Baylor...Native Americans Significantly Modified American Landscape...Prior...Arrival...Europeans

Baylor University ^ | March 21, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Study has important implications to how "sensitive" landscapes are to land-use and farming strategies

(Waco, Texas - March 21, 2011) A new study by Baylor University geology researchers shows that Native Americans' land use nearly a century ago produced a widespread impact on the eastern North American landscape and floodplain development several hundred years prior to the arrival of major European settlements.

The study appears on-line in the journal Geology.

Researchers attribute early colonial land-use practices, such as deforestation, plowing and damming with influencing present-day hydrological systems across eastern North America. Previous studies suggest that Native Americans' land use in eastern North America initially caused the change in hydrological systems, however, little direct evidence has been provided until now.

The Baylor study found that pre-European so-called "natural" floodplains have a history of prehistoric indigenous land use, and thus colonial-era Europeans were not the first people to have an impact on the hydrologic systems of eastern North America. The study also found that prehistoric small-scale agricultural societies caused widespread ecological change and increased sedimentation in hydrologic systems during the Medieval Climate Anomaly-Little Ice Age, which occurred about 700 to 1,000 years ago.

"These are two very important findings," said Gary Stinchcomb, a Baylor doctoral candidate who conducted the study. "The findings conclusively demonstrate that Native Americans in eastern North America impacted their environment well before the arrival of Europeans. Through their agricultural practices, Native Americans increased soil erosion and sediment yields to the Delaware River basin."

The Baylor researchers found that prehistoric people decreased forest cover to reorient their settlements and intensify corn production. They also contributed to increased sedimentation in valley bottoms about 700 to 1,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.

[decimon]

Muddy waters ping.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Native Americans' land use nearly a century ago produced a widespread impact ... several hundred years prior to the arrival of major European settlements.

Something isn't adding up.

[decimon]

Native Americans' land use nearly a century ago produced a widespread impact ... several hundred years prior to the arrival of major European settlements.

Something isn't adding up.

Yeah, I noticed that. Either something was edited out or something should have been. Or it's just what happens on Monday morning.

[bgill]

Native Americans increased soil erosion and sediment yields to the Delaware River basin

Bush's Native American ancestor's fault.

[Retired Greyhound]

Native Americans altered and modified the crap out of the land. It is part of how they survive. They cultivated and burned.

EVERY civilization affects their environment. It’s not a bad thing.

[Pan_Yan]

So when the native Americans caused erosion and sedimentation in the delicate hydrologic systems they ‘had an impact’ and produced a ‘change.’

Interesting.

[Rage cat]

It should say.....”Native Americans’ land use nearly a millennium ago produced a widespread impact”

[Little Ray]

But it DOES undermine some of the stupid environmentalist propaganda about Indians and their “relationship” with nature.

[FortWorthPatriot]

Maybe they are responsible for global warming... /sarc

[theBuckwheat]

What was all that mound and canal building in Illinois if not modifying the landscape?

[Retired Greyhound]

Of course. I always laugh when the left holds up Native Americans as the example of how we should live.

I guess they think we should

a) frequently war with our local neighbors,
b) have the men lay around all day while the women do all the work,
c) and kill, with a spear, every animal that we can’t ride.

[blueunicorn6]

Illegal aliens from China wreaking havoc on a once pure and innocent land.

[GladesGuru]

Another academic announcing the discovery of the wheel.

Google “References On The America Indian Use Of Fire In Ecosystems” by Gerald W. Williams.

After reading 38 pages of references to indigenous population caused changes to habitats, I am less than impressed by the article’s having broken any new ground.

[Keltik]

It’s fascinating how, even on an allegedly conservative website like FR, the PC term “Native American” is now accepted as gospel.

[bert]

This is a good thread to advise FReeper friends of a very interesting book. The History Of The Ancient Southwest by Stehphen Leekson.

Although he is an archeologist by trade, his book wonderfully surveys seemingly all the disparate archeological scholarship and ties it together within a historical account. lt turns out that much of what I saw in my last two visits to Indian Country was tainted with the bias of the specific person/persons who excavated the site.

He ties in the various societies on the plateau, the Phoenix Basin and the Mogollon rim. The peak was comtemporaneous with the great society at Cahokia in Illinois. Those irrigation works allowed a very large and flourishing population in the Arizona deserts

Pertinent to this thread are the very old and very extensive irrigation works present in the Phoenix basin and elsewhere in Arizona. Those irrigation works allowed a very large and flourishing population in the Arizona deserts

I have read a great deal about the peoples of the ancient Southwest but this book sets much of what I read on it's head as extremely parochial and self serving. It is possible because of changes in the profession wrought by federal law. First, all construction has to have an archeological assessment before the work can be done and in Arizona that means everywhere. Secondly a similar law requires the team to include real Indians to assess the site based on their own history, not the biased and oft made up story based on pots.

It makes Chaco the home of elite leaders who moved to AZtec and then to Paquim over a period of many years, centuries.

It destroys the bias that drew a line at the Mexican border. The southwest had continuous active trade with the people further south.

The theme is "everyone knew everything" the people of the time did not live isolated from the other people of their world, or cahokia many miles away to the east.

The people who regularly read these threads may like this book. It is 500 or so pages, half book and half foot notes. The book is in first person and the footnotes are sometime juicy.

[Vigilanteman]

The Dakota (Sioux) Tribes in particular kept extensive histories such as the one shown above. These are called winter counts because the tribe historian would depict the most memorable event of the year with a drawing each winter.

The common material for most of these winter counts is deerskin and since they were highly valued as a record of the tribe, many still survive.

When I was a young man, I had an opportunity to study these at the feet of a Dakota elder. Without the elder versed in the oral history traditions, interpreting each pictograph becomes a matter of speculation.

With the elder, however, one understands how extensively our early natives altered the environment. A raging controversy in the 1820's was the practice of harvesting buffalo by driving them over a cliff. The elders were appalled by the practice because they had seen years of shortage in the bison herds. The young wouldn't listen because that particular era was a time of plenty.

Long story short is that the bison herds were diminished by the natives at least a half century or so before the evil white man got into the act.

[Smokin' Joe]

But it DOES undermine some of the stupid environmentalist propaganda about Indians and their “relationship” with nature.

Yeah. Some of us have been laughing about since we first heard it.

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·