People often ask if I have favorite archival records. I understand that in most cases, the question is used, often unbeknownst, as an access point to a collection or group of archives. With so many documents and photos to consider, it can be difficult to narrow in on something without a specific question or area of interest. So the default is “What’s your favorite?” I know this because I have done it myself. When I first visited the special collections at the local library, I wasn’t sure where to start so I asked the librarian about his favorite book.
My favorites are specific to what I think is interesting and not necessarily what others think is interesting. I know I disappointed several people when sharing my favorite records. So I learned not to share my favorites, but provide ideas of what is possible or continue the conversation to find out what the researcher is interested in. Archival reference is so much about conversation and less about expertise.
However, even with all of this in mind I want to share one of my favorite documents. It is not just the subject matter and contents but the connection to the present and subtleties of archival research.
As it usually happens, I was looking for something else when I came across a file titled C - correspondence - forest fires. With the ever increasing forest fires on the west coast, I was curious to read what correspondence from Mayor Harry Lane said in 1905 about forest fires. The opening was a surprise as it was written by not only the Mayor of one the largest city’s in Oregon but also a white man.
“I note your exceptions to my statement that the Indians preserved the forests by burning off the grass and trash every fall, thus keeping the ground clean and causing but a light fire. I would say in furtherance of my view, that in the days of my earlier boyhood and before that time, that such was the habit of the Indians, and in no case did they cause any damage, they kept the ground clean and open.”
He continues on to talk about various fires in the last 100 years and types of trees. I was amazed by the detail in the letter and thought of restoration efforts and how it is useful to have an idea of what came before. Even more than that I thought of a chapter in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (clearly another favorite of mine) called “Burning Cascade Head.”1
“Only fragments of the story of the head remain with us. The people who knew it were lost before their knowledge could be captured and the death was too thorough to have left many tellers behind. But the prairie kept the story of the ritual fires long after there were people here to speak of it. (p. 244-245)”
To have a non-Indigenous person witness the impact of the yearly burnings on the health of the forests, write it down and then to have it preserved for over 100 years is extraordinary. To me this is why archives are important.
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For additional information/resources check out Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources
“Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts. M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature.”
I am glad you tried it and it worked. I would have been scared too!
In Arkansas in the spring, on the advice of an old timer, we burned off a field in order to clear it for pasture. It scared me to death because I thought we were going to start a forest fire, but the wet leaves in the forest stopped the fire.