Abstract
Ethnographic studies have established that, until shortly after World War II, Indians in northern Alberta regularly and systematically fired habitats to influence the local distribution and relative abundance of plant and animal resources. In ways similar to what has been reported for hunter-gatherers in other regions, this pyrotechnology contributed to an overall fire mosaic that, in this case, formerly characterized northern boreal forests. Crosscultural comparisons of these practices with those in other parts of North America, as well as in several parts of Australia, illustrate functionally parallel strategies in the ways that hunter- gatherers employed habitat fires, specifically in the maintenance of “fire yards” and “fire corridors” in widely separated and different kinds of biological zones.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, M. E., and Dube, D. E. (1983). Fire management in wilderness areas, parks, and other nature reserves. In Wein, R. W., and MacLean, D. A. (eds.),The Role of Fire in Northern Circumpolar Ecosystems. John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 273–297.
Baumhoff, M. A. (1963). Ecological determinants of aboriginal California populations.University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 49: 155–236.
Blainey, G. (1976).Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Aboriginal Society. Overlook Press, Woodstock, N.Y.
Burrell, J. P. (1980). Vegetation of the Sydney area: 1788 and 1961.Proceedings, Ecological Society of Australia 17: 71–78.
Camsell, C., and Malcolm, W. (1919).The Mackenzie River Basin. Memoir 108, No. 92 Geological Series, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa.
Clark, R. L. (1981). Bushfires and vegetation before European settlement. In Stanbury, P. (ed.),Bushfires: Their Effect on Australian Life and Landscape. Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, Sydney, pp. 61–73.
Clark, R. L. (1983). Pollen and charcoal evidence for the effects of Aboriginal burning on the vegetation of Australia.Archaeology of Oceania 18: 32–37.
Day, G. M. (1953). The Indian as an ecological factor in the north-eastern forest.Ecology 34: 329–346.
Ferguson, T. A. (1979).Productivity and Predictability of Resource Yield: Aboriginal Controlled Burning in the Boreal Forest. Masters thesis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.
Ferguson, T. A. (1986). Progress report to Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. Unpublished.
Fire Science Center (1985).Annual Report of Research and Activities. University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Fritz, E. (1931). The role of fire in the redwood region.Journal of Forestry 29: 939–950.
Hallam, S. J. (1975).Fire and Hearth. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, A.C.T.
Hallam, S. J. (1985). The history of aboriginal firing. In Ford, J. R. (ed.),Fire Ecology and Management in Western Australian Ecosystems. WAIT Environmental Studies Group Report No. 14, Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth, W. A., pp. 7–20.
Haynes, C. D. (1982). Man's firestick and God's lightning: Bushfire in Arnhemland. Paper presented to the ANZAAS 52nd Congress, Sydney, New South Wales.
Haynes, C. D. (1983). The pattern and ecology of Munwag: Traditional Aboriginal fire regimes in North Central Arnhemland. Paper presented at the Wet-Dry Tropics Symposium, Darwin, Northern Territory.
Heinselman, M. L. (1971). The natural role of fire in northern conifer forests. In Slaughter, C. W., Barney, R. J., and Hansen, G. M. (eds.),Fire in the Northern Environment-A Symposium. U.S. Forest Service, Portland, Oregon, pp. 61–72.
Horton, D. R. (1982a). The burning question: The Aborigines, fire and Australian ecosystems.Mankind 13: 237–257.
Horton, D. R. (1982b). Water and woodland: The peopling of Australia.Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Newsletter 16: 21–27.
Jackson, W. D. (1968). Fire, air, water and earth: An elemental ecology of Tasmania.Proceedings, Ecological Society of Australia 3: 9–16.
Jones, R. (1969). Fire stick farming.Australian Natural History 16: 224–228.
Jones, R. (1975). The Neolithic, Palaeolithic and the hunting gardeners: Man and land in the Antipodes. In Suggate, R. P., and Cresswell, M. M. (eds.),Quaternary Studies. Royal Society of New Zealand, Wellington, N.Z., pp. 21–34.
Kelsall, J. P., Telfer, E. S., and Wright, T. D. (1977).The Effects of Fire on the Ecology of the Boreal Forest, with Particular Reference to the Canadian North: A Review and Selected Bibliography. Occasional Paper No. 32, Canadian Wildfire Service, Supply and Services Canada, Ottawa.
Kiernan, K., Jones, R., and Ransom, D. (1983). New evidence from Fraser Cave for Glacial Age of Man in south-west Tasmania.Nature 301: 28–32.
Leichardt, L. (1847). Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, from Moreton Bay to Port Essignton: During the Years 1844–1845. Boone, London.
Lewis, H. T. (1973).Patterns of Indian Burning in California: Ecology and Ethnohistory. Ballena Press, Ramona, California.
Lewis, H. T. (1977). Maskuta: The ecology of Indian fires in northern Alberta.Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 7: 15–52.
Lewis, H. T. (1980). Indian fires of spring.Natural History 89: 76–83.
Lewis, H. T. (1982a). Fire technology and resource management in aboriginal North America and Australia. In Williams, N. M., and Hunn, E. S. (eds.),Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers. AAAS Selected Symposium No. 67, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 45–67.
Lewis, H. T. (1982b). A time for burning, Occasional Publication No. 17, Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, University of Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta.
Lewis, H. T. (1985a). Why Indians burned: Specific versus general reasons. In Lotan, J. E., Kilgore, B. M., Fischer, W. C., and Mutch, R. W. (eds.),Preceedings, Symposium and Workshop on Wilderness Fire. Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Missoula, Montana, pp. 75–86.
Lewis, H. T. (1985b). Burning the “top end”: Kangaroos and cattle. In Ford, J. R. (ed.),Fire Ecology and Management in Western Wilderness Australian Ecosystems. WAIT Environmental Studies Group Report No. 14, Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth, W.A., pp. 21–32.
Lotan, J. E., Kilgore, B. M., Fischer, W. C., and Mutch, R. W. (eds.) (1985).Proceedings, Symposium and Workshop on Wilderness Fire. Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Missoula, Montana.
Loud, L. L. (1918). Ethnogeography and archaeology of the Wiyot Territory.University of California Pubications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 14: 221–423.
Lourandos, H. (1983). 10,000 years in the Tasmanian Highlands.Australian Archaeologist 16: 39–47.
Macoun, J. (1882).Manitoba and the Great North-West. World Publishing, Guelph, Ontario.
Michea, J. (1960).Les Chitra-Gottineke: Essai de Monographie d'un Groupe Athapascan des Montagnes Rocheuses. Contributions to Anthropology, Part 2, No. 190, National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.
Mitchell, T. L. (1848).Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, London.
Moravets, F. L. (1932). Second growth Douglas fir follows cessation of Indians fires.Service Bulletin (U.S. Forest Service, USDA) 16: 3.
Nicholson, P. H. (1981). Fire and the Australian Aborigine: An enigma. In Gill, A. M. (ed.),Fire and the Australian Biota. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, pp. 55–76.
Norton, H. H. (1979). The association between anthropogenic prairies and important food plants in western Washington.Northwest Anthropological Research Notes 13: 175–200.
Pyne, S. J. (1982).Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Pyne, S. J. (1985). Vestal fires and virgin lands: A historical perspective on fire and wilderness. In Lotan, J. E., Kilgore, B. M., Fischer, W. C., and Mutch, R. W. (eds.),Proceedings, Symposium and Workshop on Wilderness Fire. Inter-mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Missoula, Montana, pp. 254–262.
Redder, S. W., and Odnysky, W. (1964). Morphological and chemical characteristics of the solonetzic soils of northwestern Alberta.Canadian Journal of Soil Science 44: 22–33.
Rowe, J. S. (1970). Spruce and fire in northwest Canada and Alaska.Annual Proceedings, Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference 10: 245–255.
Rowe, J. S., and Scotter, G. W. (1973). Fire in the boreal forest.Quaternary Research 3: 444–464.
Stewart, O. C. (1954). The forgotten side of ethnogeography. In Spencer, R. F. (ed.),Method and Perspective in Anthropology. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 221–248.
Stewart, O. C. (1955a). Forest fires with a purpose.Southwestern Lore 20: 42–46.
Stewart, O. C. (1955b). Why were the prairies treeless?Southwestern Lore 20: 59–64.
Tindale, N. B. (1959). Ecology of primitive Aboriginal man in Australia. In Keast, A. (ed.),Biogeography and Ecology in Australia. Monographiae Biologicae 8, Junk, den Haag, pp. 36–51.
Wein, R. W., and Maclean, D. A. (eds.) (1983).The Role of Fire in Northern Circumpolar Ecosystems. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
We would like to thank Ross Wein tor his comments and suggestions on this paper, especially his ideas about the characteristics of fire mosaics as they would occur under natural conditions in boreal forests. We are also indebted to several granting agencies for funds that supported our earlier research. They include the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Museum of Man, Fire Science Center (University of New Brunswick), the Boreal Institute for Northern Studies (University of Alberta), the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies, and the Northern Australian Research Unit (Australian National University).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lewis, H.T., Ferguson, T.A. Yards, corridors, and mosaics: How to burn a boreal forest. Hum Ecol 16, 57–77 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01262026
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01262026