The Pristine Myth – Fact or Fiction?

Ever since rather romantic writers and early American settlers like Longfellow, Parkman and Thoreau first wrote about the idea many people interested in the history of North America have believed in what is now known as “The Pristine Myth”. This theory was that before the European settlers arrived the Native American Indians lived here in complete harmony with nature, never doing anything to disturb or change the environment.

More recent evidence has shown that to not be the case though. archaeological evidence has shown that Native Americans made more use of fire than just as a source of heat and light. It seems in fact that they were early adopters of the idea of clearing away large forested areas not only for firewood (that they stacked of course instead of storing in a firewood rack as one might today) but to provide field space for organized agriculture that could produce vital food crops.

These fires had to be carefully controlled if course and contrary to what the new visitors may have thought the Native American Indians were far from primitive and were very adept at ensuring that fires they set did not get of control and damage areas that they were not supposed to. Because the environmental conditions did not always cooperate though the evidence shows that this was not always the case and a number of burned skeletons have been discovered, possibly the unfortunate result of such accidents.

Much of this deliberate, controlled burning was mistaken for the natural landscape of the country by those early explorers and settlers. However archaeologists found a great deal of evidence in the latter part of the 20th century that these controlled burns had been going on for hundreds of years and had in fact in many cases changed the landscape a great deal.