While it’s often believed that peaches were introduced to North America by Spanish explorers, it was actually the Indigenous communities that ensured they thrived, according to a study led by a Penn State researcher. The study, published in Nature Communications, highlights that Indigenous people’s social, political networks, and their land management practices played a significant role in the dispersion and adoption of the fruit across the continent.
“Peach trees require meticulous care, including suitable planting locations with plenty of sunlight and proper soil drainage, and regular pruning,” explained Jacob Holland-Lulewicz, lead author and assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State. He argues that the narrative of Spanish settlers solely introducing and spreading peaches is oversimplified, pointing out that the speed at which the fruit spread was largely due to Indigenous networks and land management practices.
The study employed historical documents referencing peaches, including the writings of French missionary explorer Jacques Marquette and English merchant Jonathan Dickinson. Radiocarbon dating was also used to estimate the age of peach pits and other organic samples from 28 archaeological sites, located in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
Their findings suggest that by 1620, peaches were prevalent across Indigenous settlements in the interior southeast, approximately 100 years after the earliest Spanish expeditions in Florida and Georgia’s Oconee Valley. Holland-Lulewicz notes that the Spanish and Indigenous networks intertwining created the perfect conditions for peaches to spread.
While many narratives imply immediate changes in Indigenous histories and material dispersion following European arrival, Holland-Lulewicz counters that major changes didn’t occur until Spanish and Indigenous networks intertwined a century later. He also points out that Indigenous communities didn’t just adopt the peach; they selectively bred new varieties, surpassing the varieties found in Europe at that time.
The researchers discovered what could potentially be the earliest peaches in North America at a Muskogean farmstead in the Oconee Valley. The site was occupied between 1520 and 1570, indicating that peaches had reached the interior southeast potentially decades before the founding of St. Augustine in 1565.
Victor Thompson, the study’s co-author and Distinguished Research Professor of archaeology at the University of Georgia (UGA), stresses the importance of understanding Indigenous people’s role in the journey of species like peach trees through colonization. He also underscores the significance of maintaining museum specimens for future study.
“Peaches were so integral to Indigenous culture that when the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s ancestors were forcibly relocated from Georgia and Alabama during the 1800s, they took peaches with them,” Holland-Lulewicz said. Today, there are Muscogee (Creek) individuals who continue to cultivate peaches as heritage crops.
The study was supported by the UGA Laboratory of Archaeology and the Institute of Energy and the Environment at Penn State. Other collaborators included Amanda Roberts Thompson and Mark Williams from the UGA Laboratory of Archaeology, and Dario J. Chavez, University of Georgia; RaeLynn Butler, the Secretary of Culture and Humanities for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Turner Hunt, Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen; Jay Franklin, Logan Simpson Design; and John Worth, University of West Florida.
