How did they deal with it before Coronado or DeSoto arrived?
I have no idea who Coronado or DeSoto are.
The trees were diverse not all high fire burn Pine, and they dug ditches for containment. Not only trees but homes to local wildlife, Besides using up water. We’ve suspected these are all purposely set, to destroy land and food.
Controlled burns. Indians used to light fires and burn out underbrush. Made the forest way better for hunting. And sometimes lightning caused fires grew huge and swept through large areas.
But today you can clean the forests very well by letting people cut firewood, by allowing selective logging, and by building good firebreaks in strategic locations.
In this day and age for a fire to sweep into town and burn 1500 homes is utter incompetence.
DeSoto didn’t make it past Texas.