Anthropogenic fire legacies of the Colorado plateau: an ecological investigation of Grand Canyon National Park

Padian, Michael Tyler (2023) Anthropogenic fire legacies of the Colorado plateau: an ecological investigation of Grand Canyon National Park. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

Anthropogenic burning practices have helped humans to create landscape adaptations that enhanced subsistence species and counteracted climate fluctuations. The archaeological narrative of the Grand Canyon’s subsistence strategies is conflicting and incomplete. While maize-based agriculture conforms to the common perception of southwestern subsistence strategies, the Grand Canyon’s climate fluctuations influenced a development of Indigenous fire-based strategies that were less reliant on annual rainfall. Fire reliant plants and animal habitats would have provided predictable yields of food, medicine, and materials for pre- contact societies. Ecological evidence of fire in the ecological observations in archaeology sites can attest to lifeways that sustained communities in this area for generations. This ecological balance was lost when these practices encountered United States fire suppression policies and the forced removal of Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. This study incorporates ethnographic accounts of land use and macro-botanical evidence from Ancestral Puebloan settlements in a comparative analysis of fire history and its contemporary impacts to archaeology sites on the Canyon’s rims. This study contributes to archaeological inquiry of anthropogenic fire practices and encourages cross disciplined research among public land agencies. From an environmental standpoint, the continual incorporation of fire within similar sites can protect them from wildfire suppression tactics while encouraging ecological biodiversity and fire resilient landscapes. As climate change results in uncertain impacts on vulnerable coniferous forests, this study helps public land managers regain an ecological balance by reflecting on the local ingenuities of precontact Indigenous communities.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	Paleoecology; Fire; Subsistence culture; Puebloan;Grand Canyon National Park
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Social and Behavioral Science > Anthropology
Date Deposited:	18 Jun 2025 23:25
Last Modified:	18 Jun 2025 23:25
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6184

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