Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — The Indian. [ARTICLE]

The Indian.

The popular idea of the Indian roaming over the prairies, living on the fruits of the chase and just what he can gather, does not properly characterize all of the tribes. Some of the Indians of the South and Southwest ’ were excellent agriculturists. In Georgia and Alabama, when the white man first went among the Natchez Indians, they found them all cultivating maize, beans, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, and a large number of the native fruits growing in orchards persimmons, honey - locusts, mulberry, black walnuts and shell barks of the best kind were sorted and planted by them. Many of the New Mexican and Arizona Indians were also far advanced in the agricultural art.