Last Saturday, I was talking to a spice merchant at the Glenbrook Markets, and he was telling me that he imported heirloom chilli from Mexico to make American meat rubs. Which got me thinking - did pre-Columbian Native Americans have trade routes for chilli or other spices?
Likewise, I live in a part of Australia where Backhousia citrodora (lemon myrtle) grows wild. But in other parts of Australia, they have other spices like Solanum centrale (bush tomato) or Tasmannia lanceolata (mountain pepper) - did Indigenous Australians trade these spices among each other?
I’m going to share a link to a bunch of similar topics: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/nativeamerican?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf#wiki_pre-columbian_trade_and_contact
There’s a nice big Trade section there. I think you’d find the “Non-luxury trade goods in Mesoamerica” post particularly informative—it talks a bit about proof of trade in cacao beans, salt, and food staples. But a lot of those links probably have some helpful info for you!
Other than salt, spices are organic compounds, obviously are consumed with food, are not eaten in huge quantities so they’re not going to display much impact for radio-isotope location tracking via tested skulls/teeth, and spices also degrade more thoroughly than stone goods, making spice trade evidence a bit trickier to find in the first place. But some of it is out there!
Hope that answers your questions.