For Native Americans in the Southwest, agave was the staff of life. Slow-roasted, agave hearts were converted into sweet food, and nomadic peoples cached dried agave for lean winter months. Agave fiber was used in baskets and mats. The plant is famous today for distilled spirits – tequila, mezcal – and Native peoples also fermented agave, likely for ceremonial use.

In the 1980s, researchers began to uncover another thread in this rich story. First near Tucson, they found clear evidence that agave had been farmed. Agave was not only a wild food source – it was a crop.

Native agriculture in the Southwest is often identified with the “Three Sisters” – corn, beans and squash. I...