Some American Indians grew corn, sunflowers, squash, beans, and pumpkins in garden plots. To prepare a garden plot, they first killed the trees there by cutting off a ring of bark to kill the tree. Then they scratched the ground with a stone hoe or with the bone of a deer or buffalo, or they used a stick sharpened in the fire. Some Indians put a dead fish into the hole where they planted the corn in order to provide food for the corn plant.