Seining (netting fish) in a backwater lake, Illinois State Museum.
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Seining (netting fish) in a backwater lake, Illinois State Museum.
Pools of water from annual spring flooding gradually dried through the summer, trapping fish which were then more easily driven to nets, or caught by hand with baskets or traps. Fishing activity was no doubt more organized. In larger lakes and along active streams where large nets and weirs needed to be monitored and maintained throughout the summer, it probably involved the cooperation of multiple households. Fruits and berries which began ripening by mid-summer could be gathered by individuals traveling between fields, or on their way to visit friends and relatives in nearby farmsteads, hamlets, and towns.
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Household members probably made periodic trips to the bluffs and uplands to acquire local chert, berries, nuts, and firewood. These short trips may have been prompted by the need to escape oppressive valley bottom heat and humidity as much as they were to obtain chert, fuel, or food.
Finally, at a time when other plant foods had not yet ripened, green maize could be harvested by mid-July. Like the green corn rituals and ceremonies preformed by later Native Americans, it seems likely that the dietary importance of the green corn harvest was marked by Mississippians with ritual as well.