Insects in Art and Religion: The American Southwest

Abstract

Many of the indigenous peoples of North America were virtually dependent on local hunting, gathering, and crop production for sustenance. Trade, especially among different groups, was limited to a few valuable items and rarely consisted of food. These peoples lived off the land, and thus were at the mercy of whatever fate provided: drought, flood, pestilence, and so forth. That pestilence did occur was well documented by settlers of European descent as they moved into the American west. Plagues of Rocky Mountain grasshoppers, Melanoplus spretus (Walsh), and Mormon crickets, Anabrus simplex Haldeman, are two well-known examples of pests that made life difficult or intolerable in earlier times. How did the indigenous peoples feel about insects? Were they viewed as enemies, threats to survival, and did these peoples actively practice pest control?