Northwestern Native Americans Smoked Tobacco Long Before Europeans Arrived

Tobacco kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. But the addictive substance has a complex history -- for many Native Americans, tobacco has been used ritually for hundreds of years. Now, researchers show Native Americans of the northwest were smoking tobacco more than 1,000 years before European fur-traders arrived with their own domesticated variety. The discovery could bolster public health campaigns in Native populations the researchers say. "Most national [smoking cessation] c