They practiced some agriculture, but it was definitely of secondary importance and consisted mostly of the Indian staples -- corn, beans, and squash. Wresting a living from the forest and prairie demanded a great deal of time and effort. It necessitated considerable mobility, with outlying camps and special purpose gathering and processing stations.
Children's clothing from North American Indian cultures, other than moccasins, is unusual to find in many museums. This little girl's dress is in exceptional condition and is among the earliest items to be cataloged in the Museum.
The geographical regions of North America are diverse, and so too are the people who adapted to those environments. Tribes that shared a regional domain with access to many of the same resources and environmental constraints would often develop similar technology and artistic decoration. Regional boundaries only show general patterns of similarity; they are not static.
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The Museum's Chamacoco Collection consists of 70 objects, such as this belt ornament made of tropical bird feathers, and represent items both for everyday use and for ceremonies. Collected in 1925 by the Museum of the American Indian in New York, they came to the Milwaukee Public Museum that same year. The Chamacoco live in the Gran Chaco region of northwest Paraguay. The Chamacoco today alternate between their traditional hunting and gathering and more recent light agriculture, craftsmanship, or labor. Their population has dwindled from several thousand to approximately 1,000 people today, and few museums in the United States have such collections.
