Wyatt Oswald, David R. Foster, Bryan N. Shuman, Elizabeth S. Chilton, Dianna L. Doucette, and Deena L. Duranleau
In their recent article, Turner and Reid (2022) discuss land-use practices of the Indigenous Peoples of northwestern North America (NWNA), with a specific focus on long-standing cultural knowledge of natural cycles and adaptation to ecological variability, while also emphasizing the deleterious impacts of European colonization and contemporary climate change on traditional lifeways. We were surprised by the reference to our article (Oswald et al., 2020) in this passage from their Introduction:
At a time when Indigenous Peoples’ influence over ecosystems remains contested by some (e.g., Oswald et al., 2020)—in strong alignment with the doctrines of terra nullius (Latin for “nobody’s land” or “territory without a master”) and discovery (Pope Nicholas V’s papal bull Dum Diversas, 1452) and the concept of the “pristine” or “wilderness” free from human influence (Miller et al., 2010)—articles that draw together evidence of long-held, precise, and scientific knowledge held by Indigenous Peoples in relation to environmental care are sorely needed.
In our synthesis of decades of archaeological and paleoecological research from southern New England (SNE), Oswald et al. (2020) found that the ecological impacts of the region’s Indigenous Peoples were more localized than the regional-scale deforestation carried out by European colonists. Turner and Reid (2022) seem to be suggesting that we interpret the pre-colonial landscape of SNE as a “wilderness” lacking human “influence over ecosystems,” and that our findings are thus aligned with centuries-old edicts used to legitimize European colonization and deny the sovereignty and land rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is a misunderstanding of our interpretation of Indigenous land use and pre-colonial ecological conditions. In fact, we see our findings as being highly consistent with those of Turner and Reid (2022).
Oswald et al. (2020) tested the hypothesis of “anthropogenic ecosystem engineering” (e.g., Weitzel, 2023) in SNE prior to European arrival. This hypothesis, based largely on scattered (across space and time) observations made by European colonizers, holds that Indigenous Peoples had regional-scale ecological impacts in SNE through widespread land use, including forest clearance, burning, and intensive agriculture (e.g., Day, 1953; Cronon, 1983; Whitney, 1994; Mann, 2005; Abrams and Nowacki, 2008; Abrams et al., 2021; Entrup and Caljouw, 2022). However, a contrasting interpretation of the pre-colonial landscape of SNE arises from our regional synthesis of archaeological and paleoenvironmental data (Oswald et al. 2020).
Archaeological research in SNE has revealed millennia of flexible settlement patterns, diverse subsistence activities, and fluid social boundaries (e.g., Chilton, 1999; 2002; 2004; 2010; Chilton and Doucette, 2002; Chilton and Hardy, 2014). Before European colonization, the Indigenous Peoples of SNE lived in flexibly sized groups and shifted activities seasonally, reusing encampments and logistical sites within well-established homelands. Seasonal/multi-seasonal settlements were densest in areas of plentiful resources (e.g., river valleys, near large wetland systems, and along coastal marshes and estuaries), which were often places of cultural and social significance. Foods were abundant and varied, including large and small mammals, birds, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, and hundreds of plant species. Horticulture featured native plants and tropical cultigens, including maize after ~1000 years ago, but in general horticulture was limited in scale and was supplemented by other food sources; there is no evidence that the Indigenous Peoples of the region ever adopted the large, permanent, agriculturally centered villages and lifestyles characteristic of Indigenous groups to the west and south of SNE (Chilton and Hardy, 2014). Oswald et al. (2020) presented maps of subsistence activities at >1800 archaeological sites across the coastal area of SNE (Figure 1), showing the complex lifeways of tens of thousands of people over thousands of years; SNE was far from “terra nullius” (Turner and Reid, 2022).
Figure 1. Maps of archaeological data from the coastal region of SNE (Oswald et al., 2020). Blue dots indicate the locations of Middle–Late Woodland materials associated with different subsistence activities.
While the Indigenous Peoples of SNE affected their local ecosystems in numerous ways, including hunting, fishing, plant gathering, small-scale horticulture, and harvesting wood for fuel and shelter, paleoecological data indicate that pre-colonial human impacts did not propagate to the regional scale. Oswald et al. (2020) analyzed lake-sediment pollen and charcoal records from a large number of study sites across SNE. Taken together, those records provide a consistent interpretation of the pre-colonial landscape: upland areas were dominated by closed-canopy forests of long-lived tree species; forest composition and fire activity were controlled by variations in climate; and openland vegetation (e.g., grasslands, shrublands, and early successional forests), evidenced by relatively high abundance of ragweed pollen (Faison et al., 2006), was uncommon from ~8000 years ago until the onset of European deforestation in the seventeenth century. Just as Turner and Reid (2022) found to be the case in NWNA, Indigenous land-use impacts in SNE were local in scale, “leaving ecosystems intact” (Turner and Reid, 2022). This interpretation is consistent with other studies of SNE paleoecology and biogeography (e.g., Thompson et al., 2013; Shuman et al., 2019; Tulowiecki et al., 2022).
Rather than being “in strong alignment” with Pope Nicholas V, the findings of Oswald et al. (2020) are, in fact, consistent with those of Turner and Reid (2022). This quote from Turner and Reid (2022) about Indigenous knowledge and adaptation in NWNA applies just as well to SNE: “Indigenous Peoples have continuously adapted in various ways to unexpected change, building complex knowledge systems that have enabled mitigation of impacts and survival in diverse, biogeographically complex home places.” For the Indigenous Peoples of SNE, subsistence activities would have required knowledge of temporal and geographic variation in natural resources, as the region is characterized by highly seasonal climate and significant environmental variability over space, including shifts in forest composition across the coast-inland climatic gradient and in response to changes in substrate (e.g., Thompson et al., 2013). The Indigenous Peoples of SNE also had to adapt continuously to variations in climate, sea level, and geomorphology during the postglacial interval (e.g., Shuman et al., 2019), including abrupt environmental shifts and changes in temperature and precipitation that brought about major transformations of regional forest composition and ecosystem distribution (e.g., Chilton, 2004; Oswald et al., 2018; 2020). In the face of challenging changes in climate and ecosystems, the flexibility of Indigenous settlement patterns and subsistence activities meant that SNE Algonquian Peoples, as Turner and Reid (2022) put it, “not only survived, but … prospered, developing rich cultures and multigenerational relationships with lands and waters and the life within them.”
The pre-colonial landscape of SNE was neither “free from human influence” (Turner and Reid, 2022) nor controlled by “anthropogenic ecosystem engineering” (e.g., Weitzel, 2023; see also e.g., Day, 1953; Cronon, 1982; Abrams et al., 2021). Instead, archaeological evidence and paleoecological records collectively point to a forested landscape in which people exerted locally intensive impacts, but a more subtle impact on ecological conditions perceivable at the regional scale (Oswald et al. 2020). Perhaps Turner and Reid (2022) were concerned that these findings could be used to undermine the land sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples. On the contrary, we see our work as highlighting the longevity, continuity, widespread presence, social complexity, and diverse and sustainable land uses of the Indigenous societies of SNE (e.g., Chilton, 1999; 2002; 2004; 2010; Chilton and Doucette, 2002; Chilton and Hardy, 2014; Oswald et al. 2020).
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