SRAC Presents: Native Indian Stone Tools

Hoes

The Native Indians used hoes just like we use hoes today. (Please see the image below.) The women most probably did all of the planting and harvesting and hoes made it easier to dig in the soil and to dig out weeds from around their crops. While we only have the stone part of the hoe as evidence of the ancient farmers, we know that they would have hashed a stick or wooden handle on the stone hoe in order for it to be easier to use and to get more leverage. The wooden handle would have rotted away over time leaving the stone hoe artifact that we have today.

The seeds were planted and cared for by the women on fertile fields near the river's edge. As the small seedlings began to grow, they returned periodically to mound the soil around the young plants, ultimately creating a hill one foot high and two feet wide. The hills were arranged in rows about one step apart.

The women mixed their crops, using a system called "interplanting." Two or three weeks after the corn was planted, the women returned to plant bean seeds in the same hills. The beans contributed nitrogen to the soil, and the cornstalks served as bean poles. Between the rows, the farmers cultivated a low-growing crop such as squash or pumpkins, the leaves of which shaded the ground, preserving moisture and inhibiting weed growth.

Hoes