Native American Fire Use in the Southwestern United States

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Native American Fire Use in the Southwestern
United States

• Amanda M. Kuenzi

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Fire was the single most effective vegetation
management tool used by Native Americans

• High quality plant material was needed for
• Food
• Cordage
• Basketry
• Fire was used to combat insects, weeds, and
  disease.

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Other uses

• Avoidance of large scale fires
• Driving game as a hunting technique
• Reduce the hazard of ambush from other tribes,
  grizzly bears, and rattlesnakes
• Easier travel, more open spaces

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DEBATE ENSUES

• There is currently a debate taking place among
  the scholars of our time
• Was the Southwest shaped by natural processes?
• To what extent did people alter the landscape
  before European settlement?

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• A 1972 paper presented at the Tall Timbers Fire
  Ecology Conference stated Indian burning in
  California is historically fascinating but of
  marginal consequence in helping us to understand
  present day grassland changes. Anderson (2002)

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Controversy about the impacts of Native American
Fire

• Two case studies supporting each side of the
  debate
• Yosemite National Park
• Californias coastal ranges

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Thomas Vales myth of the humanized landscape

• -The Yosemite Valley, where permanent settlements
  existed, and vegetation may have been modified,
  is only 1,813 ha of the 303,305 ha national park
• -populations were clumped, keeping the effects of
  humans very regionalized
• -In the 11 western states there are 5,125
  lightning started fires per year, these explain
  vegetation patterns
• -Native Americans (Miwok) burned, but it did not
  result in any different landscape that would have
  existed anyway

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Native Americans caused type conversion in
southern and central California coastal ranges

• Lightning ignited fire density low in coastal
  regions
• Populations widely dispersed in patterns opposite
  of lightning fire density
• Shrublands have low resilience and are replaced
  by grasslands when fire frequency is high. (More
  than once or twice in a decade)
• Shrublands provide fewer resources than
  grassland/open shrubland mosaic
• Fire was the main land-management tool used by
  southwestern Native Americans (hunter-gatherersno
  agriculture)
• Ecological evidence of anthropogenic fire showing
  alteration of landscapesreplacing shrublands
  with herbaceous associations.

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Lightning fire incidence on selected national
forests
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Why does this argument matter?

• Sociological implications
• -includes Native Americans in history, they
  originally transformed America
• -credits them as original stewards of the land
  and strengthens their tie to the land
• Ecological implications
• -The Wilderness Act of 1964, states wilderness is
  affected primarily by the forces of nature, with
  the imprint of mans work substantially
  unnoticed. This affects the decision to use
  prescribed fire
• -are Native American fires natural or does this
  ruin our pristine wilderness concept?

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• There has been resistance to using ethno-historic
  research in fire ecology
• While most ecological studies observe 1-4 years,
  indigenous knowledge encompasses centuries or
  millennia

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• Many of the reasons for setting indigenous
  forest fires would ironically be identical to the
  objectives of the forester, entomologist, or
  range manager to thin forests and reduce insects
  and diseases for ecosystem health and to increase
  the palatability, diversity, and quantity of
  grasses and forbs for animals important for meat
  production. In truth, judicious gathering,
  hunting and wildland management necessary to
  maintain productive landscapes took complex,
  multidimensional knowledge. (Anderson 2002)

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Similar Means, Similar Ends

• Native Americans burned to increase biodiversity
  and productivity with the goal of subsistence
  living and to fulfill a spiritual responsibility
• To increase the amount, quality, and diversity of
  food and resources
• Foresters burn to increase biodiversity and
  productivity with the goal of restoration and
  healthy forests.

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References Allen, C.D. 2002. Lots of lighting
and plenty of people an ecological history of
fire in the upland Southwest. Pp 143-193 in Fire,
Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape. Ed. by
Thomas R Vale. Island Press, Washington, DC.
Anderson, M.K. 1994. Prehistoric anthropogenic
wildland burning by hunter-gatherer societies in
the temperate regions a net source, sink or
neutral to the global carbon budget? Chemosphere,
29 (5) 913-934. Anderson, M. K. 2002. An
Ecological Critique. pp.37-64 in Forgotten Fires
Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness. by
Omer C. Stewart edited by H. T. Lewis and M. K.
Anderson. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
OK. Blackburn, T.C. and M.K. Anderson. 1993.
Before the Wilderness, Environmental Management
by Native Californians. Ballena Press, Menlo
Park, CA. Hughes, J.D. 1983. American Indian
Ecology. Texas Western Press, El Paso, TX.
Keeley, J.E. 2002. Native American impacts on
fire regimes of the California coastal ranges.
Journal of Biogeography, 29, 303-320. Kimmerer,
R.W. and F.K. Lake. 2001. The Role of Indigenous
Burning in Land Management. Journal of Forestry,
99 (11) 36-41. Krech, S. 1999. The Ecological
Indian Myth and History. W.W. Norton Company,
New York, NY. Lewis, H.T. and M. K. Anderson.
2002. Introduction. pp.3-16 in Forgotten Fires
Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness. by
Omer C. Stewart edited by H. T. Lewis and M. K.
Anderson. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
OK. Pyne, S.J.1982. Fire in America. Princeton
University Press, Princeton, NJ. Stewart, O.C.
2002. Forgotten Fires Native Americans and the
Transient Wilderness. edited by H. T. Lewis and
M. K. Anderson. University of Oklahoma Press,
Norman, OK. Vale, T.R. 1998. The Myth of the
Humanized Landscape An Example from Yosemite
National Park. Natural Areas Journal, 18 (3)
231-236. Vale, T. R. 2000. Pre-Columbian North
America Pristine or humanized - or both?
Ecological Restoration, 18 (1) 2-4. (in response
to Joseph M. McCann)
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Recommended Reading
Fire, Native Peoples and the Natural Landscape
Ed. by Thomas Vale
Forgotten Fires Native Americans and the
Transient Wilderness Ed. by H. T. Lewis and M.
Kat Anderson
Fire in America by Stephen J. Pyne
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One more use of fire Communication