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

The Isle Royale Folkefiskerisamfunn: Familier Som Levde Av Fiske- An Ethnohistory Of The Scandinavian Folk Fishermen Of Isle Royale National Park

The Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA)-University of Arizona ethnographic team (UofA team) contracted with the National Park Service (NPS) Midwest Regional Office in 1998 to conduct an ethnographic and ethnohistoric study of commercial fishing activities at Isle Royale National Park (IRNP). The UofA team, having no connection with Isle Royale National Park, the commercial fishermen or their families who are the focus of this study, provides this report as an independent study of the ethnography and ethnohistory of commercial fishing at Isle Royale. The purpose of this study is to document and analyze historic and contemporary commercial fishing in the immediate vicinity of ISLE ROYALE including the identification of specific ethnic or social groups who have both traditional and contemporary ties to this fishery. By identifying resource use areas and concerns that may affect NPS management responsibilities, the results of this study will aid managers to anticipate resource protection issues that may affect Isle Royale National Park. The ability to anticipate such issues will place managers in a better position to understand and deal with such issues specifically as these pertain to the development of further cultural and natural resource studies, interpretative programs, and management decisions.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]