This public lecture, given by Dr. Alston Thoms (Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University), draws upon archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ecological data to illustrate the general nature of hunter-gatherer lifeways in the Bryan/College Station area for 12,000 or more years. The region’s native inhabitants always subsisted on wild plants and animals available in their homeland and during the last 1,200 years they traded with farming groups in surrounding areas. Deer, small game animals, and native plants provided most of the people’s diet. Especially important were wild root foods, which often occurred in high densities and were baked in earth ovens with rock heating elements for as long as two days.