What chicken breeds did Native Americans have?

[turney31]

Very interesting thread!

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

As a Cherokee, I have looked into this. The pilgrims and other "invaders" brought the chicken. Prior to that North America had the turkey and various other wild fowl. The Five Civilised Tribes, as they were referred to, were more stable. They were farmers more than hunters and not nomadic. So they had various livestock available to them. Then the Spaniards came and left herds of Pineywoods cattle, horses, sheep, goats and am sure chickens.

Christopher Columbus exported the first turkeys from North America back to Europe.

The Americas also had domesticated Muscovy Ducks and other waterfowl.

(Note: I am about 50% Cherokee. My other forefathers had chickens as they got off the boat.)

 

[mom'sfolly]

Northwest coastal Indians were also non-nomadic. I wouldn't call them agrarian though. Most of their food came to them via rivers. They had a diet largely based on fish. They would have hunting camps, and fish camps, but also had well established villages/towns.

I don't know if there are any North American Indian sort of chickens. As people have said, the only pre-Columbian chickens were in South American. There is very good evidence, in terms of food migration, that there was at least some contact with the Americas from the Pacific, hence South American chickens and Thai peppers.

 

[Mikedero]

Christopher Columbus exported the first turkeys from North America back to Europe.

Not sure if this is true as he never set foot on the mainland.
If your initial answer to this question was to think, "Of course he did!" you might have to think again. Many of us have grown up with the familiar notion, from our earliest school years, that Christopher Columbus got the green light for his journey from Queen Isabella, and then the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria set sail. The trouble is, that America, as we understand it today, was quite well occupied by the time Columbus hit the new world. While we might have learned in history classes that Christopher Columbus "discovered America" in 1492, we also know that the American continents had actually been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries before Columbus arrived. In fact, Christopher Columbus wasn't even the first European to reach America -- about 500 years before Columbus, a group of Vikings, led by Leif Ericson, reached the North American shores and left a settlement on the island of modern-day Newfoundland. There is even a legend (and until proven otherwise it is only that!) that an Irish monk named St. Brendan may have reached North America even earlier, during the sixth century, along with several other monks in a quest to find Paradise.
Columbus did unquestionably sail into the Bahama islands in 1492 and in fact made four trips to the new world. He even visited Cuba. And his discovery had a lasting impact on the trade routes of the day. Interestingly, one myth that somehow made its way into the lore about Columbus was the notion that somehow he "thought the world was flat." In truth, though, the educated people of his time all understood that the world was round. So that myth has been busted. Columbus did, however, think the world was just a wee bit smaller than it turned out to be. He'd hoped to reach Japan in a few thousand miles of sailing, when in reality it would have been more than 10,000 miles, and some continents in between. But he can't be blamed for something like that, given how much of the globe was still yet to be explored in the late-15th and early-16th centuries

 

[chickened]

Not sure if this is true as he never set foot on the mainland.
If your initial answer to this question was to think, "Of course he did!" you might have to think again. Many of us have grown up with the familiar notion, from our earliest school years, that Christopher Columbus got the green light for his journey from Queen Isabella, and then the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria set sail. The trouble is, that America, as we understand it today, was quite well occupied by the time Columbus hit the new world. While we might have learned in history classes that Christopher Columbus "discovered America" in 1492, we also know that the American continents had actually been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries before Columbus arrived. In fact, Christopher Columbus wasn't even the first European to reach America -- about 500 years before Columbus, a group of Vikings, led by Leif Ericson, reached the North American shores and left a settlement on the island of modern-day Newfoundland. There is even a legend (and until proven otherwise it is only that!) that an Irish monk named St. Brendan may have reached North America even earlier, during the sixth century, along with several other monks in a quest to find Paradise.
Columbus did unquestionably sail into the Bahama islands in 1492 and in fact made four trips to the new world. He even visited Cuba. And his discovery had a lasting impact on the trade routes of the day. Interestingly, one myth that somehow made its way into the lore about Columbus was the notion that somehow he "thought the world was flat." In truth, though, the educated people of his time all understood that the world was round. So that myth has been busted. Columbus did, however, think the world was just a wee bit smaller than it turned out to be. He'd hoped to reach Japan in a few thousand miles of sailing, when in reality it would have been more than 10,000 miles, and some continents in between. But he can't be blamed for something like that, given how much of the globe was still yet to be explored in the late-15th and early-16th centuries

A biblical verse in Isiah actually describes the earth as round. It is theorised that that is where Columbus derived his guess that the world was round.

He actually thought he landed in India hence the word Indians. Columbus was looking for a sea route to the orient not a new continent or to prove the world was round, the christians already surmised it was round and the greeks later theorized the same.

It was the Spanish that brought domesticated turkeys from Mexico back to Europe and then developed them, black spanish, royal palm and others.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Many native American populations were decidely agrarian with large complex societies. Complexity was great enough with at least one population that possibly nation or empire is better term than tribe. Many were on east coast and southeastern parts of present U.S. The Cahokia built large earthen pyramids up and down parts of the Mississippi drainage basin. In terms or scale, and possibly in respect to trade, the Cahokia were similar to the their contempory Aztecs of Mexico. The western movies depicting nomadic prairie tribes is only part of picture.

The more agrarian native-human populations could easily have made at least early efforts into domesticating turkeys despite all present stocks coming only from wild Yucatan turkey populations.

The first time I read about Cahokia in a magazine, I couldn't believe it, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around pyramids in the US.

 

[akashia26]

Not sure if this is true as he never set foot on the mainland.
If your initial answer to this question was to think, "Of course he did!" you might have to think again. Many of us have grown up with the familiar notion, from our earliest school years, that Christopher Columbus got the green light for his journey from Queen Isabella, and then the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria set sail. The trouble is, that America, as we understand it today, was quite well occupied by the time Columbus hit the new world. While we might have learned in history classes that Christopher Columbus "discovered America" in 1492, we also know that the American continents had actually been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries before Columbus arrived. In fact, Christopher Columbus wasn't even the first European to reach America -- about 500 years before Columbus, a group of Vikings, led by Leif Ericson, reached the North American shores and left a settlement on the island of modern-day Newfoundland. There is even a legend (and until proven otherwise it is only that!) that an Irish monk named St. Brendan may have reached North America even earlier, during the sixth century, along with several other monks in a quest to find Paradise.
Columbus did unquestionably sail into the Bahama islands in 1492 and in fact made four trips to the new world. He even visited Cuba. And his discovery had a lasting impact on the trade routes of the day. Interestingly, one myth that somehow made its way into the lore about Columbus was the notion that somehow he "thought the world was flat." In truth, though, the educated people of his time all understood that the world was round. So that myth has been busted. Columbus did, however, think the world was just a wee bit smaller than it turned out to be. He'd hoped to reach Japan in a few thousand miles of sailing, when in reality it would have been more than 10,000 miles, and some continents in between. But he can't be blamed for something like that, given how much of the globe was still yet to be explored in the late-15th and early-16th centuries

i beg to differ with this statement. both the 3rd and 4th voyages reached the mainland. one was upper central america the other the north coast of south america.

as for the topic, the ancestors of the aurocona (sp) in south america. other possibilities though it's hard to confirm are, asiatic breeds in the extream north west via russia/alaska natives. also the north east could have had icelandic chickens via the viking invasion.

 

[chickened]

Shall we entertain continental drift?

 

[chickened]

Most likely the stupid chickens all got eaten in their native ranges.

 

[ivan3]

The latest on introduction: http://www.academia.edu/1074480/Pre...the_hypotheses_and_evidence_for_their_origins