When I was a young whippersnapper, I would have spent this week cutting geometric shapes out of colored paper and gluing them together with a bit of string, while labeling each in crayon the “Nina,” the “Pinta” and the “Santa Maria.” How has this knowledge served me in life? There was that one time that I got a Trivial Pursuit question right, impressing no one.
How much more fun would it have been to make dioramas of trade routes and land management systems found in the Americas in 1491? The Americas were more populated than Europe at the time with people who traversed extensive trade routes via land and waterways while practicing land management that shaped living heirlooms of land thousands of years in the making. I welcome the celebration of Indigenous People Day, and the opportunity for learning more about people connected to this land, past and present.
This last week I listened with interest to Lyla June’s Ted Talk where she briefly touched upon examples of First People nations working with nature to expand habitat and design landscapes for sustainable use and abundant production over thousands of years.
In Southwest deserts, farmers planted fields at the base of watersheds to catch seasonal rain runoff and nutrients from upland soils. Working with natural ecosystems, early agriculturists cultivated the same plots of land for centuries without depleting the soil. Today, the University of Arizona is working diligently with Native American descendants to adopt 5,000 years of indigenous farming practices as a solution to growing food in a warming climate.
In Kentucky, sediment records show how the Shawnee people cared for a chestnut forest for over 3,000 years. A fossilized charcoal layer indicates forest management with routine burning of the forest floor.
The prairies of the Great Plains were managed by fire to encourage grassland growth for grazing buffalo herds. The fire prevented growth of trees and shrubs while nourishing the soil to generate topsoil up to 4 feet deep, with root systems reaching a depth of 8-15 feet. The fire transformed dead plants into nutrient-dense ash that unlocked the seeds of pyro adapted grasses and medicinal plants.
A study at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, confirmed the native prairie grasses of the Great Plains once covered one-third of North America. The root-dense grasses store as much carbon underground as forests store above ground.
In the Methow Valley, studies continue to focus on the trade routes that connected First Peoples. Rich Davis, archaeology adviser for the Methow Valley Interpretive Center and Methow Field Institute, is currently studying obsidian found in the valley. In a recent social media post, Rich noted, “obsidian artifacts found in the Methow Valley and over the North Cascades to the Upper Skagit all came from the Glass Buttes area of Central Oregon.” Rich uses obsidian hydration testing to determine the time of the last breakage of the sample and the origin.
Rich would welcome the opportunity to study obsidian pieces or artifacts found in the Methow Valley. Owners of artifacts are encouraged to share valuable historic information by contacting Rich and allowing him to photograph and record found objects. Privacy is assured and no other obligation is necessary. Sensitive information will be kept confidential.
Owners have the option to keep the objects, loan them for exhibit, or donate the found objects to either the interpretive center, or to the History/Archaeology department of CCT. Contact Rich Davis at davisrich@hotmail.com. To learn more about the obsidian project, visit the Methow Valley Interpretive Center on the TwispWorks campus.
