History
The History of Fire and the Human Use of Fire in the Northern Rockies
History
The History of Fire and the Human Use of Fire in the Northern Rockies
History
The History of Fire in the Northern Rockies
Horses
Horses
Horses gave tribal people much greater mobility, and easier access to buffalo and other foods and materials. The tribes quickly and fully integrated horses into the traditional way of life, from the seasonal round to the spiritual ways and songs. The Salish and Pend d’Oreille were able to visit neighboring tribes more often, and inter-marriage, particularly with the allied tribes to the west, increased.
However, the horses also made it easier and faster to travel into the territory of enemy tribes. And horses themselves were a newly mobile unit of wealth, prestige, and power. Once stolen, they not only could be transported quickly — they were the trans-portation. As a result, with horses came a dramatic increase in conflict and warfare with enemy tribes. The tribes here were known as expert breeders who developed very fine horses, and they became particularly coveted targets for Blackfeet raiders.
Horses affected the tribal use of fire in a number of ways.
The horse population here increased rapidly, and horses need pasture — and pasture was created and maintained with fire. But how much pasture was needed beyond what was already present under pre-horse fire regimes? We don’t yet have a clear answer.
With the increase in inter-tribal raids, it also appears that there may have been an increase in accidental fire, or at least fires not set for a specific beneficial purpose. There may have also been an increase in fires set as a part of conflict and war; even the Coyote stories mention this offensive use of fire. There are numerous anecdotes in fur trade journals in which people come across the apparent campfires of raiding parties, hastily abandoned and still smoldering or burning. But were these exceptional incidents or part of a pattern? We don’t yet know that either.
More research needs to be done to better understand the relationship between the establishment of horses among tribes and the traditional use of fire.
Disease
Disease
In any case, it is clear that after horses were here, repeated epidemics struck the various tribes throughout the 1700's and 1800s. Horses helped disease spread, because infected people traveling on foot might have died before reaching a village; but now, speeding along on horseback, ill people survived long enough to unwittingly spread their sickness to others.
Before the diseases, there were many Salish and Pend d'Oreille people — an educated guess is that number was somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000. The original population of Salish and Pend d'Oreille people was probably greater than the number of non-Indians who inhabited the area until after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1883.
But because of the diseases, only a tiny fraction of the original tribal population remained to witness the arrival of Euro-American people — and to defend their tribal territories against non-Indian incursions. The first documented epidemic in Salish-Pend d'Oreille territory arrived between 1774 and1782. Historical demographers estimate that in those last years of the 1700's, somewhere between half and three-quarters of the total population of Salish-speaking tribes died from introduced diseases. Oral histories tell of particular bands from which only a single person survived. By the time Lewis and Clark arrived in 1805, there were only 2,000 to 8,000 Salish and Pend d'Oreille people left.
Both elder accounts and fur trader journals note that the epidemics swept through with so heavy a toll that whole herds of horses were left roaming certain areas and became wild; the Salish and Pend d’Oreille still asserted ownership of them, but they were no longer domesticated.
We can only begin to imagine how devastating the epidemics were to tribal society. Fragmentary oral histories tell us that some bands had no survivors, others only a few.
But what were the impacts of these epidemics on the traditional use of fire? Archaeologists have found some changes in fire regimes that coincide with the timing of some epidemics, but the evidence remains spotty. Some ancient trees seem to show an increase in intervals between fires after 1782. Were there less frequent but bigger fires after that time due to a radically reduced population — a sudden loss of tribal knowledge and/or manpower — and thus a loss of control over fire? What was the cumulative effect on fire regimes of, on the one hand, epidemics and dwindling human populations, and on the other, of rising horse populations? We don’t yet know. More research needs to be done, including comparative analysis of more trees across a larger area.
Firearms
Firearms
Because the Blackfeet obtained firearms at the same time that epidemics were devastating the western tribes, they had an even more destructive effect.
The Tunáxn, a Salishan people who lived on the Rocky Mountain Front, were virtually exterminated by the combined impact of disease and firearms. The Blackfeet also pushed Plains Shoshone bands south and west.
The Salish were also compelled to make major changes. Before the epidemics, and before horses and guns, the Salish occupied nearly as much territory east of the Continental Divide as west. But Salish numbers were now decimated. Armed with superior weapons, the Blackfeet swept into the northern Montana plains, forcing the plains bands of Salish, Pend d’Oreille, Kootenai, and Shoshone to move their winter camps west and south across the mountains. The western tribes continued to use their ancestral buffalo hunting grounds east of the mountains, but with the constant threat of Blackfeet raids, they could no longer live there permanently. This is why during the mid-nineteenth century the Salish and Pend d’Oreille, Salishan tribes from further west, the Nez Perce, and the Kootenai would gather together, forming large multi-tribal hunting parties as they ventured east across the mountains for buffalo.
By destabilizing the inter-tribal world, the introduction of firearms had an indirect effect on the tribal use of fire. Raiding parties doubtless set fire with less concern or care, if not with offensive intent, in the territory of their enemies. Losses of population from warfare, like losses from epidemics, probably affected the use of fire by reducing the number of knowledgeable and able-bodied people available to manage the burning. And in the bigger picture, the combined effects of firearms and epidemic diseases made it far more difficult for tribes to resist incursions into tribal territories by fur traders and the other non-Indians. Those larger changes ultimately led to the marginalization of native people and native ways of life — including the traditional use of fire.
Horses
Horses
Horses gave tribal people much greater mobility, and easier access to buffalo and other foods and materials. The tribes quickly and fully integrated horses into the traditional way of life, from the seasonal round to the spiritual ways and songs. The Salish and Pend d’Oreille were able to visit neighboring tribes more often, and inter-marriage, particularly with the allied tribes to the west, increased.
However, the horses also made it easier and faster to travel into the territory of enemy tribes. And horses themselves were a newly mobile unit of wealth, prestige, and power. Once stolen, they not only could be transported quickly — they were the trans-portation. As a result, with horses came a dramatic increase in conflict and warfare with enemy tribes. The tribes here were known as expert breeders who developed very fine horses, and they became particularly coveted targets for Blackfeet raiders.
Horses affected the tribal use of fire in a number of ways.
The horse population here increased rapidly, and horses need pasture — and pasture was created and maintained with fire. But how much pasture was needed beyond what was already present under pre-horse fire regimes? We don’t yet have a clear answer.
With the increase in inter-tribal raids, it also appears that there may have been an increase in accidental fire, or at least fires not set for a specific beneficial purpose. There may have also been an increase in fires set as a part of conflict and war; even the Coyote stories mention this offensive use of fire. There are numerous anecdotes in fur trade journals in which people come across the apparent campfires of raiding parties, hastily abandoned and still smoldering or burning. But were these exceptional incidents or part of a pattern? We don’t yet know that either.
More research needs to be done to better understand the relationship between the establishment of horses among tribes and the traditional use of fire.
Disease
Disease
In any case, it is clear that after horses were here, repeated epidemics struck the various tribes throughout the 1700's and 1800s. Horses helped disease spread, because infected people traveling on foot might have died before reaching a village; but now, speeding along on horseback, ill people survived long enough to unwittingly spread their sickness to others.
Before the diseases, there were many Salish and Pend d'Oreille people — an educated guess is that number was somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000. The original population of Salish and Pend d'Oreille people was probably greater than the number of non-Indians who inhabited the area until after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1883.
But because of the diseases, only a tiny fraction of the original tribal population remained to witness the arrival of Euro-American people — and to defend their tribal territories against non-Indian incursions. The first documented epidemic in Salish-Pend d'Oreille territory arrived between 1774 and1782. Historical demographers estimate that in those last years of the 1700's, somewhere between half and three-quarters of the total population of Salish-speaking tribes died from introduced diseases. Oral histories tell of particular bands from which only a single person survived. By the time Lewis and Clark arrived in 1805, there were only 2,000 to 8,000 Salish and Pend d'Oreille people left.
Both elder accounts and fur trader journals note that the epidemics swept through with so heavy a toll that whole herds of horses were left roaming certain areas and became wild; the Salish and Pend d’Oreille still asserted ownership of them, but they were no longer domesticated.
We can only begin to imagine how devastating the epidemics were to tribal society. Fragmentary oral histories tell us that some bands had no survivors, others only a few.
But what were the impacts of these epidemics on the traditional use of fire? Archaeologists have found some changes in fire regimes that coincide with the timing of some epidemics, but the evidence remains spotty. Some ancient trees seem to show an increase in intervals between fires after 1782. Were there less frequent but bigger fires after that time due to a radically reduced population — a sudden loss of tribal knowledge and/or manpower — and thus a loss of control over fire? What was the cumulative effect on fire regimes of, on the one hand, epidemics and dwindling human populations, and on the other, of rising horse populations? We don’t yet know. More research needs to be done, including comparative analysis of more trees across a larger area.
Firearms
Firearms
Because the Blackfeet obtained firearms at the same time that epidemics were devastating the western tribes, they had an even more destructive effect.
The Tunáxn, a Salishan people who lived on the Rocky Mountain Front, were virtually exterminated by the combined impact of disease and firearms. The Blackfeet also pushed Plains Shoshone bands south and west.
The Salish were also compelled to make major changes. Before the epidemics, and before horses and guns, the Salish occupied nearly as much territory east of the Continental Divide as west. But Salish numbers were now decimated. Armed with superior weapons, the Blackfeet swept into the northern Montana plains, forcing the plains bands of Salish, Pend d’Oreille, Kootenai, and Shoshone to move their winter camps west and south across the mountains. The western tribes continued to use their ancestral buffalo hunting grounds east of the mountains, but with the constant threat of Blackfeet raids, they could no longer live there permanently. This is why during the mid-nineteenth century the Salish and Pend d’Oreille, Salishan tribes from further west, the Nez Perce, and the Kootenai would gather together, forming large multi-tribal hunting parties as they ventured east across the mountains for buffalo.
By destabilizing the inter-tribal world, the introduction of firearms had an indirect effect on the tribal use of fire. Raiding parties doubtless set fire with less concern or care, if not with offensive intent, in the territory of their enemies. Losses of population from warfare, like losses from epidemics, probably affected the use of fire by reducing the number of knowledgeable and able-bodied people available to manage the burning. And in the bigger picture, the combined effects of firearms and epidemic diseases made it far more difficult for tribes to resist incursions into tribal territories by fur traders and the other non-Indians. Those larger changes ultimately led to the marginalization of native people and native ways of life — including the traditional use of fire.
Horses
Horses
Horses gave tribal people much greater mobility, and easier access to buffalo and other foods and materials. The tribes quickly and fully integrated horses into the traditional way of life, from the seasonal round to the spiritual ways and songs. The Salish and Pend d’Oreille were able to visit neighboring tribes more often, and inter-marriage, particularly with the allied tribes to the west, increased.
However, the horses also made it easier and faster to travel into the territory of enemy tribes. And horses themselves were a newly mobile unit of wealth, prestige, and power. Once stolen, they not only could be transported quickly — they were the trans-portation. As a result, with horses came a dramatic increase in conflict and warfare with enemy tribes. The tribes here were known as expert breeders who developed very fine horses, and they became particularly coveted targets for Blackfeet raiders.
Horses affected the tribal use of fire in a number of ways.
The horse population here increased rapidly, and horses need pasture — and pasture was created and maintained with fire. But how much pasture was needed beyond what was already present under pre-horse fire regimes? We don’t yet have a clear answer.
With the increase in inter-tribal raids, it also appears that there may have been an increase in accidental fire, or at least fires not set for a specific beneficial purpose. There may have also been an increase in fires set as a part of conflict and war; even the Coyote stories mention this offensive use of fire. There are numerous anecdotes in fur trade journals in which people come across the apparent campfires of raiding parties, hastily abandoned and still smoldering or burning. But were these exceptional incidents or part of a pattern? We don’t yet know that either.
More research needs to be done to better understand the relationship between the establishment of horses among tribes and the traditional use of fire.
Disease
Disease
In any case, it is clear that after horses were here, repeated epidemics struck the various tribes throughout the 1700's and 1800s. Horses helped disease spread, because infected people traveling on foot might have died before reaching a village; but now, speeding along on horseback, ill people survived long enough to unwittingly spread their sickness to others.
Before the diseases, there were many Salish and Pend d'Oreille people — an educated guess is that number was somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000. The original population of Salish and Pend d'Oreille people was probably greater than the number of non-Indians who inhabited the area until after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1883.
But because of the diseases, only a tiny fraction of the original tribal population remained to witness the arrival of Euro-American people — and to defend their tribal territories against non-Indian incursions. The first documented epidemic in Salish-Pend d'Oreille territory arrived between 1774 and1782. Historical demographers estimate that in those last years of the 1700's, somewhere between half and three-quarters of the total population of Salish-speaking tribes died from introduced diseases. Oral histories tell of particular bands from which only a single person survived. By the time Lewis and Clark arrived in 1805, there were only 2,000 to 8,000 Salish and Pend d'Oreille people left.
Both elder accounts and fur trader journals note that the epidemics swept through with so heavy a toll that whole herds of horses were left roaming certain areas and became wild; the Salish and Pend d’Oreille still asserted ownership of them, but they were no longer domesticated.
We can only begin to imagine how devastating the epidemics were to tribal society. Fragmentary oral histories tell us that some bands had no survivors, others only a few.
But what were the impacts of these epidemics on the traditional use of fire? Archaeologists have found some changes in fire regimes that coincide with the timing of some epidemics, but the evidence remains spotty. Some ancient trees seem to show an increase in intervals between fires after 1782. Were there less frequent but bigger fires after that time due to a radically reduced population — a sudden loss of tribal knowledge and/or manpower — and thus a loss of control over fire? What was the cumulative effect on fire regimes of, on the one hand, epidemics and dwindling human populations, and on the other, of rising horse populations? We don’t yet know. More research needs to be done, including comparative analysis of more trees across a larger area.
Firearms
Firearms
Because the Blackfeet obtained firearms at the same time that epidemics were devastating the western tribes, they had an even more destructive effect.
The Tunáxn, a Salishan people who lived on the Rocky Mountain Front, were virtually exterminated by the combined impact of disease and firearms. The Blackfeet also pushed Plains Shoshone bands south and west.
The Salish were also compelled to make major changes. Before the epidemics, and before horses and guns, the Salish occupied nearly as much territory east of the Continental Divide as west. But Salish numbers were now decimated. Armed with superior weapons, the Blackfeet swept into the northern Montana plains, forcing the plains bands of Salish, Pend d’Oreille, Kootenai, and Shoshone to move their winter camps west and south across the mountains. The western tribes continued to use their ancestral buffalo hunting grounds east of the mountains, but with the constant threat of Blackfeet raids, they could no longer live there permanently. This is why during the mid-nineteenth century the Salish and Pend d’Oreille, Salishan tribes from further west, the Nez Perce, and the Kootenai would gather together, forming large multi-tribal hunting parties as they ventured east across the mountains for buffalo.
By destabilizing the inter-tribal world, the introduction of firearms had an indirect effect on the tribal use of fire. Raiding parties doubtless set fire with less concern or care, if not with offensive intent, in the territory of their enemies. Losses of population from warfare, like losses from epidemics, probably affected the use of fire by reducing the number of knowledgeable and able-bodied people available to manage the burning. And in the bigger picture, the combined effects of firearms and epidemic diseases made it far more difficult for tribes to resist incursions into tribal territories by fur traders and the other non-Indians. Those larger changes ultimately led to the marginalization of native people and native ways of life — including the traditional use of fire.
© 2021 Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes | Contact Us
© 2021 Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes | Contact Us