Chapters in Athens Heritage

Chapters in Athens Heritage. Native People. For 11,000 years, Native Americans were part of the river and forest communities, and seasonally hunted and gathered food along the North Oconee River., About one thousand years ago, after the introduction of maize (corn), native people settled in large villages down stream to grow crops. They continued to hunt, fish and gather edible plants along the floodplains of the North Oconee River basin, which were too narrow to be farmed. Huge chestnut, oak, and hickory trees provided nuts to complement a variety of berries. When the settlers arrived in the 1780s, they harvested the forests and over-farmed the land. This removed the topsoil and choked the rivers with sediments. Today, we understand that the river needs protection and local animals need a forest in which to live., (captions) , The main trading resource of the native people was white-tailed deer skin. Deer were scarce when the settlers arrived. By the end of the 19th century deer were extinct in Georgia. They were reintroduced from other states in 1928, An ear of Maize, To trap fish, the Creek people anchored woven baskets to the rocky shoals. Because the water was so clear, large fish like bass were also caught with spears.