[Eva]

Oh, yes, it was very sophisticated to set forest fires to burn down the trees when the forests became to thick for the underbrush of berries and nut bearing apex trees to grow. The Indians in the Northwest were still doing this in the nineteenth century. The purpose was to make foraging easier.

[gleeaikin]

Actually the Indians fires were not to burn down the trees, but to clear out the understory of brush and debris. Our own park service is now engaging in "controlled burns"; when fire danger conditions are at the lowest level, so we do not end up with the huge conflagrations we had in some of our parks a few decades ago from a 100 year buildup of debris. When Europeans first settled areas like Kentucky, and Tennessee, they discovered large open prairies called "barrens" which the Indians had produced by burning. These areas supported large herds of Eastern Buffalo which the Indians hunted. The were also called Buffalo Commons as the Indians who might otherwise be hostile, usually observed a truce while they hunted these areas.