“”...read awhile back that the reason there are trees in the Everglades is that the native Americans had trash heaps. “””
I’m trying to figure out how they could have generated that much trash. Aren’t Indians supposed to be the most efficient consumers using every part of their kills and getting the most out of their resources?
The famous mounds all over the south and midwest are essentially trash piles. Some of them are a hundred feet high. Many of the tallest ones are near the coast and are mostly seashells. They ate a lot of scallops and you can only make s many beads and choppers out of the shells, and they eventually become trash, too.
Even with very efficient use of resources, there would be a rather impressive pile of ashes, charcoal, broken crockery, bones, etc. I also consider it likely that there would have been some mounding up of soil to get sleeping and working spaces up above the water level.