Domesticated turkeys are an American tradition much older than Plymouth Thanksgiving. Dating back more than 2,000 years, this beautiful ground bird was bred as a staple food for indigenous societies on this continent, and fossils of early domesticated turkeys have been traced from Mesoamerica to the deserts of today’s southwestern United States and possibly the southeastern United States. Found in ruins. These remains suggest that this turkey was valuable enough to be domesticated from the wild not just once, but at least twice.
There are two types of turkeys in the wild. The more widespread Meleagris gallopavo, or simply wild turkey, ranges from much of the United States to Mexico, and this large ground-nesting species is an important game bird for many tribes. But as early as 300 B.C., Mesoamerican people went further and began keeping animals as livestock, says University of New Mexico archaeologist Sylar Norman. The bird, called the Huesolotl by the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of Mexico, was bred not only for its meat, but also for its symbolic value and feathers.
Outside of Mexico, domesticated turkeys have a long history in the southwestern United States. The earliest ruins of Chaco Canyon’s rich Pueblo settlements, particularly the multi-story “mansions” around which complex irrigation, roads, and long-distance trade networks formed, date to around 900 AD. Chemical analysis shows that turkeys The fact that they were eating corn, indicating that they were fully fed, indicates that they were not wild birds. “We can assume that these turkeys were domesticated and managed,” Norman said. The evidence goes beyond biological remains. The cultural importance of turkeys also supports their domestication and value in the Southwest, Norman said. “Rock art, pottery paintings, and oral traditions are critical to understanding human management of turkeys through the ages.”
Archaeologists once believed that the area’s domesticated birds were simply brought over from Mexico. However, much research over the past few decades, including new archaeological discoveries and DNA evidence, has revised this understanding. Today, researchers have a wealth of modern evidence to suggest that Native American tribes in the southwestern United States domesticated wild turkeys independently of their neighbors to the south. In a 2010 study, ancient DNA taken from turkey remains showed a unique lineage associated with independent domestication, as well as analysis of skeletal features.
The oral history of the Pueblo people further supports the turkey’s importance, said Mary Weakee, a retired archaeologist at the New Mexico Museum and a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo and Comanche tribes. For centuries, bird feathers have also played a ceremonial role and have been used to make blankets and utensils. This tradition continues today among the tribes of the Southwest. A turkey’s wing and tail feathers make good fletching, and the fluffy feathers make a durable, warm blanket, Wearke says. (It can take as many as 11,500 feathers to make a blanket.) Hunting wild birds for their feathers can be a pain, but turkeys release their feathers as soon as they are grabbed. “It’s a herd animal,” Weakee said. Having enough domestic turkeys makes it easy to meet all your feather needs.
This bird has long played an important spiritual role in Pueblo culture.
But turkeys aren’t kept just for practical reasons. Turkeys have long played an important spiritual role in Pueblo culture, and their feathers were often used in prayers and ceremonial regalia, Weakee said. Particularly prized are the white or black feathers that resemble the clouds, which represent clouds and the life-giving rain that accompany them. (Before contact with Europeans, Mesoamericans also had a rich spiritual tradition regarding birds.)
Birds were so central to Chaco society centuries ago that archaeological studies of hearths have rarely found turkey bones, Weakee said. It was only when the Chaco civilization collapsed due to climate change in the 14th century that people began to eat the sacred bird more widely. This change was probably a sign of desperation. People “would rather eat a dog than a turkey,” Weakee said.
Not everyone shared that cultural reticence. In 1519, during the conquest of Mexico, conquistadors brought homegrown turkeys back to Europe, where they became a popular food. Over the next years, the bird crisscrossed the Mediterranean, and on one route starting in Turkey, the bird landed under its English name. When English colonists arrived in Massachusetts in 1620, among the supplies they brought with them were domestic European turkeys. Some of these birds and their wild cousins famously appeared on the menu of settlers’ fall feasts in 1621. Essentially, the domesticated turkey that arrived on the East Coast of the United States owes its origins to the pre-colonial societies of the Americas.
In the domesticated turkey’s original homeland, Spanish colonization destroyed society, including many traditional Pueblo villages, Weakee said. Herds there were released, but domestic turkeys in the Southwest never completely disappeared, she said. This bird’s lineage continues in the wild Rio Grande turkey subspecies of the Southwest, whose feathers adorn blankets and regalia to this day.
