The Michigan Hopewell developed ideas about death and rebirth at this time. They interpreted the spiritual ideas of other Hopewell and constructed for themselves an understanding of the ongoing relationship between the underworld of the dead and the upper world of the living.An important addition to the diet of the people living during the middle woodlands period is the addition of corn as a food . Prior to the introduction of corn from Central America, people in Michigan grew pumpkins, gourds, squash, and sunflowers to supplement their diet of wild plants like berries and meat they obtained from hunting.