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Home , Alexander Spotswood, George Percy, John Lederer, John Smith (explorer), Journal of Forestry, Samuel Argall

WILDLAND BURNING BY AMERICAN INDIANS IN

Hutch Brown

wo days after first sighting the coast of Virginia in 1607, the One of the first things T Jamestown colonists noticed that the English discovered about “great smokes of fire” rising from American Indians in Virginia was that deep in the . “We marched to those smokes,” recalled George they burned their wildlands. Percy (1607), “and found that the savages had been there burning down the grass as, we thought, At the other extreme, Emily seaboard (Delcourt and Delcourt either to make their Russell (1983) has challenged the 1996, cited by Barber 1999; there or else to give signs to bring notion that American Indians Patterson and Sassaman 1988). their forces together, and so to give burned much at all. Most colonial Local concentrations of natural us battle.” One of the first things accounts that describe Indian life, fires might have favored fire- the English discovered about she notes, do not mention wildland adapted species in some areas American Indians in Virginia was burning. But such accounts in (Stapleton 1999; Williams 1998); that they burned their wildlands. Virginia are generally limited to but in most of Virginia’s presettle- what visitors saw Indians doing in ment landscapes, frequent fire The purposes for burning— their villages, which would not would have depended on activities agricultural clearing or military have included setting vegetation by American Indians. If we are to signaling—are speculative in on fire. preserve and restore our eastern Percy’s account. Notable, however, wildland ecosystems, then we must is the fuel type mentioned: grass. Today, many researchers agree that first understand the role American Grassland in Virginia rapidly disturbances, both natural and Indians might have played in using succeeds to unless main- manmade, helped to shape the fire to make presettlement ecosys- tained by grazing, mowing, or fire. patchwork of presettlement tems livable and productive. In his account, Percy suggests a ecosystems sometimes known as possible reason for its persis- the primeval forest. Wildland fire is A thorough study of the role that tence—American Indian fire use. capable of making fundamental, Indian fire use played in Virginia’s long-term changes to ecosystems presettlement ecosystems would A Burning Question in the mid-Atlantic region. For require examining evidence, both example, slash fires in the early qualitative and quantitative, from Was burning by American Indians 20th century severely burned the multiple sources (see sidebar on extensive enough to influence Dolly Sods area on the Mononga- page 31). However, a single Virginia’s ecosystems? The answer, hela National Forest, WV. The source—accounts by colonial according to one early USDA original red spruce forest never explorers and travelers—can Forest Service researcher, is recovered; a dense tangle of heaths provide a useful preliminary emphatically yes. Hu Maxwell now covers much of the burn site. overview of the impact that Indian (1910) claimed that had the fire use might have had on wild- colonists not “snatched the fagot The overwhelming majority of land ecosystems in Virginia. from the Indian’s hand,” Virginia wildland fires in Virginia are would have become one vast ignited by humans (Main and Why Did Indians Burn? “pasture land or desert.” Haines 1976; Stapleton 1999) and Based on historical evidence, four probably have been for thousands purposes for burning—agriculture, Hutch Brown is the editor of Fire Manage- of years. For the past 4,000 years, hunting, range management, and ment Today, USDA Forest Service, lightning fires have been uncom- travel—might have opened Washington Office, Washington, DC. mon on most of the Atlantic

Volume 60 • No. 3 • Summer 2000 29 THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

Many people believe that the first English to settle found an ancient, impenetrable wilderness stretching uninterrupted from the shores of the Atlantic to the banks of the Mississippi. The popular view of a pristine wilderness inhabited by American Indians who left no trace on the land is rooted in the Romantic notion of “the forest primeval” promoted by such poets as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The Romantic view entered the early conservation movement through the writings of Henry David Thoreau and others (Williams 1999). It plays a strong role in today’s environmental movement (Brown 1999) and has even influenced the science of ecology (Whitney 1994). For example, ecologists often conceive of forest succession as a progression toward a stable, self-perpetuating “climatic climax” (or “potential natural”) forest. Implicit in the notion of the climax forest is the goal of returning to an undisturbed state of forest stability— the condition that prevailed in the Romantic imagination before the arrival of Europeans.

Old-growth remnants today suggest that there is some truth to the Romantic notion of a forest primeval, but only on some sites (Whitney 1994). Research has shown that the pre-Columbian eastern temperate forest was actually a complex, relatively unstable (Davis 1981) patchwork of ecosystems that included extensive grass- lands. Disturbances at various scales, from the decline of a single species to the destruction of vegetation for miles around, helped to shape—and could change—presettlement ecosystems in various ways, depending on such factors as soil, climate, geography, and human activities (Patterson and Sassaman 1988; Pyne 1982; Whitney 1994; Williams 1999). Accordingly, there is also some truth to one researcher’s claim that “most of the seen by the first settlers in America were in their first generation after one or another kind of major disturbance” (Raup 1967).

Virginia’s landscape and affected its 1998). Two centuries later, an forest out of easy reach. A few ecosystems the most. almost identical village was built decades after a village was estab- on the same site, only to be aban- lished, these circumstances Slash-and-Burn Agriculture. All of doned again after a single genera- combined to make the village Virginia’s native populations tion. Why? untenable (Brinker 1998). The practiced agriculture, from the inhabitants then moved on. The Coastal Plain (Rountree 1989) to Each village required, depending original site, if left undisturbed, the western valleys (Brinker 1998). on its size and location, from a few passed through successional stages Small farming communities were acres to hundreds of acres of fields until reaching climax forest two or concentrated near freshwater for corn, beans, and squash (Ar- three centuries later. Depending springs or creeks along major cher 1607a; Rountree 1989; Smith on local conditions, it might take waterways (fig. 1) (Smith 1612; 1624). Villagers cleared the fields decades or even centuries for the Barber 1999). by , girdling, or firing site to be suitable for renewed at the base and then using fire to inhabitation. Although the American Indian reduce the slash and stumps. The presence was permanent through- farmers did not use fertilizer, so With every change in location, a out Virginia, Indians periodically soil productivity gradually de- village used fire to clear new land moved their villages from site to clined, requiring new fields to be and left an even larger amount of site. An excavated archeological cleared. Fishing and hunting cleared land behind. Traces of site at Seneca Rocks, on the depleted local fish and game, and clearings abandoned during headwaters of the trash and waste disposal dimin- previous decades might be scat- in what is now , ished local water quality over time. tered over many miles. From its shows that a farming village Meanwhile, felling for fuel- farming activities alone, a single flourished there for about 20 years, , new cropfields, and building village occupying 50 acres (20 ha) then was abandoned (Brinker materials eventually pushed the might leave a disturbance pattern,

30 Fire Management Today SOURCES OF EVIDENCE FOR INDIAN FIRE USE at any given time, on hundreds of acres of widely scattered tracts at Did wildland burning by American Indians affect presettlement ecosys- various successional stages. Where tems in Virginia? Relevant sources of evidence (adapted from Whitney populations were relatively con- 1994) might include: centrated, this broad pattern of impact probably helped provoke • Historical materials, including written accounts, maps, and draw- warfare among peoples competing ings; for limited resources such as • Statistical records, especially land surveys; hunting grounds. As stocks of deer • Studies of old-growth forests or ancient individual trees; declined on the coastal plain, for • Archeological evidence, especially from excavated Indian village example, the organized sites; and large upriver hunts in areas • Paleoecological studies, including pollen and analyses from claimed by the Monacans, leading sediments. to occasional bloody battles Evidence from different sources does not always agree. Despite eyewit- (Rountree 1989; Strachey 1612). ness accounts of bison in Virginia, archeologists have found no sup- porting evidence such as bison bone fragments in excavated Indian Hunting. Fire was widely used in fire- and trashpits (Stapleton 1999). But bison did not spread into Virginia during organized hunts. Virginia until the 14th or 15th century (Haines 1970), whereas most Villagers, “commonly two or three archeological excavations are on earlier, “prebison” sites (Brinker hundred together” (Strachey 1999). 1612), would form a large circle and ignite the forest leaf litter,

Shenandoah Valley

Potomac River

Cumberland Gap

C O A S T A L P I E D M O N T P L A I N

James River

Dan River

Major Indian trails Areas of inhabitation on the Coastal Plain Areas of reported prairie/savanna Possible bison migration corridor

Figure 1—Virginia in about 1600, showing some of the areas where fire use by American Indians might have affected presettlement vegetation. Areas of Indian settlement on the Coastal Plain are based on Smith (1612); areas of settlement in the interior are not shown, but were similarly concentrated along waterways. American Indians burned lands adjacent to their villages for agriculture, hunting, and other purposes, opening the forest and promoting pines and oaks over less fire-resistant species such as maples and beech. The western and had fire-maintained grassland or open woodland that probably reached southwestward along valleys to the Cumberland Gap, providing a migration corridor for bison (Haines 1970). The major Indian trails shown were used for regional trade and travel (Lambert 1989; Randolph 1973); not shown are the many local trails along rivers and ridges. Frequent fire use to maintain such trails probably formed corridors of open pine and oak forest. Illustration: Gene Hansen Creative Services, Inc., 2000.

Volume 60 • No. 3 • Summer 2000 31 driving deer into the center where investment of time and energy. To Range Management. European they could easily be killed. Or they reduce the risk, hunters ignited settlers found extensive areas of would burn a line of forest across a areas known to abound in game, open game habitat throughout the point of land, driving game into which had the self-reinforcing East, commonly called “barrens” the river to be shot by hunters in effect of increasing future game (Pyne 1982). The American Indians canoes (Smith 1624). Fire sur- stocks in those areas. Even in used fire to maintain such areas as rounds were organized in autumn, closed forest, underburning rangeland. Europeans reported when leaf litter was plentiful and multiplies the quantity and quality evidence of widespread grassland there were fewer ladder fuels to of deer browse, attracting and or savanna in two parts of Virginia: turn a surface burn into a raging supporting increased deer herds the Piedmont (including the Dan canopy fire. (Mellars 1976). The fire surround River watershed in southern thus functioned not only to drive Virginia) and the Shenandoah Communal fire surrounds were game, but also to regenerate game Valley (fig. 1). more efficient than individual for future hunts. By improving hunts, which might go for weeks browse through fire, the hunters In the Piedmont, after “marching without success. However, com- could concentrate animals in into the country” from Little Falls munal hunts represented a limited areas where they were on the Potomac River (near larger—and therefore riskier— easiest to find and kill. present-day Washington, DC),

“Chieftain of Virginia,” from a drawing in about 1585 by John White near the ill-fated in what is now coastal . Note that the hunting ground behind the “chieftain” is sparsely wooded; sharp forest margins suggest careful disturbance control. White’s drawing matches Henry Spelman’s (1613) mention of open areas in coastal Virginia supporting luxurious grass for game. Illustration: U.S. Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

32 Fire Management Today Four purposes for burning—agriculture, (1613) spotted “a hunting, range management, and travel—would great store of cattle as big as kine [cows]” that were “heavy” and probably have opened Virginia’s landscape “slow.” From his description, what and affected its ecosystems the most. Argall must have seen were bison, a grassland indicator species. The explorer John Lederer (1672) prepared a map of his travels AMERICAN INDIANS AND COLONISTS showing “savanae” throughout Virginia’s western Piedmont. In the IN VIRGINIA same area, the traveler Robert Beverley (1705) described “large Colonial accounts suggest that at least 13,000 people, or about 2 Spots of Meadows and Savanna’s, people per square mile, were living in what is now Virginia in 1607, wherein are Hundreds of Acres when Jamestown was founded (Rountree 1989). Estimates are without any Tree at all; but yield highly conjectural, partly because European epidemics and 17th- Reeds and Grass of incredible century wars for control of the inland beaver trade devastated Height.” American Indian populations in eastern North America before settlers actually encountered them. The pre-Columbian population In the Dan River watershed, the might have been much higher. surveyor William Byrd (1733) saw After accounting for the effects of epidemics and warfare, one extensive areas “pretty bare of researcher calculated that pre-Columbian population densities timber,” including vast cane- reached 50 people per square mile in parts of coastal breaks—a type of vegetation that (Cook 1976, cited in Whitney 1994). The coastal Virginians under needs frequent fire to flourish the confederacy, also sustained by agriculture and rich (Komarek 1974). Byrd’s survey fishing grounds, probably had similarly high population densities, at party found scattered bison and least locally. Moreover, the Powhatans’ inability to conquer the took the opportunity to kill one for inland Chickahominies, Monacans, and suggests that food. populations of the Piedmont interior were comparable in size. Archeological excavations indicate that the Tutelos and others who In the Shenandoah Valley, the occupied the mountain valleys to the west maintained extensive traveler Robert Fallam (1671) villages in the floodplains and frequent camps in the uplands for found “brave meadows with grass hunting and other purposes (Barber 1999). about a man’s height.” John Fontaine (1716), who accompanied The Jamestown colony, established in 1607 by a few dozen settlers the expedition led by Virginia from England during a rare prolonged regional drought, faced Governor starvation and was almost abandoned in 1610. But ships from into the Shenandoah Valley, England brought fresh supplies and new settlers, and the colony reported finding “the feeting of soon expanded. By 1616, after destroying nearby native villages, the elks and buffaloes, and their beds,” colonists had established a series of settlements from the mouth to sure signs of grassland. George the falls of the . Washington surveyed parts of the Shenandoah Valley in 1752, after The Powhatans, eager to trade for English tools and other manufac- American Indians had disappeared tures, generally tolerated the Jamestown settlement until too late. from the area and their burning In 1622, they finally launched a coordinated series of assaults that nearly wiped out the English. In 1644, after another failed military had ceased, but before extensive campaign, the Powhatans suffered bloody reprisals that broke their European settlement. He found power for good. By the 1750’s, decimated by European diseases and many “barrens” with old burnt warfare, most native peoples—including populations in the inte- stumps and patches of hardwood rior—had abandoned their fields and villages in what is now Vir- saplings (Spurr 1951), signs that ginia. A tiny Indian reservation remains on the River the prairie had once been burned near the original seat of Powhatan power. to remove the trees and was now succeeding to forest.

Volume 60 • No. 3 • Summer 2000 33 To the south, localities in the By using fire to improve browse and upper James River watershed, such remove thickets, American Indians kept game as Cowpasture and Calfpasture, reportedly took their names from animals concentrated on relatively open hunting the bison herds that once roamed grounds where they were easiest to find and kill. the tallgrass prairie northward from the Cumberland Gap into the Shenandoah Valley (Fithian 1775). reported, implying that there were Spelman’s use of the term “their” Bison reportedly once used a salt other parts without forest. “[The to describe the game on the range lick near present-day Roanoke, in Powhatans] have marish ground maintained by the Powhatans southwestern Virginia, on their [marshland], and small fields for suggests proprietorship. Wildland migrations through the corn, and other grounds whereon burning, including fire surrounds, Alleghenies to the Piedmont their deer, goats [sic], and stags took an investment of time and (Haines 1970). Daniel Boone feedeth.” Open areas such as old energy toward future hunting blazed the Wilderness Trail in 1769 cropfields, periodically reburned to success. Groups therefore claimed on a well-trodden bison path prevent forest succession, sup- and defended the areas they through the Cumberland Gap, ported patches of shrubby habitat burned. For example, when John suggesting that grassland corridors with “rank [plentiful] grass” for Smith once blundered into a once reached from southwestern deer and elk (Spelman 1613). John Powhatan fire surround, he was Virginia into the Piedmont and Smith described one such area, promptly captured and the others Shenandoah Valley (fig. 1). where “all the woods for many an in his party were killed (Smith hundred mile for the most part 1608), even though the Powhatans Even coastal Virginia had patches grow sleight” (Arber 1910). Fre- generally tolerated the Jamestown of fire-maintained rangeland. “The quent burning would have been colonists and often traded with country is full of wood in some necessary to maintain such fire- Smith. parts,” Henry Spelman (1613) stunted woodland.

Fire-adapted species on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, VA. The endangered Peters Mountain mallow (left) requires fire for germination. Pre- scribed fire in Table Mountain pine–pitch pine forest (right) promotes pine regeneration by opening serotinous cones and suppressing competing vegetation. For thousands of years, such fire-adapted species flourished in Virginia despite a low incidence of lightning fires, suggesting that fire use by American Indians played a role in sustaining fire- adapted ecosystems. Photos: Steven Q. Croy, USDA Forest Service, George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, Roanoke, VA, 1995.

34 Fire Management Today Travel. Colonial explorers discov- European explorers reported evidence of ered Virginia by ship or by follow- widespread grassland or savanna in two parts of ing trails known to their American Indian guides. Most used trails Virginia—the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley. leading up the major rivers from the coastal plain into the interior. Another set of trails, leading along oak and pine dominated much of individual trees die from pests, the spine of the Blue Ridge and the Virginia (Kneller and Peteet 1993; disease, and windthrow, canopy branches of the , Maxwell and Davis 1972). The role openings result in patches of thick connected to a network of regional of fire in oak and pine regeneration successional vegetation, and large trails (fig. 1) used by American (Abrams 1992; Apfelbaum and quantities of leaf litter and deadfall Indians for trade and travel Haney 1991; Barnes and Van Lear accumulate. Such features are (Randolph 1973; Lambert 1989). 1998; Brose and Van Lear 1998; strikingly absent from most The trails were maintained Komarek 1974; Van Lear and Watt colonial accounts. “Thick[et]s through fires kindled annually “by 1993; Whitney 1994; Williams there is few,” Smith (1624) wrote, the Indians that happen to pass 1998), coupled with the compara- and Strachey (1612) observed that that way,” according to William tively slow spread of such fire- the forest floor was “clean” and “at Byrd (1728). “They cannot travel intolerant species as beech and least passable both for horse and but where the woods are burnt,” maple (Davis 1981), raises a foot.” In 1634, Andrew White even (1624) noted. question: Did Indian fire use claimed that forest trees near the during the Holocene (the last Potomac River were “commonly so In addition to using fire-main- 10,500 years) help to shape the farre distant from each other as a tained trails to reach specific forest that colonists found in coach and fower [four] horses may destinations near and far, Ameri- Virginia? travel without molestation” (Frius can Indians traversed Virginia’s 1971). wildlands in search of game and In a detailed study for the late edible plants. They routinely Holocene (the past 3,900 years), Indeed, colonial accounts describe burned areas near their villages to Delcourt and Delcourt (1996, remarkably open forests (Rostlund help them find and gather food. summarized by Barber 1999) 1957). After discovering the area Fire not only promoted game found that Indian fire use in where “the savages” had been browse, but also reduced deadfall, western North Carolina resulted in burning grass, leaf litter, and underbrush, facili- a changing mosaic of vegetation (1607) and his party of Jamestown tating passage and making it easier types that included fire-adapted colonists “pass’d through excellent for hunters to spot and stalk their species on some sites and fire- ground full of flowers…and as prey (Mellars 1976). intolerant communities on others. goodly trees as I have seen” into “a Colonial accounts in Virginia little plat of ground full of fine and How Did Burning suggest that Indian fire use had a beautiful strawberries,” a mixed Affect Ecosystems? similarly patchy pattern of impact landscape of open forest and on the land. meadow. Members of the About 16,000 years ago, at the peak Spotswood expedition were able to of the last ice age, Virginia was Forest Communities travel upriver on horseback all the largely covered by tundra and jack way to the Blue Ridge, then enjoy pine forest (Davis 1981). As the ice Most of Virginia was wooded when the Jamestown colonists arrived. sweeping vistas from its crest sheet retreated, successive waves of (Fontaine 1716). By contrast, the temperate forest species invaded Many trees were enormous— Robert Beverley (1705) reported density of Virginia’s forests today Virginia from the south and west. prevents most horseback travel American Indians entered Virginia forest trees so large that they were free from branches up to 70 feet and blocks the view from almost at least 11,500 years ago (Barber every ridgetop. 1999), roughly coinciding with the (21 m) above ground. rapid spread of oak into Virginia But the colonists did not report In the absence of frequent light- about 11,000 years ago (Davis ning fires, presettlement Virginia’s 1981). By about 8,000 years ago, certain telltale signs of fire-free old growth. In undisturbed forests, as clean forest floors and open, varied

Volume 60 • No. 3 • Summer 2000 35 landscapes were probably due to succeed to hardwood forest within Royall 1996; Russell 1983). Of frequent fire use by American about 100 years (Komarek 1974; course, Indian fires would have Indians. Underburning would have Monette and Ware 1983). The pine burned deep into adjacent unused reduced the underbrush and forests found by the Jamestown areas and might have occasionally debris, facilitating passage and colonists were probably succes- climbed into the canopy to become promoting the abundant herba- sional woodland on old cropfields high-severity crown fires that ceous cover that the colonists or village sites cleared by fire. could have spread for miles. But in admired each spring. Herbaceous areas distant from human habita- growth and edge habitat along fire- On upland slopes and ridges tion and travel, such events might cleared openings would have throughout western Virginia, fire- have been too sporadic to have had multiplied such game species as dependent forests of pitch pine and much long-term effect (Patterson deer and turkey (Komarek 1965; Table Mountain pine were more and Sassaman 1988). Mellars 1976; Whitney 1994). common before European settle- Increased light and heat in open ment than now (Williams 1998). Even in well-populated areas, the areas would have favored dry-forest Without fire, these forests succeed impact of Indian fire use was species such as oaks. Burning to oak on all but the most exposed probably uneven. Jamestown would also have affected interior sites. Regular burning on ridgetops colonists reported many fire- forest recruitment, promoting the by pre-Columbian travelers and intolerant hardwood species, fire-resistant keystone species that hunting parties would have kept including elm, ash, and beech. dominate oak–hickory communi- many western ridges and slopes Presettlement landscapes near ties and are frequently mentioned under grass or open pine forest, Indian villages probably supported in colonial accounts. with views of the valleys below. a patchwork of communities ranging from moist forest assem- In addition to oak and hickory, the Overall, American Indian fire use blages on the wetter sites (perhaps Jamestown colonists found abun- probably had a mixed impact on similar in appearance to older dant pine, enough to support a Virginia’s forests, greatly affecting bottomland or cove forests today) pitch and tar industry (Archer areas near villages, trails, and to relatively open, fire-maintained 1607b; Strachey 1612). Pines are hunting grounds while scarcely oak and pine forests on the drier successional species on Virginia’s touching areas that were uninhab- sites, interspersed with patches of Coastal Plain; undisturbed stands ited and little used (Clark and grassland.

DID FIRE KEEP BEECH OUT OF THE CANOPY?

American beech is mentioned less often in early fire and other disturbances, oak is known to give colonial accounts from Virginia than many other tree way to shade-tolerant species such as beech and species, particularly oak. (1612), for maple on many sites in the eastern temperate forest example, cataloged coastal Virginia’s trees in detail, (Barnes and Van Lear 1998; Brose and Van Lear describing their utility for both the colonists and the 1998; Olson 1996; Van Lear and Watt 1993; Whitney American Indians. He listed oak, elm, ash, walnut 1994). If beech was at least as important as oak in (including hickory*), cypress, cedar, sassafras, pines, Virginia’s presettlement forest canopy, then why did and even wild rose, but did not mention beech. John colonial accounts seem to ignore it? Smith (1624) wrote that the “woods that are most common are oak and walnut [hickory],” then listed a One reason might be American Indian under- number of other species that did not include beech. burning. Beech is slow growing and thin barked, vulnerable to fire. Frequent fire would have sup- One study has suggested that undisturbed stands of pressed beech in favor of more fire-resistant species pine on Virginia’s Coastal Plain succeed first to oak such as oak (Barnes and Van Lear 1998; Van Lear forest and finally to forest dominated or codominated and Watt 1993). If presettlement underburning by beech (Monette and Ware 1983). In the absence of prevented beech from becoming widely established in the forest canopy, then pine and oak–hickory * Europe has no native hickories (Carya spp.). The early colonists classified hickory forests would have predominated and the colonists as a type of walnut (it does belong to the walnut family). would not have reported extensive beech.

36 Fire Management Today Prairie and Savanna settlement, suggesting that Indian Sassaman 1988; Whitney 1994). In Early explorers were awed by the fire use played a role in maintain- addition to grasslands, the ecosys- expanses of grassland they found in ing the midwestern grasslands tem mosaic probably included some parts of Virginia, especially in (Pyne 1982). large areas of successional wood- the Shenandoah Valley. In the land maintained through burning Piedmont, dry oak–hickory forest It seems doubtful that grasslands techniques that were likely as in the rain shadow of the Blue in Virginia could have had a effective as any we know today. Ridge likely opened into patches of similar climatic origin. Wilkins savanna or grassland covering et al. (1991) have shown that the Of course, any conclusion based on hundreds of acres. West of the Blue Big Barrens of Kentucky, a grass- the limited evidence of historical Ridge, a fire-maintained tallgrass land outlier of the midwestern accounts alone must remain prairie probably blanketed some prairie peninsula, formed only hypothetical. Still, accounts by valley floors, bordered by forest after the Hypsithermal Interval, early European settlers and travel- and interspersed with groves of possibly as a direct result of Indian ers, coupled with what we know trees in the wetter areas. After the fire use. Moreover, the effects of about Virginia’s climate in recent American Indians stopped burning, dry air from the Great Plains are millennia, consistently point to the large grassland herbivores minimal in Virginia (Whitney one conclusion: that at least some disappeared from all of these areas, 1994). In recent millennia, of Virginia’s ecosystems evolved which promptly sprouted trees. In Virginia’s climate has been too with, and depended on, frequent 1733, for example, William Byrd’s moist and natural fire too rare to burning by American Indians. survey party in the Dan River sustain prairie or savanna. The Shaped and maintained to make watershed found abandoned, prairie in Virginia’s mountain the land livable, such ecosystems overgrown Indian village sites; a valleys and the open woodland in should not be confused with few scattered bison; and miles of the western Piedmont were prob- wilderness. Instead, they should be “young saplings, consisting of oak, ably formed and almost certainly treated as what they were—a hickory and sassafras” (Byrd 1733), maintained through seasonal cultural imprint left on the land by signs of grassland succeeding to burning by American Indians to Virginia’s first inhabitants. forest. promote browse for bison and elk. Acknowledgments In a letter to John Adams, Thomas A Legacy of Fire This article would not have been Jefferson (1813) observed that The Jamestown colony was possible without generous assis- American Indian fire use “is the founded on the myth that Virginia tance from USDA Forest Service most probable cause of the origin was, as John Smith (1624) put it, staff on the George Washington and extension of the vast prairies “a plain wilderness as God first and Jefferson National Forests in in the western country, where the made it.” The wilderness myth Roanoke, VA. The author would grass having been of extraordinary persists to this day in the notion particularly like to thank Fire Staff luxuriance, has made a conflagra- that the East was once covered by a Officer Glen Stapleton, Forest tion sufficient to kill even the old primeval forest that a squirrel Archeologist M.B. Barber, and as well as the young timber.” could have crossed “from bough to Forest Ecologist Steven Q. Croy for Jefferson was only partly right: The bough for a thousand miles and their photographs, extensive midwestern prairie peninsula never have seen a flicker of sun- references, and invaluable infor- extending from Illinois into Ohio is shine on the ground” (Adams mation and commentary. Thanks often attributed to the period 1931). also go to Ruth Brinker, the known as the Hypsithermal heritage resource specialist for the Interval (about 7,300 to 3,900 That squirrel must have taken a Monongahela National Forest in years ago) (Wilkins et al. 1991) or tortuous route across Virginia’s Elkins, WV, for reviewing the to the dry air masses from the base checkered landscape. Studies article and sharing her insights of the Rocky Mountains that still suggest a similarly varied land- into American Indian cultural bring drought to the Midwest scape, including broad swathes of history in West Virginia. The (Whitney 1994). However, trees grassland and savanna, in other author alone is responsible for any rapidly grew all over the midwest- Eastern States (Day 1953; Rostlund errors. ern prairie soon after European 1957; Pyne 1982; Patterson and

Volume 60 • No. 3 • Summer 2000 37 Literature Cited Byrd, W. 1728. A history of the dividing Komarek, E.V. 1965. — line. In: Branch, M.P.; Philippon, D.J., Grasslands and man. In: Proceedings, Abrams, M.D. 1992. Fire and the develop- eds. 1998. The height of our mountains. Fourth Annual Tall Timbers Fire ment of oak forests. BioScience. 42(5): Baltimore and : The Johns Ecology Conference; 18–19 March 1965; 346–353. Hopkins University Press: 78–85. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. Adams, J.T. 1931. The epic of America. Byrd, W. 1733. A journey to the Land of Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Boston: Little, Brown and Co. Eden. In: Rosenberger, F.C., ed. 1948. Station: 169–220. Apfelbaum, S.I.; Haney, A.W. 1991. Virginia reader. New York: E.P. Dutton: Komarek, E.V. 1974. Effects of fire on Management of degraded oak savanna 211–233. temperate forests and related ecosys- remnants in the upper Midwest: Clark, J.S.; Royall, P.D. 1996. 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38 Fire Management Today Randolph, J.R. 1973. British travelers Smith, J. 1624. The generall historie of 1992; Knoxville, TN. Gen. Tech. Rep. among the southern Indians, 1660– Virginia, New England, and the Summer SE–84. Asheville, NC: USDA Forest 1763. Norman, OK: University of Isles. Book II, part I. In: Lankford, J., ed. Service, Southeastern Forest Experi- Oklahoma Press. Captain John Smith’s America. New ment Station: 66–78. Raup, H.M. 1967. American forest biology. York, Evanston, IL, London: Harper and Whitney, G.G. 1994. From coastal Journal of Forestry. 65: 800–803. Row: 3–34. wilderness to fruited plain: A history of Rostlund, E. 1957. The myth of a natural Spelman, H. 1613. In: Haile, E.W., ed. environmental change in temperate prairie belt in Alabama: An interpreta- 1998. Jamestown narratives. Champlain, North America, 1500 to the present. tion of historical records. Annals of the VA: RoundHouse: 481–495. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Association of American Geographers. Spurr, S.H. 1951. George Washington: Press. 47(4): 392–411. Surveyor and ecological observer. Wilkins, G.R.; Delcourt, P.A.; Delcourt, Rountree, H.C. 1989. The Powhatan Ecology. 32(3): 544–549. H.R.; Harrison, F.W.; Turner, M.R. 1991. Indians of Virginia: Their traditional Stapleton, G. 1999. Personal communica- Paleoecology of central Kentucky since culture. Norman, OK, London: Univer- tion. Fire officer for the USDA Forest the last glacial millennium. Quaternary sity of Oklahoma Press. Service, George Washington and Research. 36: 224–239. Russell, E.W.B. 1983. Indian-set fires in Jefferson National Forests, Roanoke, VA. Williams, C.E. 1998. History and status of the forests of the Northeastern United Strachey, W. 1612. The history of travel Table Mountain pine–pitch pine forests States. Ecology. 64(1): 78–88. into Virginia Britannia. In: Haile, E.W., of the Southern Smith, J. 1608. A true relation of such ed. 1998. Jamestown narratives. (USA). Natural Areas Journal. 18(1): 81– occurrences and accidents of note as Champlain, VA: RoundHouse: 381–443. 90. hath hap’ned in Virginia. In: Haile, E.W., Van Lear, D.H.; Watt, J.M. 1993. The role of Williams, G.W. 1999. Aboriginal use of fire: ed. 1998. Jamestown narratives. fire in oak regeneration. In: Loftis, D.; Are there any “natural” plant communi- Champlain, VA: RoundHouse: 142–182. McGee, G.E., eds. Oak regeneration: ties? Unpublished manuscript. Washing- Smith, J. 1612. A map of Virginia. In: Serious problems, practical recommen- ton, DC: USDA Forest Service. ■ Haile, E.W., ed. 1998. Jamestown dations. Proceedings, Symposium on narratives. Champlain, VA: RoundHouse: Oak Regeneration; 8–10 September 207.

FIRST PEOPLES FIRST IN FIRE SHELTER USE*

American Indians, though skilled in the use of fire, were occasionally entrapped by wildland fires. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark witnessed one such incident on their historic expedition from St. Louis, MO, to the mouth of the Columbia River. On October 28, 1804, a prairie fire near a Mandan village north of present-day Bismarck, ND, overran several people. As Clark testified in his journal, a boy survived under a fresh bison hide—perhaps the first recorded use of a fire shelter.

The Prarie was Set on fire (or cought by accident) by a young man of the Mandins, the fire went with such velocity that it burnt to death a man & woman, who Could not get to any place of Safty, one man a woman & Child much burnt and Several narrowly escaped the flame. a boy half white was saved unhurt in the midst of the flaim, Those ignerent people say this boy was Saved by the Great Medison Speret because he was white. The couse of his being Saved was a Green buffalow Skin was thrown over him by his mother who perhaps had more fore Sight for the pertection of her Son, and [l]ess for herself than those who escaped the flame, the Fire did not burn under the Skin leaveing the grass round the boy. This fire passed our Camp last [night] about 8 oClock P.M. it went with great rapitidity and looked Tremendious

* From Bernard DeVoto, ed., The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997 [1953]), p. 60.

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