Fire Adds Richness to the Land: Ethnographic Research for the FHiRE Project

Summary

One component of the multidisciplinary FHiRE project included ethnographic research with 50 members of four tribes. Specific historical and traditional information about fire ecology related to the occupation of Hemish ancestral sites in the Jemez Mountains was collected at the Pueblo of Jemez. More generalizing information about the role of fire in Southwestern lifeways was collected with research participants at the Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and White Mountain Apache Tribe. Our ethnographic research provides information about the traditional uses of fire in agriculture, grazing, and cultural practices. It also documents the personal experiences of many tribal members in fighting forest fires, and tribal research participants contributed information about native concepts of healthy and unhealthy forest structure. Although wildland fire plans a relatively minor role in tribal discourse and oral traditions, numerous references to fire in the remote past and "traditional times" focus on domestic, agricultural and hunting contexts. The choice of wood harvested for construction and fuel has implications for modeling fire behavior. Tribal research participants explained how there are both destructive and beneficial aspects of forest fires.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Fire and Humans in Resilient Ecosystems in the American Southwest

Keywords

Spatial Coverage