Indian‐Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States

Abstract

The historical evidence for the Indians' burning the forests of the northeastern United States is reevaluated. Of 35 documents that describe vegetation or Indian life in the 16th or 17th centuries, only half mention any use of fire except for cooking. Only six purportedly first—hand accounts might refer to purposeful, widespread, and frequent use of fire. These six are all consistent with use of fire only locally near camps or villages, or with accidentally escaped fires. It is concluded that the frequent use of fires by the Indians to burn the forests was probably at most a local occurrence. The Indians' presence in the region and their use of fire for many purposes did, however, increase the frequency of fires above the low levels caused by lightning, and thus had some effect on the vegetation; for example, grasses characterized the ground cover at small, local, frequently burned sites.

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on flora

“…Numerous authors (DeViro 1991; Patterson and Sassamen 1988;Stewart 1951Stewart , 1963Van Lear and Waldrop 1989) have discussed the vast extent to which Native Americans used fire. One historian (Russell 1983) agreed that fire frequency was greater near camps and villages than would be expected by lightning, but found no strong evidence that Native Americans burned large areas in the Northeast.…”

Long-Term History of Vegetation and Fire in Pitch Pine–oak Forests on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

“…Today, ϳ40% of the landscape is composed of maturing forests, largely originating at the end of the 19th century. (Bromley 1935, Ogden 1961, Russell 1983, ranging from dry, barren woodlands to extensive forests of mesic trees such as Fagus and Carya. Some accounts describe open landscapes or forests with little undergrowth that are linked to intentional burning or clearing by Native Americans (Day 1953, Pyne 1982, Vickery and Dunwiddie 1997.…”

“…Recent studies demonstrate modest cultural changes in the last 1000 years associated with the arrival of maize but suggest that the populations were seasonally mobile, heavily reliant on marine resources, and not associated with large permanent settlements, horticulture, or forest clearing (Mahlstedt 1987, Little and Schoeninger 1995, Bragdon 1996, Chilton 1999. Burning by Native Americans undoubtedly occurred, but its extent and impact on vegetation are still debated (Russell 1983, Patterson and Sassaman 1988, Bonnicksen 2000.…”

Avian commensals in Colonial America: when did Chaetura pelagica become the chimney swift?

“…American Indians had a signifi cant impact on the forested habitats of eastern North America through burning and agricultural clearing (Swanton, 1922;Day, 1953;Russell, 1983), but the greatest landscape changes since the end of the last interglacial were precipitated by the arrival of European colonists who cleared millions of acres of primeval forest (Bidwell and Falconer, 1925). Although the probable impact of forest fragmentation on birds has been chronicled in some detail (see for example Terborgh, 1989;Askins et alii, 1990;Faaborg, 2002), the behavioral response of naïve avian populations to the fi rst wave of European colonization, particularly of species that have adapted successfully to urbanization, has not been rigorously explored.…”