Indigenous Enigma’s
What Corn, Beans, and Squash can teach us about what is and isn’t Indigenous to the Northeastern Woodlands.
By: Nimkii Brad Howie
What do corn, beans, and squash, all have in common? They are all enigmas to environmental scientists, albeit most likely without realization. Species which are impossible to understand by our long-standing definitions of what native species are. And yet, no one would deny their existence in the Northeastern Woodlands prior to European colonization. So, where does the problem lie?
Much like a farmer harvesting their crop at the right moment, I felt a pressing need to write this article.
Teosinte and Corn
Just the other day I was reading a book when I came across a definition, one I’ve seen one too many times and one that I know is misleading and simply not true. It all has to do with how we define a native species, an Indigenous species, in the Northeastern Woodlands or anywhere else in North America. The book I’m currently reading defines them as “those species that were growing prior to colonization or contact by Europeans”. This is the widely accepted definition in the field of environmental science, one that I have read in numerous books, learned about in graduate school, and have heard firsthand from environmental scientists. But it’s always been confusing to me, because by definition this means that corn, beans, and squash, are all species native to the Northeastern Woodlands; yet none of these species originated here. Hence the Indigenous enigma.
Some of these plants, like beans, trace their origins thousands of kilometers away to an entirely different continent, South America. Not only this but agricultural varieties of corn, beans, and squash look vastly different from their wild ancestors, from their ‘native’ counterparts. Take corn for example. Corn (Zea mays) has humble origins in what is now Mexico as a native grass called teosinte. If you were to compare teosinte to modern corn, you’d barely recognize the connection. Seriously look up images of tesosinte. It’s hard to imagine that this is the corn we all know and love.
How did we get from a grass with barely any kernels that are almost inedible, to the corn varieties we enjoy today with hundreds of kernels packed with nutrients, carbohydrates, and flavour? The simple answer is Indigenous ingenuity and Indigenous science. This is the simple answer because to turn teosinte into corn is the result of numerous First Nations all across North America carefully cultivating and breeding it over hundreds of years. Corn is a golden shining example of one of the most sophisticated examples of genetic modification in human history. Yes, corn is clearly a genetically modified organism (GMO), but the modifications were not done in a lab, they were done on the land through the careful intentional work of Indigenous peoples practising agricultural science. The same is true for beans, squash and countless other plants that Indigenous peoples have cultivated, adapted, and introduced to new landscapes. These crops did not originate in the Northeastern Woodlands, yet they were grown, modified, and sustained here.
The whole point of this article is to say that the way in which we define native species of North America paints Indigenous people as passive inhabitants of the land, hunter and gatherers who simply lived among the plants that were already here rather than cultivators who actively shaped their environment. But the truth is far more complex. Indigenous scientists have been carefully tending to these lands for thousands of years. And crops were not the only plants that were moved and intentionally planted. Vast stretches of lands and waters, forests and grasslands, sea to shining sea, have been managed intentionally since time immemorial by Indigenous peoples.
So, I’d like to leave you with some challenges. Challenge your perception of Indigenous people prior to colonization, challenge long standing definitions of what is and isn’t an Indigenous species, and what is or isn’t a GMO. When we do this it not only helps us to understand the species that we live with today, but it also helps us to understand that Indigenous people have a deep understanding of ecosystems, agriculture, and land management. That Indigenous people were not merely living with nature, but actively shaping it, both for the good of human beings and non-human beings alike.