• meant European descriptions were inaccurate
• took years for the Europeans to learn
  

the native Americans lived by these changes

• in much of Maine they moved around hunting and gathering according to the season
• this was close to what anthropologists call intensified food collection
  
• year started with fish spawning runs in the spring
• bird migrations spring and fall and nesting birds in the summer
  
• nuts and berries in the summer and fall
• hunting large animals in the winter, tracked in the snow
• did not try to store much food--why?
  
• population stayed low because of times of low food supply
• Liebig's law: population is determined by food supply in the lowest month, not year round
  
• Indians in most of New England farmed
• this meant they needed to plan on a surplus to have seeds to plant
• still moved between winter homes and summer fields--particular for firewood
  
• women did most of the work of growing corn, beans and squash, contributing half to 3/4 of the family's food needs
  
• after the harvest the focus was on hunting, important not just for food but for clothing
• burned forests to clear underbrush without killing the trees, also fertilized the soil, kept down fleas, and encouraged the growth of grass for deer

the key difference in use of the environment is that the Indians did not have fixed settlements

• modified the environment but according to a different way of thinking about it
• didn't have a distinction between nature and civilization