J. 2006. The Science Behind the Three Sisters Mound System:

An Agronomic Assessment of an Indigenous Agricultural System in the

Northeast. In Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the

Prehistory, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolutionof Maize, edited by

J. Staller, R. Tykot, and B. Benz, pp. 529–538. Academic Press, Burlington,

Massachusetts

Wolkomir, Richard. 1995. Bringing ancient ways to our farmers’ fields.

Smithsonian 26(8):99–107. November 1995.


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End of Slides on

Native American

Agricultural Technology

Weatherford chapter 5


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