Compiling historical descriptions of past Indigenous cultural burning: a dataset for the eastern United States

Stephen J. Tulowiecki

doi:10.1071/WF24029

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Compiling historical descriptions of past Indigenous cultural burning: a dataset for the eastern United States

Stephen J. Tulowiecki

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Geography & Sustainability Studies, SUNY Geneseo, 1 College Circle, Geneseo, NY 14454, USA.

^* Correspondence to: tulowiecki@geneseo.edu

International Journal of Wildland Fire 33, WF24029 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF24029

Submitted: 8 February 2024 Accepted: 12 July 2024 Published: 29 July 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Background

The extent of past Indigenous cultural burning in the eastern US remains contested. Historical documents (e.g. early histories, journals, and reports) contain descriptions of burning. Scholars have summarised descriptions, but few have compiled them into databases.

Aims

This paper presents efforts to compile descriptions of past Indigenous burning in the eastern US and early results from mapped descriptions.

Methods

Utilising previously cited descriptions and those discovered from digitised historical texts, the current dataset mapped >250 descriptions of burning in the northeastern US. Most were historical summaries from 19th century authors, and fewer were firsthand observations. Descriptions are currently shared as a GIS data layer, a tabular file, and an interactive web map.

Key results

Descriptions correspond with fire-adapted vegetation, and clusters of descriptions suggest burning over large extents (e.g. southern New England, western New York). Estimated dates of burning or initial Euro-American settlement show an east–west succession in Indigenous fire exclusion and replacement with early Euro-American burning.

Conclusions

Historical descriptions suggest regional-extent influence of Indigenous burning upon past forested ecosystems, but the veracity of descriptions should be carefully evaluated.

Implications

This study provides a dataset for further examination of Indigenous burning and comparison with other methodologies for historical cultural fire reconstruction.

Keywords: eastern US, fire exclusion, historical fire regimes, Indigenous, land use, mesophication, Native American, northeastern US, oak, pine.

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