FARMING

The people in the Late Woodland time period (250 A.D. to 800A.D.) started farming. Their farms were on flat, level ground. They farmed squash, gourds,tobacco, marsh elder, and pumpkins. The people in the Late Woodland grew sunflowers in their gardens. They gathered seeds from the foods they ate. Some examples of these seeds are lambsquarter, maygrass, sumpweed barley, and smart weed.

With the beginning of farming, they started using a hoe. It helped them garden and farm. Chert is a type of stone used to make tools such as hoes. A celt is a type of ground stone hoe that is used to dig holes for crops. The celt was used through the Archaic and Woodland time periods.

FOOD

The Late Woodland Indians once lived in Southern Illinois. The people in the Late Woodland ate small animals like rabbit, woodchuck, deer, and fish. The Indians also ate grouse, duck, goose, and wild turkey.
The people in the Late Woodland cooked by digging a pit and building a fire in it, and then putting sandstone rocks in the fire. When the fire burned out the rocks were sizzling hot. Indians also put food in pottery.
The Indians also fished. They would line up and toss a net in the water. Another example is they put a rope on a hook and then put fish on the hook. Sunflower seeds were smashed for cooking oil. The oil was used for cooking breads and for mixing wild onion and some garlic for seasoning. Some kinds of pudding were made from corn, berries, maple sugar, and syrup. These were their few sweets . The people in the Late Woodland also ate may grass, knot weed, and goose foot. The people in the Late Woodland collected nut and seeds in pottery to store for the winter.