Fire History and Red Pine: Ojibwe Cultural Burning in Northern Minnesota

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Colonial Archaeological Research in the American Midcontinent" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This presentation highlights the work of our fire history partnership on the Chippewa National Forest and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota. The research is a collaborative effort involving the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Leech Lake Tribal College, the USDA Forest Service, and the University of Minnesota. that is exploring the role of human behavior in shaping the iconic red pine forests of northern Minnesota. Part of this effort includes compiling fire histories and we have established tree ring chronologies that extend into the 1670s in various parts of the forest. The data suggests that the fire history pattern observed in parts of the forest were formed and maintained over time by the Ojibwe prior to the establishment of the National Forest. This presentation will provide an overview of our current understanding of the fire history in our shared landscape as well as how our partnership is creating opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation between various disciplines and stakeholders regarding cultural burning and Indigenous land stewardship.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Colonial Archaeological Research in the American Midcontinent   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38965.0