Like many other groups that preceded and followed them in North America and around the world, ancient peoples and their descendants moved with the seasons in a yearly cycle. Small groups traveled from fish-spawning areas in the spring to a region with good berry patches and few annoying insects in midsummer. They would settle near a large stand of nut trees in the fall, and go to an area with a high concentration of small and large game during the winter, and in early spring they would go to a maple-sugaring site. Small extended families probably traveled to the same locations at the same time, year after year. Regularity made it possible to store tools needed for a particular activity until the next year. These seasonal cycles resulted in a varied and healthy diet with a surprisingly small expenditure of time and effort. Life was neither easy nor hand-to-mouth. [GM]

A Maple Sugar Camp
The metal kettles brought by traders made
boiling the sugar much easier.