Large areas of inland Virginia, the Monacan lands, were found by the  
early whites to be open, devoid of forest. They often took this to  
mean there was something wrong with the soil, it would be unfit to  
farm. But no, the Monacans had just cleared areas to make for better  
hunting. Big game like elk and deer prefer more open areas.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Mar 3, 2007, at 10:12 PM, James Brothers wrote:

> Especially after the slaughter of WWI, many Westerners saw  
> "peaceful natives" everywhere. Further study found that warfare is  
> pretty much universal. There are some interesting variations like  
> the "Flower Wars" of Mexico, where the deaths may not have been  
> during battle, but during religious sacrifices that took place  
> afterwards. The Plains Indian practice of counting coup is also  
> interesting, but did not preclude combat deaths.
>
> Another American Indian 'myth" is that they lived in harmony with  
> their environment. To a certain degree there simply weren't enough  
> of them to cause widespread ecological destruction. But they did  
> engage in practices that had pretty serious local consequences. And  
> in some cases there is evidence (especially in the Southwest) that  
> practices may have at least contributed to habitat loss and  
> ecological degradation.
>
> Before the arrival of the horse, standard practice by the Plains  
> Indians was to set fire to the prairie and drive the buffalo off  
> cliffs. A bit rough on the grass and also making no attempt to cull  
> the herd, just massacre the whole thing. Questions have been raised  
> about some of the large kill sites whether there were Indian groups  
> large enough to use all of the resultant meat.
>
> The Powhatan and other groups here in Virginia practiced slash and  
> burn agriculture. Village sites were shifted after the soil was  
> farmed to exhaustion (the indicator often being when there was not  
> enough food for the old and very young). It was also not unknown  
> for the locals to set fire to the forest and drive animals into the  
> river, where they were killed by people in boats. Burning the  
> forest also made for better deer habitat. Big Meadow on Skyline Drive
>
> There is also a widespread claim that slavery did not exist before  
> the arrival of Europeans. many tribes maintain they did not enslave  
> "people". But as only members of the tribe qualified as "people"  
> this is a pretty empty statement. It is true, however that the form  
> slavery took was often very different. While manumission of African  
> slaves by Europeans was not a common practice, Indian slaves were  
> sometimes/often (?) made full members of the tribe. And children of  
> slaves were often not considered slaves, unlike the children of  
> African slaves.
>
> James Brothers, RPA
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> On Mar 3, 2007, at 20:42, Sunshine49 wrote:
>
>> off topic and far from Virginia, but an example of the risk of  
>> over-simplifying historical villains. From the current issue of  
>> Archaeology magazine, an excavation at Crow River in South Dakota,  
>> where remains of 500 men, women and children were discovered...  
>> massacred around AD1325. Nary a white man in sight...
>>
>> Nancy
>>
>> -------
>> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>>
>> --Daniel Boone
>>
>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the  
>> instructions
>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the  
> instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html