Follow-up on Hungry Times post

Based on the volume of comments, the post on "The Hungry Times" struck a nerve.

From the comments:

Anon 7:55 PM wrote "...it appears having a large pond or small river nearby will be able to provide some extra food or attractant options for foragers."

Anon 11:10 PM responded "A 30’ gill or trammel net suitable for suckers, carp catfish etc might be a lifesaver."

...then...

Anon 10:16 PM independently stated "I wonder how the Indians did so well. Granted, they ...had fewer people per acre." 

How did the Native Americans survive the winters?

Population density was a big part of it. Population estimates for pre-Columbus continental United States and Canada vary by a a factor of ten but anumber of four-million is commonly used.

The current population of that same area is almost one-hundred times greater.

As can be expected over such six-million square-miles, strategies differed.

The Native-American Mound Culture cities were almost all near rivers. The largest NAMC city is called Cahokia and it is very close to East Saint Louis, Illinois. 

Link to maps

Along the Eastern seaboard, tribes were often migratory and followed the resources. Estuaries...that is bays that are flushed by the tides, are enormously productive since multiple ecosystems converge and the flushing of the tides creates a mixing effect that combines oxygen and nutrients.

In both locations...rivers and estuaries...clams/mussels/oysters were easy pickings.

The West-coast tribes had a cultural innovation called "Potlatch" which functioned as a form of welfare.

Individual clans gained status by throwing parties and giving gifts of preserved foods (nearly always dried salmon). Due to the vagary of the salmon runs on the hundreds of streams that drain into the Pacific any one family could be randomly left without enough food to make it until the next salmon run. 

Potlatch allowed that family to survive at a cost of loss of status. However, that status could be repurchased by hosting several, very generous Potlatch parties in the future.

Native-Americans in California's Central Valley were blessed by thousands of square miles of oak-orchards. Acorns (and pine nuts) which could be harvested with brooms were easily dried and cached in simple structures and stayed edible for years.

White settlers had a very dim view of those Native-Americans because they assumed that they had not even progressed to the level of simple agriculture. That assessment may have been a bit harsh. Those Native-Americans did not engage in any kind of agriculture that the plow-field-annual-grains based Europeans recognized.

Random factoids

The mesh size is critical for gill-nets and varies by the target fish. The issue is muddied-up because some people specify by "stretched-mesh" size and others specify by distance between knots "square-mesh" size.

Depending on the primary species of sucker that you are targeting, a square-mesh size in the 1-1/2" to 2" range is probably about right.

Common carp are highly variable in size. The younger ones that are more desirable for food according to my Polish neighbor are best caught with a 4" square-mesh while the most mass is caught with a 5" square-mesh. As a side-note, if you are going for mass, then a trammel net is the best choice because a heavy load of fish can trash a simple gill-net.

Bonus Link1 Academic paper discussing net selection that targets common carp

Bonus Link2 Youtube video of a trammel net set catching carp. Long video.