Subsistence strategies of the Oneota tradition in Southwestern Wisconsin : a nutritional profile

Abstract

In the La Crosse region, the Oneota people utilized a variety of wild animal and plant resources, as well as their own domesticated plants. Did this population suffer from nutrition related diseases or were there any nutritional gaps in their diet? The Oneota used a particular set of subsistence strategies when they chose highly nutritious foods to put in their diet, which created a stable way of life as the first farmers of Southwestern Wisconsin. This paper explores the overall health of the Oneota people in La Crosse and the different nutritional values of the native animal and plant resources found in this region. Two food profiles are established to demonstrate the balanced diets, by contemporary standards by the USDA, of both a ?mixed economy? and ?primarily wild economy? food plan for an Oneota individual who lived 400 years ago.