Indigenous Impacts on North American Great Plains Fire Regimes of the Past Millennium

Fire use has played an important role in human evolution and subsequent dispersals across the globe, yet the relative importance of human activity and climate on fire regimes is controversial. This is particularly true for historical fire regimes of the Americas, where indigenous groups used fire for myriad reasons but paleofire records indicate strong climate–fire relationships. In North American grasslands, decadal-scale wet periods facilitated widespread fire activity because of the abundance of fuel promoted by pluvial episodes. In these settings, human impacts on fire regimes are assumed to be independent of climate, thereby diminishing the strength of climate–fire relationships. We used an offsite geoarchaeological approach to link terrestrial records of prairie fire activity with spatially related archaeological features (driveline complexes) used for intensive, communal bison hunting in north-central Montana. Radiocarbon-dated charcoal layers from alluvial and colluvial deposits associated with driveline complexes indicate that peak fire activity over the past millennium occurred coincident with the use of these features (ca. 1100–1650 CE). However, comparison of dated fire deposits with Palmer Drought Severity Index reconstructions reveal strong climate–fire linkages. More than half of all charcoal layers coincide with modest pluvial episodes, suggesting that fire use by indigenous hunters enhanced the effects of climate variability on prairie fire regimes. These results indicate that relatively small, mobile human populations can impact natural fire regimes, even in pyrogeographic settings in which climate exerts strong, top-down controls on fuels

Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota Native American Cultural Affiliation and Traditional Association Study

This report presents an overview of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic information relating to American Indian cultural affiliation and traditional association with Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota. The primary purpose of this overview is to provide the National Park Service (NPS) with data that will aid in the development of consultation protocols and future cultural and natural resource studies, interpretation, program objectives, and park management decisions. The present study, therefore, has been designed to establish a connection between park resources and associated past and present peoples. The data contained here are required to address the cultural affiliation and consultation requirements of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and other legislation, policy, and regulations that address peoples traditionally associated with park resources, including, but not limited to, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA, Sections 106 and 110) as amended; the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA); Executive Orders 13007, 13083, and 13084; the National Register Bulletin 38; and NPS Policies and Guidelines, as amended.This report was written in conjunction with the report entitled: "The Everchanging Pipestone Quarries Sioux Cultural Landscapes and Ethnobotany of Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota," (Toupal et al. 2004).This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]

Ancient Voices, Storied Places: Themes in Contemporary Indian History

This collection of essays addresses the history of Numic-speaking American Indians of the Great Basin–Colorado Plateau–Mohave Desert area since these lands passed into the sovereign control of the United States after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The goal of this study is to revisit historical processes and events that transformed the lives of these Americans so profoundly that their effects are still being felt today. The perspective of contemporary Indians who shared their views with the authors, wrote portions of this history, advised on its production, and reviewed its contents, informed the versions of history relayed throughout this book. The themes explored in this collection interweave oral histories, collected by the authors through interviews with Indian people, and data from primary archival sources and publications. The essays that follow represent a small sample of themes that concern Indian people, who believe that their values, opinions, and version of historical processes and events are seldom portrayed fairly, if at all, in Western literature. This preoccupation with telling their history is all the more relevant in the context of government–to–government consultation between American Indian tribes and federal agencies, wherein productive debates about land management and resource preservation issues hinge on a shared understanding of why the land and its resources are important to Indian people and how Indian people lost control over them. It is precisely under the auspices of such a shared understanding between the Nevada Test Site and Nellis Air Force Base and several Indian tribes and organizations from Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah that this historical study was conducted.This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]

American Indians and the Nevada Test Site: A Model of Research and Consultation

This book examines the long -term consultation partnership involving a federal agency, a group of American Indian tribes, and a team of anthropologists. This book highlights the history, evolution, dynamics, and results of the consultation relationship between the U.S. Department of Energy Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) and 20 tribes and organizations composed of ethnic Numic-speaking Western Shoshone, Southern Paiute, and Owens Valley Paiute -Shoshone people. A team of applied anthropologists currently affiliated with the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson (UofA), and a team of archaeologists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), a unit of the University and Community College System of Nevada in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, respectively, have provided technical assistance and contract consulting services to the Indian tribes and the DOE/NV, first on the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office (YMSCO) and, in the past decade, on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). During the early stages of the consultation relationship, the culturally affiliated Indian and pan-Indian entities unified themselves into a single indigenous organization, the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations, or CGTO, for the purpose of defending their collective interests in the lands and resources comprising the NTS in south –central Nevada. Since 1994, this new Indian organization has consulted with the DOE/NV on an increasingly wider range of issues that affect Indian cultural, religious, and resource values on and around the NTS. The book also examines these cultural and religious values regarding traditional lands and resources, and the cultural significance of resources, objects, places, and landscapes within the boundaries of this facility that have been affected by DOE/NV mission activities. The consultation relationship was initiated, and continues into the present, as a result of the implementation of a series of federal environmental laws and regulations that require consultation with American Indian tribal governments when activities conducted with federal funds, in federal facilities, or both, have the potential to adversely impact traditional American Indian resources and cultural practices. Most notable among these is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), which was passed by the United States Congress in 1978. Prior to that time, cultural resources were managed mainly in accordance with the provisions set forth in Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act.This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Consultation and the Nevada Test Site Collection

This report summarizes a compliance consultation between the Department of Energy/ Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) and the American Indian tribes and Indian organizations that make up the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations (CGTO). The consultation focused on artifacts removed from the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The report describes consultation actions and recommendations that occurred in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]

American Indians and Fajada Butte: Ethnographic Overview and Assessment for Fajada Butte and Traditional (Ethnobotanical) Use Study for Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico

This ethnographic overview documents the contemporary values of American Indians regarding Fajada Butte. The study defines which Indian tribes have traditional or historic cultural ties to Fajada Butte and Chaco Culture National Historical Park (NHP). The study was funded by the National Park Service on September 15, 1992, and was managed by the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office. The ethnographic overview is focussed on two broad issues: (1) Fajada Butte and its significance to American Indian people and (2) the traditional use of plants and their cultural significance to American Indian people. An additional goal of this study is to contribute information about to the process of general tribal -park consultation including Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This study documented that 11 tribes and pueblos have cultural relationships with Fajada Butte and Chaco Culture NHP. American Indians feel a contemporary identification with the Fajada Butte and Chaco Culture NHP. There are three main ways for expressing this identification (1) direct descent ties, (2) tribal ties, and (3) ethnic ties. No tribal or pueblo representatives expressed knowledge of living families who are direct descendants from the people of Chaco; however, many of them stated that Chaco people were their direct ancestors. All tribes and pueblo representatives who participated in the on -site visit claimed tribal or pueblo ties to the people of Chaco. The research also was concerned with the plant life of the area both on and around Fajada Butte. This study documented the American Indian traditional use placess around Fajada Butte and elsewhere in Chaco Canyon. All Indian representatives expressed the desire that the park continues to protect these plants from disturbance and emphasized the need to have a park-wide ethnobotanical study.This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]

Traditional Ojibway Resources in the Western Great Lakes

This was an applied ethnographic study of natural and cultural resources of contemporary significance for American Ojibway' tribes and Canadian Ojibway First Nations that are or were once present within or in the immediate vicinity of four National Park Service (NPS) units in the Midwest Region: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SLBE), Michigan; Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (PIRO), Michigan; Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS), Wisconsin; and Voyageurs National Park (VOYA), Minnesota. The main objective of this study, according to the Scope of Work (SOW) of 1996, was to develop a documented basis of knowledge regarding historic and current use of resources by culturally affiliated Native American tribes that should help park managers anticipate Native American resource use issues that may confront them in the future and thus be better prepared to deal with them in an informed and culturally sensitive manner. The study also was to provide recommendations regarding preservation, monitoring, mitigation, interpretation, and use access issues. The research was designed to provide a historical and ethnographic overview and assessment of Native American, Southwestern Ojibway in particular, land and resource use as it pertains to the region where the parks are located, and to each park unit. This study also provided an inventory of ethnographic resources known to have been significant for culturally affiliated Southwestern Ojibway tribes at different points in time.This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]

Dá Me Na-Nu-Wu-Tsi: “Our Relations All of Mother Earth” Timber Mountain Ethnographic Report

This report presents the results of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at Timber Mountain Caldera (TMC) on the NTS. Volcanic in origin, the caldera is a geologic feature that was formed when a large volcano collapse thousands of years ago producing the large circular crater that exists today. Since that event, the caldera has experienced other volcanic eruptions making a complex topographic landscape. The ethnographic fieldwork (conducted in 2005) that forms the foundation of this report included official tribal representatives from the Owens Valley Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Southern Paiute ethnic groups. This report presents the findings of the tribal representatives’ visits to several sites in the TMC and the cultural value associated with it. These research findings are based upon interviews conducted with tribal representatives selected by the American Indian Writers Subgroup of the culturally affiliated Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations (CGTO).This item is part of the Richard Stoffle Collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by Richard Stoffle, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email Special Collections, [email protected]