Coexistence and Competition - A History of Humans and Environment in the Northwestern Plains of North America

Author: (Canada) Theodore Binnema
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: There is sufficient evidence to show that a dry ecological environment, combined with the joint effects of fire and bison, hindered the growth of trees in the grassland boundary areas during the bison era. Historical evidence and the speed at which aspen trees encroached on grasslands indicate that the forest-grassland transition zones were more open in the past. Small aspen trunks, and even evergreen trees, grew on the grasslands just as they do today, but their growth and expansion were suppressed by fire and bison. While fire and herbivores hindered tree growth, they also promoted grass growth, attracting large numbers of herbivores. Grasslands burned in late autumn or early spring sprouted a couple of weeks earlier in the spring compared to those that were not burned. The periodic fires and grazing by herbivores on the grasslands increased the yield of most grasses (excluding low-growing grasses), and hoofed animals gained weight faster by grazing on recently burned grasslands than by browsing in areas that had not been burned for a long time. Summer fires helped the grasslands produce high-quality forage during the season when forage quality generally declined. Hoofed animals also preferred to browse on the roasted, digestible, and highly nutritious prickly pear cactus. The damage to forage caused by fire was only a temporary loss for herbivores, but in the long run, it was worthwhile. Although scholars have rarely acknowledged the importance of indigenous peoples intentionally using fire, Stephen Pyne wrote: "Almost every place in North America has ample evidence of indigenous peoples using fire, and the inhibitory effects of fire are obvious. It is truly strange to debate whether Native Americans ever widely used fire."
In the past, it was well known that Native Americans in North America had widely used fire. However, when it became widely believed that fire was harmful to the environment and should be controlled, and when the idea that Native Americans were noble primitives who lived in "harmony" with nature led to the denial that they had ever intentionally burned grasslands, scholars began to deny that Native Americans had ever intentionally set grasslands on fire. As ecologists and naturalists increasingly recognized that fire had not caused decisive destruction to the environment, scholars also became interested in the issue of indigenous peoples using fire. Today, scholars realize that the environments from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Ocean in the Americas and other continents were "managed" by indigenous peoples according to their own interests before contact with Western whites.
Native Americans in the Americas had sufficient reasons to set fires: the plant and animal species used by indigenous peoples across different regions were most abundant in the early stages of ecosystem development, not in the mature or climax stages. Although there has been no systematic historical research on the use of fire by indigenous peoples on the northern plains, several scholars have provided evidence that Native Americans intentionally set fires in the grasslands. Fire improved the forage quality for large wild animals like bison and elk, while also creating ideal conditions for fire-resistant saskatoon berries and prairie currants. George Arthur provided sufficient evidence that Native Americans on the northern plains understood how to use fire to protect their lives. Lewis and Clark confirmed that the Hidatsas set fire to the grasslands near their villages in early March each year "to make the grass sprout earlier and attract bison." The clever...