In the June 2000 issue of Scientific American, there is an article of
interest titled, "Reading the Bones of La Florida", by Clark Spenser Larsen.
Here's a quick summary of their findings...

Bioarchaeologists examined skeletons from members of Native groups in the
northern Florida/southern Georgia region, known in the 1500's as "La
Florida".  They compared teeth and bones of precontact Indians with those
belonging to Indians who lived in communities where Spanish missions had
been set up, and were able to link the change in diet with a general decline
in health of the mission Indians.  They determined that precontact Indians
ate a varied diet consisting of plants & animals, including seafood and some
maize.  Mission Indians' diet consisted of little more than maize.  Using a
scanning electron microscope, the researchers examined the surfaces of the
teeth and bones, looking for evidence of malnutrition and tooth decay.  They
linked the corn-dominated diet with:
- dental cavities (due to its high sugar content)
- anemia (corn contains phytate, which binds with iron and interferes with
iron absorption)
- deficiencies in calcium and niacin.

Their results also indicated that the mission Indians experienced an
increase in hard labor, and were more susceptible to infection


Cheyenne