Native American use of fire in ecosystems facts for kids

Indigenous peoples in North America used special fires called controlled burns long before Europeans arrived. These fires were a key part of how they cared for the land. They helped keep wildlife habitats healthy and supported the cultures and economies of Native American communities.

When European settlers first saw North America, they often thought it was an "untouched" wilderness. But actually, the land was a beautiful mix of grasslands and forests. This mosaic landscape was carefully created and managed over many years by the original peoples through these occasional, controlled fires.

European colonization greatly disrupted these traditional burning practices. Native peoples were often forced to leave their ancestral lands. Some colonists understood the benefits of these low-intensity fires, sometimes called "Indian-type" fires. However, many others feared them and stopped them. By the early 1900s, stopping fires became the official policy in the United States. Today, understanding these pre-colonization land management methods and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples is very important. It helps us properly understand and care for our ecosystems.

How People Shaped the Land

Many famous writers like William Henry Hudson and Henry David Thoreau helped spread a myth. They wrote that North America before Europeans was a completely wild, untouched place. However, this wasn't true. Long before these writings, huge areas of land had already changed. This was because Native populations had been greatly reduced by European diseases in the 1500s, forced relocation, and wars. With fewer people, there were fewer controlled fires.

Before Europeans came, Native Americans played a huge role in shaping the different ecosystems. They changed the land by clearing forests and using intentional burning. While natural fires from lightning certainly happened, human-caused fires were often more frequent. These human fires were usually weaker and happened at different times of the year. This meant they had a different effect on the plants. As a result, in many areas, forests were turned into grasslands, savannas, or open woodlands with grassy spaces.

Fires were also used to keep large areas of forests and mountains clear of undergrowth. This made it easier to hunt or travel. Fires also helped create patches where berries could grow.

Grasslands and Open Forests

Fire regimes of United States plants. Savannas have regimes of a few years: blue, pink, and light green areas.

When Europeans first arrived, many ecosystems were the result of regular fires. These fires happened every one to three years. They often turned forests into grasslands or savannas. They also helped open up dense forests by removing thick undergrowth. Special soils called Terra preta, created by slow burning, are found mainly in the Amazon basin.

There's some discussion about how much human-caused burning compared to lightning in western North America. But many historical accounts show that large prairies existed in the 1600s. These prairies quickly turned into woodlands after settlement. Also, efforts were made to make Indigenous prairie burning illegal in Canada and the USA. All this suggests that Native peoples widely controlled fire to keep and expand prairie areas. While lightning caused some fires, Native American burning definitely increased how often fires happened. This was especially true in areas near where people lived.

Why Native Americans Used Fire

Native Americans had many smart reasons for using controlled burns. These reasons were well thought out and helped them manage the land.

• Helping Agriculture: Fires helped farming by quickly returning important minerals and plant matter to the soil as ash.
• Boosting Nut Production: Burning darkened the soil with carbon from burnt leaves. This made the soil warmer in spring, which helped nut trees. It protected their flowers and buds from late frosts, leading to more nuts.
• Growing Useful Plants: Fires helped fire-adapted food and useful plants regrow. They could start seeds sprouting or make shrubs like willow and hazel grow back stronger. This extended their life and made them more productive.
• Easier Hunting: Fires cleared away underbrush and fallen branches. This allowed hunters to move more quietly and see game better. It also created clear paths for throwing spears or shooting arrows.
• Simpler Travel: Burning reduced thick brambles and bushes. This made it much easier to travel through the land.
• Preventing Big Fires: Controlled burns helped prevent much larger, more destructive wildfires. These big fires happen when too much fuel (like dead leaves and branches) builds up over many years.
• Increasing Game Animals: Fires created new habitats in grasslands. They also encouraged the growth of fire-adapted grasses for animals like deer, bison, and rabbits. This helped increase populations of these animals. It also boosted populations of animals that eat nuts, like turkeys and bears, because more nuts were produced.
• More Food and Medicine Plants: Fires helped beneficial food and medicine plants regrow. These included species like cherry and plum that thrive in cleared areas.
• Reducing Pests: Burning helped decrease populations of ticks and biting insects. It destroyed their eggs and young forms that overwinter in the ground.
• Cooling Rivers: Smoke from fires could cool river temperatures. This also reduced how much water plants lost through evapotranspiration. Both effects helped increase river flow. Cooler rivers also signaled to salmon that it was time to swim upstream to spawn.

European Settlement and Its Effects

When European explorers first arrived in North America, millions of acres of land were already managed by humans. Fires often showed European explorers that people were present. For example, in San Pedro Bay in 1542, chaparral fires signaled the presence of people to Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.

In the American West, it's thought that about 184,737 hectares (456,500 acres) burned each year in what is now Oregon and Washington before European settlement.

By the 1600s, Native populations were greatly affected by the harmful policies of settler colonialism. Many colonists either purposely set wildfires or let uncontrolled fires spread freely. Also, sheep and cattle owners often set alpine meadows and prairies on fire. They did this at the end of the grazing season to burn dried grasses, reduce brush, and kill young trees. This also encouraged new grass growth for the next season. Native peoples were forced off their traditional lands or killed. Eventually, their traditional land management practices were made illegal by settler governments.

By the 1800s, many Indigenous nations were forced to sign treaties with the government. They had to move to reservations, sometimes far from their homelands. Besides forced removal, stopping fires became part of colonial methods of control. For example, the Karuk peoples of Northern California used to burn forests to improve food sources like elk, deer, and acorns. They also burned for basket-making materials and to keep travel routes open. When these practices were made illegal through fire suppression, it deeply affected their way of life. It changed how they related to each other, their environment, their food, and their education. Many experts now call this "Colonial Ecological Violence." This term means that stopping fires caused specific harms and risks for Native peoples and communities.

Into the early 1900s, settlers kept using fire to clear land for farms and pastures. This was their version of slash and burn farming. Others burned to reduce the risk of major fires, a technique called "light burning." This was also sometimes called "Paiute forestry," a disrespectful reference to tribal burning habits. The environmental effects of settler fires were very different from those of Native Americans. Also, Native fire practices were largely made illegal in the early 20th century with the Weeks Act in 1911.

New Ways of Managing Fire

Removing Indigenous populations and their controlled burning practices led to big changes in the environment. This included more severe wildfires, especially combined with Climate change.

However, attitudes towards Native American-style burning have changed recently. Tribal agencies and organizations now have fewer restrictions. They are bringing back their traditional use of fire in a modern way. They are reintroducing fire to ecosystems that need it, both on and near tribal lands. Many foresters and ecologists also now understand how important Native fire practices are. They are learning from traditional fire experts. They use controlled burns to reduce built-up fuel, change plant types, and manage the structure and density of plants. This helps create healthier forests and rangelands.