Subsistence Map
Indians of North America depended upon domesticated plants; wild animals, wild plants, and fish were a secondary importance. While domesticated animals provided less than one percent of the total diet. New Jersey and other Eastern tribes fled their villages when attacked by superior forces and managed to get a living from the woods after their supplies of corn, beans, and squashes had been destroyed. Wild plant foods, especially nuts, were of tertiary significance in the Eastern United States. Fish were caught in considerable numbers but were no more important in New Jersey than wild plant foods. Shellfishes were much in demand in New Jersey and along the coasts, and archeologists have found them in huge quantities on a number of inland rivers, where they date from sometime before agriculture was known. The diet in New Jersey tribes satisfied every nutritional need and famines were rare because they were enough wild foods to fall back on when crops failed or were destroyed by enemies.
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