American Indians altered land long before Europeans

Columbus Dispatch ^ | Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper

[SunkenCiv]

University of Tennessee ecologists Paul and Hazel Delcourt argue in their new book, Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change, that we have underestimated the varied impacts American Indians have had on the natural environment the past 15,000 years. Eastern North America, for example, was not a "virgin" forest when Europeans arrived 500 years ago. Native Americans altered and even managed the environment in many ways. The evidence comes from the testimony of early European pioneers as well as archaeological and paleoecological studies... The Delcourts' analysis of charcoal particles and pollen grains from the sediments from Cliff Palace Pond in eastern Kentucky revealed a big change about 3,200 years ago. At this time, a lot more charcoal flecks began showing up and pollen from cedar trees dropped off, while pollen from chestnut, oak and pine trees increased. The Delcourts concluded that there was a link between "Native American activities and changes in forest composition."

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	"Invasion of America" ping. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[SunkenCiv]

some previous “Bradley Lepper” search results:

Ohio man finds 15,000-year-old flint spear tip
Akron Beacon Journal | Monday, December 17, 2007 | Associated Press
Posted on 12/17/2007 11:00:57 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1941030/posts

Hopewell Culture Shows Little Evidence of Warfare
The Columbus Dispatch | 12-18-2007 | Bradley T Lepper
Posted on 12/19/2007 6:48:49 AM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1941621/posts

Researchers Unearth Glimpse Of Adena Hunter-To-Farmer Shift
The Columbus Dispatch | 1-29-2008 | Bradley T. Lepper
Posted on 01/31/2008 9:49:57 AM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1962554/posts

[oneamericanvoice]

This is the same Academia that haughtly proclaims that all Indians came across the land bridge, didn’t impact the land, thought they were savages/non-human, etc. Humans have an impact. The size of the population is one of the factors that determines the magnitude of the impact.

[NonValueAdded]

so didn’t the beavers

[SunkenCiv]

Ask Bill Clinton, he must know by now. /rimshot

[Clemenza]

All people alter the land they dwell on. Duh.

[John Will]

It was a virgin forest until Chuck Norris got there.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Yeah, but we didn’t have bulldozers.

[ml/nj]

And I'm reading that the Europeans were here more than 2000 years ago. (America, B.C., amazing read!)

ML/NJ

[SunkenCiv]

:’) It is a good read. That might go on the re-read pile pretty soon. Of course, I’ll have to spend less time online for a change... for a start...

[Salamander]

All Barry Fell’s books are great.
Hard to find copies of some of them, these days, though.

[and no, mine are NOT for sale].....LOL!

[ml/nj]

Hard to find copies of some of them, these days, though.

Guess I was lucky. I had never heard of Fell or his work. I was browsing a used book store I like a few weeks ago and found his America B.C. there for three bucks.

ML/NJ

[Salamander]

http://www.equinox-project.com/drfell.htm

Bibliography with same theme:

Saga America

America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World

Bronze Age America

[PapaBear3625]

Early Indians were firebugs, for two reasons: (1) slash and burn agriculture, and (2) habitat management. Regarding the second item, deer inhabit the ecological niche around the boundary between forest and meadow. So by setting fires and creating lots of small meadows, Indians increased the number of deer an area could support

[marsh2]

When trappers arrived near Mt. Shasta they found that sugar pines were burned to create sugary sap for harvest. Further North, fire was used to harvest grasshoppers. To the West, it was used to renew basket making materials. There are many Forest Service records of the disputes over indigenous cultural burning practices and the fire suppression doctrine.

[Renfield]

This shouldn’t surprise us. Those big stands of longleaf and slash pine (which are fire-tolerant species) that the settlers encountered in the deep South existed because the Indians used to burn the woods every few years. In the absence of fire, the woods would have been a white oak-red oak-hickory ecotome on drier sites, and water oak-white oak-maple-sweetgum ecotome on wetter sites.

[oneamericanvoice]

Not all early Indians engaged in agriculture. Many were nomadic.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Did any other freepers see the PBS program about Atlantis? They mentioned the Amazonian culture who cultivated huge swaths of what are now considered rain forest.

That part of the program resembled a video version of 1491.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

And the PBS program (mentioned in the other post) suggested Amerindians were in the Old World for thousands of years (coca and tobacco in Egypt and such).