People who lived in the Cherokee nation got their meat from hunting and fishing, and their grains and vegetables from farming. Usually men did the hunting and fishing, and women did the farming.

Women grew a lot of different kinds of food, especially different kinds of corn and beans and squash. They had learned how to grow corn and squash probably from the Mississippian people to their west. They also grew sunflowers for their seeds. They dried the corn and sunflower seeds in the summer sun so they would keep all winter, because they had no refrigerators.

Children (both boys and girls) worked too. They gathered wild grapes, berries, nuts, and wild plants like dandelions.

Men hunted deer and small animals like rabbits and squirrels. They used bows and arrows and blowguns to kill the deer, and they set traps for the small animals. They also hunted turtles.

When they went fishing, they also used stone dams as traps. Sometimes the men poured poison made of roots and bark into the water to confuse the fish so they would be easy to catch.

Not everyone hunted or farmed. Some men and women had other jobs. Some of them made weapons and tools. Others were religious leaders, or doctors, or basket-makers, or potters. But just like everywhere else in the world at this time, most people had to farm or hunt, or there wouldn't be enough food for everyone.

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