1491_ New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - Charles C. Mann [234]
Van der Donck: Shorto 2004; Van der Donck 1841 (“all free by nature,” 207; “They remark,” 210; “woods, plains and meadows,” 150–51; “several hundred miles,” 138).
“Such a fire”: Van der Donck 1993:n.p. (“Of the Wood, the Natural Productions and Fruits of the Land”). I use this translation here because it is more evocative.
The following discussion of the natural role of fire draws from Mann and Plummer 1995:89–92; Mt. St. Helens from author’s visits.
Nature not in lockstep: Botkin 1990; Pickett and Thompson 1978.
Ecological role of fire: Wright and Heinselman 1973; Komarek 1965 (“The earth,” 204).
Fire and landscape management: Pyne 1982:71–81 (Lewis and Clark, 71–72; Jefferson, 75); Day 1953:334–39; Williams 1989:47–48; Williams 2002; Cronon 1983:48–52; Morton 1637:52–54 (“to set fire,” 52). The impact of fire varied; in Martha’s Vineyard, for instance, it seems to have been negligible (Foster et al. 2002).
Carriages in Ohio: Bakeless 1961:314, cited in Denevan 1992a:369.
“could be”: Wroth ed. 1970:139. See also, Higginson 1792: 117–18 (reporting “thousands of acres of ground as good as need to be, and not a tree in the same”).
Smith’s gallop: Smith 1910 (vol. 1):64. He also saw Indians hunting with fire (70).
Bison range: Roe 1951; Mathiessen 1987:147–52; Cronon 1983: 51–52 (“were harvesting”).
Impact of Native American burning: Pyne 1982:71–83; Little 1974; Dorney and Dorney 1989; Delcourt et al. 1986; Rostlund 1957a, 1957b.
Great Plains and anthropogenic fire: Axelrod 1985; Steuter 1991; Sauer 1975; Williams 1989:46–48; Lott 2002:86–88 (“When Lewis and Clark,” 88).
Fidler’s fires: Fidler 1992 (“Grass all,” “Not a,” “All burnt,” “the grass,” 13–15; “The Grass,” 36; “very dangerous,” 59).
Return of forest to Midwest: Williams 1989:46 (Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska); Fisher, Jenkins, and Fisher 1987 (Wyoming); author’s visit, Texas (displays of historical photographs).
“disastrous habit”: Palliser 1983:30.
Raup: Raup 1937 (“have been,” 84; “inconceivable,” 85).
“It is at least”: Brown and Davis 1973:116, quoted in Williams 2002:183.
Vale: Vale 2002 (“modest,” 14); 1998. Vale was rebutted in Keeley 2002. An example of how natural scientists continue to dismiss the human presence is Hillspaugh, Whitlock, and Bartlein 2000 (examining long-term fire frequency at Yellowstone National Park, an area inhabited for thousands of years, “offers a natural ‘experiment’ that allows us to consider the sensitivity of fire regimes to climate change alone,” 211 [emphasis added]).
Cahokia description: Author’s visit; author’s interviews, Woods; Dalan et al. 2003:64–78.
Biggest population concentration: Iseminger 1997, cited in Woods 2004:152.
Controversy over mound origins: Silverberg 1968 (Bancroft, 98); Garlinghouse 2001; Kennedy 1994:230–39; Jefferson 1894:query XI (excavation of “barrow”).
Ouachita mounds: Saunders 1997; Pringle 1997 (“I know it,” 1762). The mounds no longer overlook the river, which has changed its course since their construction.
Origins and rise of eastern North American agriculture: Smith 1993 (“the indigenous crops in question,” 14), 1989. See the similar early argument in Linton 1924:349.
Eastern Agricultural Complex: More formally, the Eastern Agricultural Complex consists of squash (Cucurbita pepo); marshelder or sumpweed (Iva annua); erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum); maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana); common sunflower (Helianthus annuus); little barley (Hordeum pusillum); and lambsquarter, aka chenopod or goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri). Marshelder, like sunflower, has an edible, oily seed. Erect knotweed is a low plant with starchy, edible seeds; it is not the invasive Japanese knotweed that is a