CHANGING THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

THE CALIFORNIAN INDIANS INTRODUCED DIFFERENT NATIVE SPECIES TO DIFFERENT AREAS THROUGH TRADE. SOME WERE TRANSPLANTED AND OTHERS WERE SEWN BY SEED AND OTHER SEEDS WERE TRADED TO NEW AREAS BY DIFFERENT TRIBES AND CARED FOR BY DIFFERENT TRIBES.
SINCE NATIVE AMERICANS TRANSPLANTED AND TRADED MANY DIFFERENT SEEDS AND TUBERS, IT WAS DIFFICULT FOR BOTANISTS AND AUTHORS OF FLORA AND FAUNA TO DISTINQUISH HUMAN FLORAL DISTRIBUTION VS. NATURAL PLANT AND ANIMAL CULTIVATION.

AN ETHNOBOTANIST IN 1914 DETERMINED THAT THE NATIVES HAD CHANGED THE PLANTS WITHIN A SPECIAL REGION. ANOTHER RESEARCHER HAD POINTED OUT THAT THE LOCATION AND OUTLINES OF VARIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES WERE DETERMINED BY VARIOUS PLANTS GROWING AROUND AND ON THE SITES. PREHISTORICALLY PEOPLE ALTERED PLANTS AS WAS DISCOVERED BY ETHNOBOTANISTS.

THERE ARE MANY TRADITIONAL GATHERING SITES THAT HAVE BEEN RECORDED IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS IN VARIOUS ELEVATIONS DEPENDING UPON WHERE PLANT SPECIES ARE LOCATED. EVEN ANIMAL POPULATIONS WERE TRADED BY VARIOUS TRIBES. KAT ANDERSON NOTES THAT THE PREHISTORIC INDIANS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR ESTABLISHING ISLAND FOXESIN THE NORTHERN CHANNEL ISLANDS. OTHER ANIMALS WERE TRANSPORTED TO DIFFERENT ISLANDS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES.


HISTORIC SITES ARE ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT PLANT TYPES AS WELL. AROUND THE WORLD THERE ARE MANY ACCOUNTS OF SACRED AND EDIBLE PLANTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SPANISH AND MEXICAN AS WELL AS ANGLO SITES.

KAT ANDERSON