Another post talking about possibly running out of tabacco got me thinking, what did the American Indians smoke? Did they grow tabacco in the west or Southwest before the Europeans?
Interesting that the chief archeologist was named Duke, the first name in American tobacco business.They were growing tobacco before there were Europeans.
http://westerndigs.org/ice-age-hunting-camp-replete-with-bird-bones-and-tobacco-found-in-utah-desert/
I would bet it goes back much further.The article above blows that timeline completely out of the water.
That is one cool story. I wish I could have been a part of that. Thanks for sharing!I work in the museum world and several years ago I had the pleasure of meeting with the Tuscarora tribe as they recreated their freedom walk from North Carolina to Washington DC. Part of what we do are install historical markers at significant sites across Pennsylvania. One of these markers celebrated their journey and some of our staff met the tribe at that marker. At that meeting we were honored to take part in their ceremony which involved sharing a pipe in the sacred circle. The experience is one I will never forget and I feel very blessed to have been included. One question I asked was about their tobacco. They were very proud to tell me they grow their own crops using heirloom seeds. The tobacco was strong and very earthy, not sweet or flavored in any way. If I had to guess, I would say it was blend of burley and virginia tobaccos. The pipe was later gifted to our museum.-donjgiles
It's a typo. They meant to say "this tobacco was grown by ancient Americans using native seed and native techniques"this tobacco was grown by Native Americans using ancient seed and ancient techniques
what did the American Indians smoke
The South Americans smoked a combination of Rustica and what we now know as Burleys and Virginia (emanating from the Orinoco Valley area).