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Wild Plant Foods

Gathering wild foods was an important part of the seasonal round, both to supplement hunting and fishing, and to expand the diet of those tribes that raised corn, beans, and squash.

All through summer and fall, the women and children gathered wild fruit, berries, and nuts. The women fastened birchbark buckets (makuks) to bands around their waists and filled them with wild foods they gathered.

New Species from the West Indies

gecko
Photo by
Father Mark de Silva

Darting through the forest on an island in the Caribbean, a previously unidentified species of lizard forages for ants and termites in rotten wood and leaves.

Thanks to the efforts of two scientists, this tiny, colorfully spotted lizard finally has a name. But its future may not be as bright as its scales.

Metallurgy

Scandinavian Metallurgy

Stone tools were first produced during the early Stone Ages in Scandinavia. The collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum mainly focuses on the Mesolithic and Neolithic time periods when lithic production was at its peak.

Transportation

With the exception of dogs, Native people in the Great Lakes region had no domesticated animals, so they depended on their own power for transportation.

Walking was the most common way of moving, and personal possessions were limited largely to what the people could carry themselves.