American Indians relied solely on their environment for the foods they needed. Squash and sunflowers are native to North America. Every staple food in the Americans was represented in one of the Return Foods Rituals of Thanksgiving. In California, the staplee was acorns. So men climbed the trees to shake loose the acorns, and women collected them. But raw acorns have a poison inside, so the women ground them up and ran hot. water thorough the flour to wash it away.
Throughout the Great Lakes fish and wild rice,not really a kind of rice, were the staples.
To catch a seal, Inuit patiently waited looking for a blow hole, when seal come up to the surface of the water to breathe.
The people of North America learned how to farm and called corn, beans and squash "three sisters", because they planted them together.

Many of today's favorite foods, such as turkey, cranberries, vanilla, and chocolate, were discoverd by native North Americans.

They were good conservationists because they took what they needed with skill and care they lived well without polluting the water, the land, or the air. Today, we have much to learn from them. ( )