The Native Americans were, indeed, enthusiastic honey consumers---but of
the honey produced by the European honeybee.  (The other honey product
consumed by Native Americans was from the "honey ants" of Utah, who make a
similar product and store it in specialized workers called "repletes," who
have grossly distended honey stomachs.)  Once the honeybee was introduced,
swarms escaped into the wild and became established.  I am not sure of the
exact rate of spread in the eastern woodlands, early on, but I do know
that it is recorded in Irving's "Adventures of Captain Bonneville" that by
the 1830's the honeybee had reached the Great Plains and was working its
way up the Platt River at a rate of approximately 10 miles per year.  It
was known to the Plains tribes as "the White Man's Fly," and they were
enthusiastic raiders of any wild hives they found.
 
As a hobby beekeeper and avocational historian of the American West, I have
been trying to find references to bees in the early West for some years, as
there is a great deal of misinformation/misconception on this topic.  (For
example, most records state that the "first" bees in California arrived in
1954.  In actuality, this was the first post-goldrush arrival of Anglo-
managed bees kept in more "modern" style hives.  There are many earlier
references to the bees kept by the Missions, and escaped honeybees in wild
colonies were reported at least as far back as the 1830's.)  My degree
concentration was in ethnobotany, with a special interest in historical
plant usage, and a side interest in pollination mechanics, so I suppose an
interest in the historic honeybee only follows.
 
And remember, the Native American tribes didn't just disappear when the
Europeans, and their bees, arrived!  There were "wild Indians" living here,
coexisting with European honeybees, for nearly three centuries.
 
 --Jane Beckman  [[log in to unmask]]