In 1996 the summer Olympics were held in Atlanta. A resident of New Mexico called Atlanta’s Olympic committee to buy tickets for the Summer Olympics. “I’m sorry, sir,” the voice on the other line replied. “I can’t sell tickets to someone outside the United States.” The caller could not convince the ticket agent nor the supervisor that New Mexico was part of the United States.
When reporters from a Santa Fe newspaper asked for tickets, they were told — once again — to contact the Mexican consulate.
As we resume the Friday Footnotes after our summer break, we will travel to New Mexico. We will not need a visa because New Mexico is in the United States. And it has a rich agricultural history. Agriculture education in New Mexico traces roots back to the native Americans, Spaniards, and the modern day settlers.
Today., we will go back in our time machine to the era of the Native Americans to learn of their agricultural practices and how this knowledge was transmitted (taught) to the younger generation. Next week we will look at the Spaniard influence in New Mexico, and then we will move into the modern era. Looking forward to the journey.
Agricultural Practices of Native Americans in New Mexico
Long before the Spanish entered New Mexico in the sixteenth century, Native American societies had developed sophisticated agricultural systems that enabled them to flourish in an arid and often unpredictable environment. For centuries, Pueblo peoples and their ancestors cultivated crops, managed scarce water resources, and passed agricultural knowledge from one generation to the next through observation, oral traditions, and community participation. Their farming practices reflected a deep understanding of local ecology and demonstrated remarkable innovation in adapting agriculture to the challenging climate of the American Southwest.
Agriculture spread into present-day New Mexico from central Mexico nearly 2,000 years ago. By approximately A.D. 500, many ancestral Pueblo communities had become established agricultural societies that combined farming with hunting and gathering. Their principal crops consisted of corn (maize), beans, and squash, commonly known as the “Three Sisters.” Corn served as the dietary staple and held profound ceremonial importance, while beans supplied protein and naturally replenished nitrogen in the soil. Squash helped conserve soil moisture by shading the ground and suppressing weeds. Together, these complementary crops formed a highly productive and sustainable agricultural system that supported permanent settlements throughout much of New Mexico.
Figure 1. The Three Sisters.
Native American farmers became skilled plant breeders through careful seed selection over many generations. Rather than planting random seed each year, farmers selected kernels from the healthiest and most productive plants. This gradual process produced varieties of corn that matured quickly, tolerated drought, and adapted to New Mexico’s short growing seasons. These locally developed varieties represented centuries of accumulated agricultural knowledge and were carefully preserved from year to year.
Water management was perhaps the greatest challenge facing agricultural communities in New Mexico. Annual precipitation across much of the region was insufficient to support dependable crop production without careful conservation techniques. By the year 1400 the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico were using canals and ditches to irrigate their crops. Native farmers developed dryland farming methods that maximized available moisture by planting crops in natural drainage areas where rainfall runoff collected. They constructed terraces, stone alignments, and small check dams that slowed runoff, reduced soil erosion, and increased water infiltration into cultivated fields. These techniques allowed successful crop production despite limited rainfall.
Communities located near rivers, particularly along the Rio Grande, also developed irrigation systems. Small canals diverted water from streams into agricultural fields, enabling farmers to increase crop production while maintaining reliable water supplies. Unlike later colonial irrigation systems, these early canals were generally modest in size and maintained through cooperative labor. Community members shared responsibility for constructing, repairing, and operating irrigation systems because agricultural success depended upon collective effort rather than individual ownership.
Figure 2. Left: An acequia (irrigation ditch) in northern New Mexico. Right: During the spring hundreds of community members across New Mexico gather to clean out the acequias. There is a New Mexico Acequia Association whose mission is to protect water and the acequias. There are 700- 800 active acequia community groups. There is even a YouTube video about acequias.
Agriculture strongly influenced settlement patterns throughout prehistoric New Mexico. Permanent Pueblo villages were typically established near dependable water sources and productive agricultural land. Multi-story villages housed hundreds of individuals who worked cooperatively to prepare fields, plant crops, maintain irrigation systems, harvest produce, and store food. Large storage rooms and underground pits preserved surplus corn and other crops for future use, providing protection against droughts and poor harvests. These food reserves increased community resilience in an environment where growing conditions varied considerably from year to year.
Farming also occupied a central place in Native American religious and cultural life. Agricultural success was understood as a partnership between people, nature, and spiritual forces. Ceremonies throughout the growing season sought favorable weather, abundant rainfall, and successful harvests. Religious leaders conducted dances and rituals honoring spiritual beings associated with fertility and agricultural prosperity. Corn itself possessed both nutritional and sacred significance, symbolizing life, continuity, and the interconnectedness of human communities with the natural world.
Figure 3. The Corn Dance. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Agricultural knowledge was transmitted primarily through informal education rather than written records. Children learned by observing parents, grandparents, and other community members as they prepared fields, planted seeds, maintained irrigation systems, and harvested crops. Learning occurred through participation in everyday activities rather than through formal instruction. Young people gradually assumed greater responsibilities as they demonstrated competence, allowing agricultural knowledge to accumulate naturally across generations.
Oral tradition served as another essential means of preserving agricultural knowledge. Elders shared stories explaining the origins of corn, the importance of rain, and humanity’s responsibilities toward the land. These narratives communicated practical lessons concerning planting times, weather patterns, seed selection, and environmental stewardship while reinforcing cultural values such as cooperation, patience, and respect for nature. Because these stories were repeated throughout each generation, important agricultural knowledge remained remarkably consistent over centuries.
Community cooperation further strengthened agricultural education. Planting and harvesting frequently involved multiple families working together, allowing younger individuals to observe experienced farmers solving problems and adapting to changing environmental conditions. This collaborative approach encouraged the sharing of techniques, seeds, and innovations among families and neighboring villages. Agricultural knowledge therefore became a collective community resource rather than the property of individual farmers.
Women played particularly significant roles in preserving agricultural traditions. In many Pueblo societies, women were responsible for selecting seed corn, processing harvested crops, storing food supplies, and teaching younger generations how to prepare and preserve food. Their careful stewardship ensured that desirable crop characteristics were maintained from one generation to the next. Men often assumed primary responsibility for preparing fields, maintaining irrigation systems, and hunting, but successful agriculture depended upon the complementary contributions of all community members.
Figure 4. Women preparing to grind corn, Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico
Trade among Native communities also contributed to agricultural development. Pueblo peoples exchanged seeds, pottery, woven textiles, tools, and food with neighboring communities throughout the Southwest. These exchanges facilitated the spread of improved crop varieties and successful farming techniques while strengthening social and economic relationships among different groups.
When Spanish explorers and colonists arrived during the sixteenth century, they encountered well-established agricultural societies possessing centuries of environmental knowledge. Although Europeans introduced livestock, wheat, fruit trees, and additional irrigation methods, they also adopted many Indigenous agricultural practices. Spanish settlers learned local farming techniques, drought-resistant crop varieties, and methods for managing limited water supplies from Native communities. Consequently, many agricultural practices developed before European contact continued to influence farming throughout the colonial period and remain evident in the Southwest today.
The agricultural achievements of Native Americans in New Mexico demonstrate extraordinary adaptability, environmental knowledge, and cultural resilience. Through careful observation, experimentation, and cooperation, Indigenous peoples developed sustainable farming systems capable of supporting large permanent communities despite challenging climatic conditions. Equally important, they created effective methods for transmitting agricultural knowledge through observation, storytelling, family instruction, and community participation. These educational traditions ensured that valuable farming knowledge endured across countless generations and formed the foundation for agricultural development in New Mexico long before European settlement.
Concluding Remarks
In the information age of today, we need to realize that not all knowledge resides on the Internet. We need to acknowledge the contributions to agriculture of those who have gone long before us. In this Footnote we salute the Native Americans in New Mexico who learned how to adapt to their environment. Soon we might also need to adapt to a changing environment.
Even though this Footnote focuses on New Mexico, native Americans throughout America were developing agricultural practices adapted to their local situations and passing this knowledge on to the younger generation. The agriculture teacher of today is following that tradition.
Corn played a significant role in the lives of the Native Americans. It is somewhat serendipitous that the cross section of the ear of corn is an important component of the FFA emblem. When you teach about the FFA, you might mention how important corn was to Native Americans. Perhaps it is time to tweak our description of the cross section of corn in the FFA emblem to include an acknowledgment of Native American agriculture
References
Cajete, G. (1994). Look to the mountain: An ecology of Indigenous education. Kivaki Press.
Cordell, L. S., & McBrinn, M. E. (2012). Archaeology of the Southwest (3rd ed.). Left Coast Press.
Fish, S. K., & Fish, P. R. (Eds.). (1994). The ancient Southwestern community: Models and methods for the study of prehistoric social organization. University of New Mexico Press.
Ford, R. I. (Ed.). (1985). Prehistoric food production in North America. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
Minnis, P. E. (2008). Plants of the prehistoric Southwest. University of Arizona Press.
Ortiz, A. (1972). The Tewa world: Space, time, being, and becoming in a Pueblo society. University of Chicago Press.
Simmons, M. (1991). The last conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the settling of the far Southwest. University of Oklahoma Press.