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Native American Use of Fire: edit

Final edits for mainspace (in progress 12/3): edit

Original contents in article are listed below, subsections I have created/contributed to are **asterisked**:

Lead section: edit

Native American tribes used fire to modify their landscapes in many significant ways prior to the arrival of European settlers.[1] Purposefully set fires helped promote the valued resources and habitats that sustained indigenous cultures, economies, traditions, and livelihoods.[2] The cumulative ecological impacts of Native American fire use over time has resulted in a mosaic of grasslands and forests across North America that was once widely perceived as untouched, pristine wilderness.[3][4][5] It is now recognized that the original American landscape was already humanized at the time that the first European explorers, trappers, and settlers arrived; but the extent to which Native Americans manipulated entire ecosystems using fire remains a contentious topic.[6][7] Changes in American Indian burning practices occurred as Europeans settled across the continent.[8] Some saw the potential benefits of low intensity, broadcast burns ("Indian-type" fires), while others feared and suppressed them.[8]

In the 1880's, impacts of colonization had devastated indigenous populations, and fire exclusion became more widespread; by the early 20th century fire suppression had become official U.S. federal policy.[9] Understanding how Native Americans used fire pre-settlement provides an important basis for studying and reconstructing subsequent fire regimes throughout the landscape.[10][11][12] Fire scientists and ecologist are able to trace fire scars back hundreds of years using charcoal dating and tree-ring analysis. Differentiating between natural and human caused fires is also important for allowing for more detailed studies on fire cycles and changes in climate and vegetation types through time. "Understanding the historical pattern of human impacts on landscapes is critical to correctly interpreting the ecological basis for vegetation distribution."[13]

Role of Fire by Natives: edit

**Delete first sentence about "no records" of intentional Native American burning....

Arrival of European [Settlers] (added section on altered fire regimes): edit

By the time that European explorers first arrived in North America, millions of acres of "natural" landscapes were already manipulated and maintained for human use.[3][4][5] In the American west, it is estimated that 184,737 hectares (465,495 aces) burned annually pre-settlement in what is now Oregon and Washington.[14] Fires indicated the presence of humans to many European explorers and settlers arriving on ship. In San Pedro Bay in 1542, chaparral fires provided that signal to Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, and later to others across all of what would be named California.[15]

By the 17th century, as most European explorers, fur traders, and settlers began to arrive in North America, native populations were on the verge of collapse due to the introduction of diseases (such as smallpox) and widespread epidemics (the flu) against which the Indians had no immunity. In addition, competition over land and resources resulted in warfare and shifts in local economies (i.e. fur trading, logging, overgrazing). Subsequent changes in diet and the introduction of alcohol also had profound negative effects on indigenous communities. As Native populations dwindled, so too did traditional management practices.[16] The widespread belief that American Indians did not have a significant impact on the natural world they inhabited has had important implications for native and non-Indians alike.[17] By upholding the problematic myth that Europeans had discovered an uncultivated landscape, Euro-American settlers were able to justify genocide and the expropriation of indigenous lands and resources.[18][16]

By the 19th century, many native tribes has been forced to sign treaties with the federal government and relocate to reservations,[19] which were sometimes hundreds of miles away from their ancestral homelands. A handful of Indian sympathizers (mainly ethnographers and anthropologists employed by museums and universities) felt the need to record Indian languages and lifestyles before they presumably disappeared altogether. Even fewer of these researchers asked questions about the native peoples deliberately changing ecosystems.[20]

Through the turn of the 20th century, settlers continued to use fire to clear the land of brush and trees in order to make new farm land for crops and new pastures for grazing animals – the North American variation of slash and burn technology – while others deliberately burned to reduce the threat of major fires – the so‑called "light burning" technique. Ironically, light burning is also been called "Paiute forestry," a direct but derogatory reference to southwestern tribal burning habits.[21] Since the uplands were still in government ownership (public domain), many settlers adjacent to the hills often either deliberately set fires and/or allowed fires to "run free." Also, sheep and cattle owners, as well as shepherds and cowboys, often set the alpine meadows and prairies on fire at the end of the grazing season to burn the dried grasses, reduce brush, and kill young trees, as well as encourage the growth of new grasses for the following summer and fall grazing season.[22] The ecological impacts of settler fires were vastly different than those of their Native American predecessors. Natural (lightening-caused) fires also differed in location, seasonality, frequency, and intensity that Indian-set fires.[21]

Removal of aboriginal populations and their fire have resulted in major ecological transformations.[19] Attitudes towards Indian-type burning have shifted in recent times, and many foresters and ecologists are now using prescribed fires to reduce fuel accumulations, change species composition, and manage vegetation structure and density for healthier forests and rangelands.[19] Some fire researchers and managers argue that adopting more Indian-type burning practices may prove ineffective for a variety of reasons ranging from insufficient data on the effectiveness of Indian burning, to difficulties in agreeing on a "natural" ecological baseline for restoration efforts.[19] Furthermore, tribal agencies and organizations have also begun to use traditional fire knowledge and practices in a modern context by reintroducing fire to fire-adapted ecosystems, on and adjacent to, tribal lands.[2][19]

~~

Article contributions: edit

Native Americans used fire to modify their landscapes in many significant ways prior to the arrival of European settlers[3][4]. In addition to simple cooking, historical evidence shows at least seventy different reasons for burning that ranged from clearing prairies and grasslands to protecting areas from larger more destructive fires. The extent to which different American Indian groups used fire to modify landscapes with fire varied spatially and temporally across the continent.

Recommendations for additional subsections for better structural organization and clearer transitions are italicized below (the topics I have added contributions to are asterisked**):

Contents edit

Human-shaped landscape edit

Romantic and primitivist writers such as William Henry Hudson, Longfellow, Francis Parkman, and Thoreau contributed to the widespread myth that pre-Columbian North America was a pristine, natural wilderness, "a world of barely perceptible human disturbance” [source?], At the time of these writings, however, enormous tracts of land had already been allowed to succeed to climax thanks due to the reduction in anthropogenic fires after  native populations collapsed from epidemics of diseases introduced by Europeans in the 16th century. "manipulated and maintained for human use" [18]. In fact, Dennis Martinez (1998) writes, "there was no pristine wilderness' here. Prairie and forest were to a large extent the creation of indigenous peoples."[23][18]

Fire scientists and ecologists often find old fire scars in trees going back hundreds of years. Geographers studying lake sediments often find evidence of charcoal layers going back thousands of years, attributing the data to prehistoric fires caused by lightning. Early researchers did not believe that large burning was carried out by natives, but research during the latter half of the 20th century showed that many of the fires were intentionally caused.[citation needed]

Contrary to such widely held beliefs that indigenous peoples lived “lightly on the land,” due to their childlike nature, evidence shows Native Americans had developed sophisticated methods for transforming landscapes that were capable of sustaining thriving, growing societies, and fire was their most powerful tool for doing so [18][24][25]

Persistent romanticized myths caused historians to ignore aboriginal use of fire. Viewed as "noble savages," American Indians were viewed as children of nature, and therefore could not deliberately inflict damage to their environments.

  • Add more on cultured landscapes reflecting cultured modifications: specific to region? acorns & woodlands in NW; etc.
  • Discuss pyrodiversity & efficacy of Native burning practices spatially & temporally
  • Significance of understanding past regimes for implications of future management and why they changed (not just disease)
  • Add challenges of studying past fire regimes & tools used to measure fire history
  • include "natural" (lightening) fires vs human

Fire was used to keep large areas of forest and mountains free of undergrowth for hunting or travel, or to create berry patches. Intentional burning greatly modified landscapes across the continent in many subtle ways that were often interpreted as natural by the early explorers, trappers, and settlers.[citation needed]

Role of fire by natives edit

Although there are no written documents describing the intentional, controlled burning of forests, it is believed that the "The landscapes of the American west have been shaped by fire." [26] Cumulative impacts of burning by Native Americans profoundly altered landscapes in a number of ways. When first encountered by Europeans, many ecosystems were the result of repeated fires every one to three years, resulting in the replacement of forests with grassland or savanna, or opening up the forest by removing undergrowth (Again, plagiarized from same article). More forest exists today in some parts of North America than when the Europeans first arrived. In South America, the cerrado of South America has been coexisting with fire since ancient times; initially as natural fires caused by lightning alone, but later, also by fires caused by man. Terra preta soils, created by slow burning, are found mainly in the Amazon basin, where estimates of the area covered range from 0.1 to 0.3%, or 6,300 to 18,900 km² of low forested Amazonia to 1.0% or more (twice the surface of Great-Britain). (Reword and think of better way to incorporate national similarities in Indigenous burning practices)

There is some argument about the effect of human-caused burning when compared to lightning in western North America. There is agreement that natives played a significant role across the eastern part of that continent. As Emily Russell (1983) has pointed out, “There is no strong evidence that Indians purposely burned large areas....The presence of Indians did, however, undoubtedly increase the frequency of fires above the low numbers caused by lightning.” As might be expected, Indian fire use had its greatest impact “in local areas near Indian habitations.”

Generally, the American Indians burned parts of the ecosystems in which they lived to promote a diversity of habitats, especially increasing the "edge effect," which gave the Indians greater security and stability to their lives.

Most primary or secondary accounts relate to the purposeful burning to establish or keep "mosaics, resource diversity, environmental stability, predictability, and the maintenance of ecotones." [Need citation] These purposeful fires by almost every Native American tribe differ from natural fires by the seasonality of burning, frequency of burning certain areas, and the intensity of the fire. Indians tended to burn differently depending on the resources being managed. Hardly ever did the various tribes purposely burn when the forests were most vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire. [Whole previous section borders on plagiarism from same article] Indeed, for some Indians, saving the forest from fire was crucial for survival. Those Indian tribes that used fire in moist ecosystems tended to burn in the late spring just before new growth appears, while in areas that are drier fires tended to be set during the late summer or early fall since the main growth of plants and grasses occurs in the winter. For the most part, tribes set fires that did not destroy entire forests or ecosystems, were relatively easy to control, and stimulated new plant growth. Indians burned selected areas yearly, every other year, or intervals as long as five years.

“ the modification of the American continent by fire at the hands of "Indigenous people" was the result of repeated, controlled, surface burns on a cycle of one to three years, broken by occasional holocausts from escape fires and periodic conflagrations during times of drought. Even under ideal circumstances, accidents occurred: signal fires escaped and campfires spread, with the result that valuable range was untimely scorched, buffalo driven away, and villages threatened. Burned corpses on the prairie were far from rare. So extensive were the cumulative effects of these modifications that it may be said that the general consequence of the Indian occupation of the New World was to replace forested land with grassland or savanna, or, where the forest persisted, to open it up and free it from underbrush. Most of the impenetrable woods encountered by explorers were in bogs or swamps from which fire was excluded; naturally drained landscape was nearly everywhere burned. Conversely, almost wherever the European went, forests followed. The Great American Forest may be more a product of settlement than a victim of it. ”
Arrival of the Europeans edit

Main article: Population history of American indigenous peoples

Fires indicated the presence of humans to many European explorers and settlers. In San Pedro Bay in 1542, chaparral fires provided that signal to Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, and later to others across all of what would be named California.

By the 17th century, as most European explorers, fur traders, and settlers began to arrive in North America, native populations were on the verge of collapse because of new diseases (such as smallpox) and widespread epidemics (the flu) against which the Indians had no immunity. In addition, warfare (with old enemies and new immigrants), new technologies (horse, iron, and firearms), change of economy (to fur trading and sheep grazing), different food sources (European-style farming and imperial handouts), and treaties (restricting or removing Indians from traditional lands) all had significant consequences— mainly negative—on native cultures and populations.

By the 19th century, many native languages and tribes were becoming extinct and knowledge of the old ways was dying. Only a handful of ethnographers and anthropologists (many employed by the Smithsonian Institution and/or the American Bureau of Ethnology) felt the need to record the Indian languages and lifestyles before the last of many tribes disappeared. Even fewer of these researchers asked questions about the native peoples deliberately changing ecosystems.

Settlers and the rich prairies (Section has very little to do with topic, remove?) edit

Early explorers and fur trappers often observed huge burned-over or prairie/barren areas with many dead trees "littering" the landscape, without knowledge of whether the fires were natural or caused by Indians. (Previous sentence plagiarized from Williams 'Introduction to Aboriginal Fire Use/ needs citation). Written accounts by early settlers remain incomplete, although many noted that there was evidence of burned or scorched trees and open prairies or Savannas with tall grasses in every river basin. There are many other accounts of travelers in forest areas commenting on the ability to see long distances through the forest, which was lacking in shrubs, brush, and small trees. The abundance of open prairie areas, which could be millions of acres large, was often incorrectly thought to be the result of poor soils that would not support trees or even crops.

However, a number of settlers/farmers saw that the prairies were potentially rich land (besides the fact that it was "ready for the plow" without having to clear the land). This grass-covered prairie land was one of the primary reasons for settlers to head west to the Oregon Territory and California, and later to homestead the Great Plains. In the late 19th century until today, the Great Plains of the U.S. and Canadian Prairies were to become the farming “breadbasket” for the two nations.

Through the turn of the 20th century, settlers often used fire to clear the land of brush and trees in order to make new farm land for crops and new pastures for grazing animals – the North American variation of slash and burn technology – while others deliberately burned to reduce the threat of major fires – the so‑called "light burning" technique. Since the uplands were still in government ownership (public domain), many settlers adjacent to the hills often either deliberately set fires and/or allowed fires to "run free." Also, sheep and cattle owners, as well as shepherds and cowboys, often set the alpine meadows and prairies on fire at the end of the grazing season to burn the dried grasses, reduce brush, and kill young trees, as well as encourage the growth of new grasses for the following summer and fall grazing season.

Reasons for burning: edit

Henry T. Lewis, who has authored more books and articles on this subject than anyone else, concluded that there were at least 70 different reasons for the Indians firing the vegetation. Other writers have listed fewer number of reasons, using different categories. In summary, there are eleven major reasons for American Indian ecosystem burning:

Eleven major reasons for Native American ecosystem burning:
Hunting The burning of large areas was useful to divert big game (deer, elk, bison) into small unburned areas for easier hunting and provide open prairies/meadows (rather than brush and tall trees) where animals (including ducks and geese) like to dine on fresh, new grass sprouts. Fire was also used to drive game into impoundments, narrow chutes, into rivers or lakes, or over cliffs where the animals could be killed easily. Some tribes used a surround or circle fire to force rabbits and game into small areas. The Seminoles even practiced hunting alligators with fire. Torches were used to spot deer and attract fish. Smoke was used to drive/dislodge raccoons and bears from hiding.
Crop management Burning was used to harvest crops, especially tarweed, yucca, greens, and grass seed collection. In addition, fire was used to prevent abandoned fields from growing over and to clear areas for planting corn and tobacco. One report of fire being used to bring rain (overcome drought). Clearing ground of grass and brush was done to facilitate the gathering of acorns. Fire was used to roast mescall and obtain salt from grasses.
Insect collection Some tribes used a "fire surround" to collect and roast crickets, grasshoppers, Pandora Pinemoths in pine forests, and collect honey from bees.
Pest management Burning was sometimes used to reduce insects (black flies, ticks, and mosquitos) and rodents, as well as kill mistletoe that invaded mesquite and oak trees and kill the tree moss favored by deer (thus forcing them to the valleys). Fire was also used to kill poisonous snakes.
Improve growth and yields Fire was often used to improve grass for big game grazing (deer, elk, antelope, bison), horse pasturage, camas reproduction, seed plants, berry plants (especially raspberries, strawberries and huckleberries), and tobacco. Fire was also used to promote plant structure and health, increase the growth of reeds and grasses used as basket materials, beargrass, deergrass, hazel, and willows.
Fireproofing areas There are some indications that fire was used to protect certain medicine plants by clearing an area around the plants, as well as to fireproof areas, especially around settlements, from destructive wildfires. Fire was also used to keep prairies open from encroaching shrubs and trees.
Warfare and signaling Indians used fire to deprive the enemy of hiding places in tall grass and underbrush, to destroy enemy property, and to camouflage an escape. Large fires (not the Hollywood version of blankets and smoke) were ignited to signal enemy movements and to gather forces for combat.
Economic extortion Some tribes also used fire for a "scorched earth" policy to deprive settlers and fur traders from easy access to big game and thus benefiting from being "middlemen" in supplying pemmican and jerky.
Clearing areas for travel Fire was used to fell trees by boring two intersecting holes into the trunk, then dropping burning charcoal in one hole, allowing the smoke to exit from the other. This method was also used by early settlers. Another way to kill trees was to surround the base with fire, allowing the bark and/or the trunk to burn causing the tree to die (much like girdling) and eventually topple over. Fire also used to kill trees so that it could later be used for dry kindling (willows) and firewood (aspen).
Felling trees Fire was used to fell trees by boring two intersecting holes into the trunk, then dropping burning charcoal in one hole, allowing the smoke to exit from the other. This method was also used by early settlers. Another way to kill trees was to surround the base with fire, allowing the bark and/or the trunk to burn causing the tree to die (much like girdling) and eventually topple over. Fire also used to kill trees so that it could later be used for dry kindling (willows) and firewood (aspen).
Clearing riparian areas Fire was commonly used to clear brush from riparian areas and marshes for new grasses and sedges, plant growth (cattails), and tree sprouts (to benefit beaver, muskrats, moose, and waterfowl), including mesquite, cottonwood, and willows.

Article Critique: edit

This Wikipedia article aims to explain how Pre-Columbian Native American groups utilized fire to shape the landscape prior to contact. Within this piece, there appear to be many sweeping generalizations made about very separate and distinct Native American cultures and their use(s) of fire. The homogenization of these groups perpetuates a common falsehood that there is such thing as a universal Indian and a universal definition of “American Indian ecosystem burning.” While there were indeed similarities in Indigenous burning practices, the author was remiss not to provide more specific examples of how fire was applied spatially by such groups, or explicitly state that doing so would not be possible due to the extensive use of fire from many different groups. Additionally, they state that there are “no written documents describing the intentional, controlled burning of forests,” which contradicts some of their previous statements as well as my experience locating an abundance of resources and research on this same topic.

The scope of this article seems big, and could have been stronger had the hyperlinks been more effectively used to refer some of the important concepts to existing Wikipedia articles; this might also assist in substantiating the (many) un-cited and unsupported claims made. I note that in the “talk” section, other critiques have mentioned that this article goes beyond “close paraphrasing” and plagiarizes the articles and papers cited at the bottom, though I have not verified this myself.

  1. ^ Stewart, O.C. (2002). Forgotten fires: Native Americans and the transient wilderness. OK, USA: Univ. of Oklahoma Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0806140377.
  2. ^ a b Lake, F. K., Wright, V., Morgan, P., McFadzen, M., McWethy D., Stevens-Rumann, C. (2017). "Returning Fire to the Land: Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire" (PDF). Journal of Forestry. 115(5): 343–353.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b c Arno & Allison-Bunnel, Stephen & Steven (2002). Flames in Our Forest. Island Press. p. 40. ISBN 1-55963-882-6.
  4. ^ a b c Anderson & Moratto, M.K, and M.J. (1996). Native American land-use practices and ecological impacts. University of California, Davis: Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress. pp. 187–206.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b Vale, Thomas (2002). Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape. United States: Island Press. pp. 1–40. ISBN 155963-889-3.
  6. ^ Pyne, S.J. (1995). World fire: The culture of fire on Earth. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
  7. ^ Hudson, M. (2011). Fire Management in the American West. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
  8. ^ a b Weir, John (2009). Conducting Prescribed Burns: a comprehensive manual. Texas, U.S.A.: Texas A&M University Press College Station. pp. 1–12. ISBN 978-1-60344-134-6.
  9. ^ Brown, Hutch (2004). "Reports of American Indian Fire Use in the East". Fire Management Today. 64(3): 17–23.
  10. ^ Barrett, S.W. (Summer 2004). "Altered Fire Intervals and Fire Cycles in the Northern Rockies". Fire Management Today. 64(3): 25–29.
  11. ^ Agee, J.K. (1993). Fire ecology of the Pacific Northwest forests. Washington, DC: Island Press.
  12. ^ Brown, J.K. (2000). "Introduction and fire regimes". Wildland fire in ecosystems: Effects of fire on flora. 2: 1–7 – via USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
  13. ^ Keeley, Jon (Summer 2004). "American Indian Influence on Fire Regimes in California's Coastal Ranges". Fire Management Today. 64(3): 15–22.
  14. ^ K., Agee, James (1993). Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. ISBN 1559632291. OCLC 682118318.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Neil G. Sugihara; Jan W. Van Wagtendonk; Kevin E. Shaffer; Joann Fites-Kaufman; Andrea E. Thode, eds. (2006). "17". Fire in California's Ecosystems. University of California Press. p. 417. ISBN 978-0-520-24605-8.
  16. ^ a b William., Cronon, (2003). Changes in the land : Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England. Demos, John. (1st rev. ed., 20th-anniversary ed ed.). New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 9780809016341. OCLC 51886348. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Diekmann, Lucy; Panich, Lee; Striplen, Chuck (2007). "Native American Management and the Legacy of Working Landscapes in California: Western Landscapes Were Working Long before Europeans Arrived". Rangelands. 29 (3): 46–50.
  18. ^ a b c d Williams, Gerald (Summer 2000). "Introduction to Aboriginal Fire Use in North America" (PDF). Fire Management Today. 60 No. 3: 8–12.
  19. ^ a b c d e Williams, G.W. (Summer 2000). "Reintroducing Indian-type fire: Implications for land managers". Fire Management today. 60(3): 40–48.
  20. ^ Williams, Gerald W. "REFERENCES ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN USE OF FIRE IN ECOSYSTEMS". USDA Forest Service. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  21. ^ a b Williams, G.W. (Summer 2004). "American Indian Fire Use in the Arid West". Fire Management Today. 64(3): 10–14.
  22. ^ Williams, Gerald W. "REFERENCES ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN USE OF FIRE IN ECOSYSTEMS". USDA Forest Service. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  23. ^ Martinez, Dennis (1994). "Wilderness with or without you". Earth First!. 18 Vol. 5: 1, 13.
  24. ^ Trudel, P (1985). "Forest fires and excessive hunting: The ascription of the native's role in the decline of the northern Quebec caribou herds". Recherches Amerindiennes au Quebec. 15(3): 21–38.
  25. ^ Whitney, G.G. (1994). From coastal wilderness to fruited plain: A history of environmental change in temperate North America from 1500 to the present. New York NY: Cambridge University Press.
  26. ^ McPherson, Jensen (2008). Living With Fire. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-520-25589-0.
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