Hi Chico,
You pretty well answered yourself

.
I'm no scholar on the subject but I believe that Native Americans would put several tobacco leaves together (effectively blending) and twist them to smoke or chew. I don't know what method they used to cure the tobacco (I expect they did something). Tobaccos tended to be strong until about the middle of the nineteenth century when bright leaf (VA) evolved.
The Gawiths (Sam and Hoggarth), make heavily compressed roped but it's the same idea as what the Native Americans did. Makes the flavors marry quickly and it's more stable than cut mixtures but the outer leaf is prone to flaking when dry. Gawith was a single company, purportedly beginning in 1792 (probably as a snuff maker), so their tradition was strong tobaccos. The company split but their roots were the same.
Pete