The Northern Limit of Indian Agriculture in North America

Abstract

A T THE time of European contact the northern limit of Indian agriculture on the Great Plains of North America was probably in North Dakota, at the Knife River villages of the Hidatsa Indians, or about 47?30' N.' Agriculture in this area was practiced by the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa tribes, who cultivated Indian corn, beans, squashes, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco. The first European to describe the agricultural activities of these sedentary Indians of the Upper Missouri was the French explorer, La Verendrye, who in 1738 accompanied a party of Assiniboin Indians on a trading expedition to their villages. There is little reason to believe that at this time native cultivation extended north of the