For centuries before European immigrants arrived, indigenous residents dwelled in a landscape adapted to their use of fire.
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The Potter, Plate #426, Edward S. Curtis, 1906. |
Across time, lightning strikes have been the main cause of fires on the Colorado Plateau. A two to six year cycle of periodic fire created a "managed" forest with lush open meadows and clumps of robust Ponderosa pines. Indigenous people who lived in the region relied on fire for cooking, warmth, light and firing pottery. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, people and fire co-existed in a dynamic balance.
| Hopi women splitting yucca needles to make sifter baskets, ca. 1946. |  |
In the late 1500s, the Spanish introduced domestic livestock in the form of cattle and sheep to the Plateau. Vast grasslands made the area attractive for grazing.
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Burning brush, Paiute Farms, 5/1949. |
We came to a glorious forest of lofty pines… The country was beautifully undulating, and although we usually associate the idea of barrenness with the pine regions, it was not so in this instance; every foot being covered with the finest grass, and beautiful broad grassy vales extending in every direction. The forest was perfectly open and unencumbered.
