WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:24.079 Hello, and welcome to Western Stem and welcome to a 2 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:26.760 special bonus series that I'm going to be doing about 3 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:30.879 Native American culture prior to the arrival of Europeans in 4 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:34.479 North America. There's a lot of information about the Aztec, 5 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:37.520 the Inca, the Maya, but there's much, much, much less 6 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:43.240 that's been written about North American Indian societies and their culture. 7 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:47.399 And that's a mistake because we need to understand how 8 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:50.719 these two cultures are going to interact throughout this period 9 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:55.399 that we tend to refer to as European colonization. And 10 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:59.280 while we'll be focusing on the Europeans quite a lot, 11 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:04.319 we can't ignore the other side of the equation here now, 12 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:08.840 before the sales of European ships ever broke the Atlantic horizon, 13 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:12.640 the land that we today called North America was not 14 00:01:13.319 --> 00:01:17.359 an untouched wilderness by any stretch of the imagination. It 15 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:22.040 was a place of cities, bustling cities, sprawling trade networks, 16 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:27.599 cultivated fields, and a deep reciprocal relationship between people and place. 17 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:31.799 It wasn't a blank slate waiting to be discovered. It 18 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.519 was a landscape that had long been shaped by human hands. 19 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:41.480 To imagine, pre Columbian America as a wild and silent 20 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:46.159 expanse is to misunderstand the very nature of the continent. 21 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:52.319 Before fourteen ninety two, the forests, rivers, and plains teemed 22 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:56.040 with life, not just animal and plant, but humans as well. 23 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:02.640 Generations of indigenous people's transform these landscapes, creating environments that 24 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:08.000 were both beautiful and bountiful. Forests were open through controlled burns, 25 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:13.199 prairies managed to encourage game, orchards, and cultivated fields lined 26 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:19.080 river banks. To quote one particular historian, quote, the natives 27 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.840 did not live lightly upon the land. They changed it 28 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:29.439 dramatically and in ways that made it more productive end quote. 29 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:33.000 Among the marvels of this world was a great city 30 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:39.599 that rose alongside the Mississippi River, Kahokia, Larger than London 31 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:44.360 in its time, Kahokia was no scattered village. It was 32 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:50.360 a true metropolis. Its population numbered in the tens of thousands, 33 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:55.919 Its center dominated by massive earth and mounds, the largest 34 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:01.800 of which rivaled the size of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. 35 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:08.639 Wide ceremonial plazas, wooden palisades, and astronomical markers shaped a 36 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:16.039 city built with purpose and vision. To quote now historian 37 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:20.240 Stanley Rice, Kahokia was not a mere village. It was 38 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:25.240 a city, possibly the largest north of Mexico before modern times. 39 00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:26.759 End quote. 40 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:32.639 Here people gathered for feasts, rituals, and trade, bringing together 41 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:37.800 the rhythms of agricultural life with the celestial patterns above them. 42 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:43.919 And this city, Cookia was no isolated marvel. Across the continent, 43 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:50.639 Indigenous societies formed vast and interconnected networks. Obsidian from the 44 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:55.240 Rocky Mountains, copper from the Great Lakes, seashells from the 45 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:59.680 Gulf coast, all moved along trade routes that wove of 46 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:04.960 fab of cultural and economic exchange. These goods passed from 47 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.360 hand to hand, village to village, carried by people whose 48 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:15.280 footsteps left I'll admit it faint, but nevertheless enduring marks 49 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:21.240 on the land. Each exchange told the story of relationships, 50 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:25.000 of shared ideas, and of a continent humming with life. 51 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:30.000 Again quoting Rice, quote vibrant, networked and full of life, 52 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:35.120 not silent, uninhabited wilderness end quote. This was a land 53 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:38.079 of people. As much as we like to think of 54 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.959 it as a pristine, untouched land, which is what Europeans saw, 55 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:46.759 That's not the lens that Native American peoples would have 56 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:50.680 looked at it through. Even in the absence of the 57 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:54.759 monumental architecture of Kahokia, the land bore witness to this 58 00:04:54.920 --> 00:05:00.399 human touch. Great stretches of prairie and forest weren't touched 59 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:04.720 at all, but they were actively tended. Fire used with 60 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:11.639 skill and critically restraint, shaped ecosystems to encourage certain plants 61 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:15.720 and animals in the northeast, the so called Three sisters 62 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.000 I grew up with. In the Midwest, corn beans and 63 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:24.759 squash were cultivated in harmony. It's not easy to grow 64 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:29.240 them all, by the way, Trust me, I've tried. Farther west, 65 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:33.160 there were terraced fields and irrigation systems that brought fertility 66 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:37.240 to arid soil. This wasn't the domination of nature in 67 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:41.639 European forms, but the conversion with it, one where people 68 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:47.279 both listened to, adjusted, and lived with their surroundings. Not 69 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:49.839 changed them and. 70 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:51.040 These people themselves. 71 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:54.360 But what we can say is, prior to the arrival 72 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:58.399 of Europeans, they were strong, they were healthy, and they 73 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:04.279 were thriving. Skeletal remains reveal robust bones, low rates of disease, 74 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:09.279 and shockingly good dental health, which was a striking contrast 75 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:14.319 to the often sickly populations of medieval Europe. According to 76 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:17.079 all statistics before fourteen ninety two, the people of the 77 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.439 Americas were among the healthiest of the world, with low 78 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:25.279 rates of dental decay and strong, robust skeletal remains. These 79 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:31.680 weren't populations desperately eking out a marginal existence. These were 80 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:38.360 communities nourished by diverse diets, clean environments, and sustainable practices. 81 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:44.079 But flourishing, of course, was not eternal. Around the year 82 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:48.319 thirteen hundred, the Mississippian world began to contract. 83 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:49.639 We don't know why. 84 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:54.480 Maybe the climate was changing, maybe there was an internal strife, 85 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:57.800 maybe there was an outbreak of disease. After all, we 86 00:06:57.879 --> 00:07:02.720 still don't fully understand. The Bronze Age collapsed, and this 87 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:07.319 is essentially what we're seeing. Cities like Khochio were slowly abandoned, 88 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:10.800 their plazas left silent in the mounds, untended until they 89 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:14.800 were simply covered by the earth. By the time Europeans 90 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:19.759 arrived two centuries later, the monumental civilizations were gone, and 91 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:26.160 this illustrates the importance of timing in history. Had Europeans 92 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:31.040 arrived in the thirteen hundreds instead of the late fourteen hundreds, 93 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:34.000 basically the year fifteen hundred, they would have encountered a 94 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:38.519 totally different civilization, a totally different groupings of people, perhaps 95 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:43.399 peoples in a much stronger position to resist them. What 96 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:46.920 remained instead was a world in transition, populations that have 97 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:53.639 been dispersed, forests, regrown fields, reclaimed by weeds. Now, of course, 98 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:57.000 to European eyes, this looked like a virgin land, unworked 99 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:57.720 and unclaimed. 100 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:00.800 But that illusion had consequences. 101 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:05.480 When colonizers saw orchards they assumed were wild, when they 102 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:08.480 stumbled upon cleared meadows, or followed game trails that had 103 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:13.680 once been footpaths, they didn't realize that this was all 104 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:18.879 by design. Again quoting Stanley Rice, quote, Europeans did not 105 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:23.519 walk into an untouched world. They walked into a ghost world, 106 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.319 shaped by those who came before, and emptied by their 107 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:33.759 mysterious disappearance end quote. This misunderstanding, which shape centuries of policy, 108 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:40.080 myth making, and of course violence and the erasure, was 109 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:44.480 more than just historical oversight. This was a philosophical decision. 110 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:48.960 To imagine this continent as unpeopled was to simply erase 111 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:52.720 its legacy. And yet even in the traces left behind 112 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:57.559 in all those mounds, in those earthworks, in the stories 113 00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:02.279 that would be passed down is another truth. I don't 114 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:06.440 think North America was ever waiting. It was already made. 115 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:12.919 The landscape that we talk about that we live in today, 116 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:14.679 if you live in the United States or in North 117 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:19.440 America at all, is the descendants of those earlier, carefully 118 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:24.639 shaped environments. The myth of a primeval wilderness has long 119 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:28.840 obscured the wisdom of those who lived with rather than 120 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:33.039 over the land. We can never return, of course, to 121 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:37.799 what the North America was before Europeans came, but we 122 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.879 can learn from how the native peoples that lived there 123 00:09:41.919 --> 00:10:08.559 before lived with the land rather than constantly fighting against it. 124 00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:12.559 Safe to say that in modern culture, especially in North America, 125 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:14.960 we don't think about fire the same way that the 126 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.240 Native American cultures that came before us did. In our 127 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:22.840 popular imagination, fire is a force of terror. It destroys forests, 128 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:26.559 it swallows homes, It drives wildlife. 129 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:27.960 In a smoky sort of panic. 130 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:31.759 Our stories have all taught us to fear it, whether 131 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:36.000 those are fairy tales or frontier myths. Of course, in 132 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:39.559 modern memory, all of us will remember the Los Angeles 133 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.639 fires from just not even twelve months ago. These wildfires 134 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:49.320 some images of charred cities and emergency evacuations, but long ago. 135 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:53.639 To the Native American cultures of America before the Europeans, 136 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:57.759 fire was something else entirely. It wasn't the destroyer, It 137 00:10:57.799 --> 00:11:02.600 was the planner. It was the architect. It was the 138 00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:07.399 good medicine for the earth. In the great tapestry of 139 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.879 pre Columbia, North America, fire was woven into nearly every thread. 140 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:16.879 Where forests and are now thick with impenetrable undergrowth, there 141 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:22.360 were one's open woodlands where wildflowers bloomed, Where thickets now 142 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.480 choked the hillsides, there were ones tall grasses beneath clear sides. 143 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:31.639 The difference was fire. Fire set by Native American groups 144 00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:35.919 with intention, guided by knowledge, and lit by human hands. 145 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:41.720 Across the continent, Indigenous peoples set fires to shape their environments, 146 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:45.080 from the pine forests of the southeast to the oak 147 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:50.600 savannahs of the Midwest, from California to the tundrant margins 148 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:53.519 of the far North. Fire was used as a tool, 149 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.200 to quote one historian, if there was anything to burn, 150 00:11:57.399 --> 00:12:01.399 Indians set fire to it. This was an early record 151 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:04.840 from centuries ago. But this wasn't reckless burning. It was 152 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:10.480 an ecological craft learned and passed down through generations. They 153 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:14.480 knew what they were doing. Indigenous peoples used fire to 154 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:19.200 make the landscape more fruitful. This cleared away old, dry 155 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:23.360 vegetation and made room for new shoots to emerge. It 156 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:27.240 opened up the forest floor, allowing light to reach the soil, 157 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:34.000 coaxing out some hungry herbs and berries. These ashes promoted 158 00:12:34.279 --> 00:12:39.200 new growth, releasing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. In the 159 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:44.759 wake of flames, came not destruction, not evacuation, but abundance, 160 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:51.080 lush grasses, fresh wildlife, flowers and bloom animals drawn to 161 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:55.440 the new floorage. In places like the tall grass prairies, 162 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:59.360 the burning wasn't just beneficial, it was essential. Without fire, 163 00:12:59.399 --> 00:13:03.639 grasslands would disappear beneath a creeping tide of shrubs and 164 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:09.039 young trees. Without fire, the great open landscapes of North America, 165 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:12.559 especially in that central zone, would have all vanished. These 166 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:18.480 ecosystems needed the flame to retain what they were. Perhaps 167 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:22.600 every grassland in the world depended and depends still on 168 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:27.159 a recurring fire cycle. Even in the forests. Fire shaped 169 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:31.039 what lived and what didn't. Some trees, like the closed 170 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:36.519 pines of California, could only actually reproduce after fire burst 171 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:41.720 their seeds from the resin sealed cones. The story goes deeper. Still, 172 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:45.320 fire to the early Native Americans wasn't just ecological, It 173 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:50.120 was cultural. It was the expression of these people's relationship 174 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.559 to the land. Indigenous communities burned for countless reasons, to 175 00:13:54.919 --> 00:13:58.159 improve hunting, to gather food more easily, to prepare soil 176 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:03.759 for planting, to promote safety by reducing fuel for uncontrolled wildfires. 177 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:07.879 We still do this today. They burn to protect their homes, 178 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:12.399 to clear trails for their hunters, to help animals, and 179 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:16.960 to grow straighter basket weaving stems and better even harvests. 180 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:20.639 They burned not to destroy the world, but to renew it. 181 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:25.279 In one early account, Native peoples explained that they burned 182 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:29.440 the forest quote to render hunting easier end quote. The 183 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:32.840 idea was that underbrush would crackle and alert games, you 184 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:36.200 had to get rid of it. In another early account 185 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:38.120 of Native Americans, it was said that they set fires 186 00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:41.000 quote to clear the woods of dead substance and grass 187 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:45.720 end quote, making way for the springs new life. And 188 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:47.399 always they knew how to control it. 189 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:48.679 Quote. 190 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:53.440 Indian countries are clean countries, observed a nineteenth century military officer. 191 00:14:54.039 --> 00:14:58.399 No underbrush or decayed logs. The annual fires clean up everything. 192 00:14:58.679 --> 00:14:59.799 End quote. 193 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:04.600 The technique was precise. Fires were set at certain times 194 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:06.759 of the year, often in the spring or fall, when 195 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:09.480 moisture levels were higher and it was easier to control 196 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:13.039 the flames. Fires were kept as we now say when 197 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:16.399 we do barbecue, low and slow, burning the underbrush but 198 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:19.840 leaving the trees alive. And people built their homes with 199 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:24.200 this knowledge and mind, structures temporary enough to be rebuilt 200 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:30.039 if needed, or placed where fires rarely reached. This was 201 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:35.519 never an attempt to conquer nature, but to express the 202 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:41.320 humility of coexistence, and the results were astonishing. One early 203 00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:44.080 North American settler rode quote, you could gallop your horse 204 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:48.080 among the trees end quote. The forests were that open. 205 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:53.039 Others were called fields where strawberries grew wild under oaks. Quote, 206 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:55.759 so that your foot could hardly direct itself where it 207 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:58.159 would not be dyed in the blood of large and 208 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:03.240 delicious strawberries end quote. Forests weren't tangled and dim. They 209 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:07.679 were open, sun dappled, and full of life, and those 210 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:10.720 meadows well, According to some, they were not ablaze with fire, 211 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:15.080 but with color quote a mass of blossom, larkspur poppy, 212 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.159 sage in bloom. What grace the fields most of all 213 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.200 was the sight of all the different sorts of colors 214 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:27.159 together end quote. Even those grand Sequoias, the tallest trees 215 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:32.080 on earth, owed their survival to fire. Without periodic burning, 216 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:37.679 their seeds could not germinate. Fires cleared the competing underbrush 217 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:41.120 and gave seedlings the light and the space they needed 218 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:46.480 to grow. There were towering trees charred by flame, but 219 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:53.000 alive beneath them, lush, fresh green shoots reaching for the 220 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:58.000 ever distant sky. This fire driven landscape, it wasn't an accident. 221 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:03.200 It was the result of sustained in deliberate action where 222 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.519 indigenous communities were removed through war, disease, sometimes forest relocation. 223 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:12.359 Immediately a traveler would note the absence of fire, who 224 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:18.559 was visible. Forest suddenly thickened with underbrush. Prairies disappeared completely. 225 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:23.480 Deer and bison vanished from areas where they had once thrived. 226 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:25.319 One account notes. 227 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:29.599 Quote, within a century, forest grew where prairies had formerly 228 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:35.039 dominated end quote. The land had gone natural it was 229 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:36.319 no longer being tended. 230 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:38.119 Now. 231 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:40.640 Some scholars refused to believe what was right in front 232 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:43.920 of them. They couldn't accept these so called primitive societies 233 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:49.279 had managed ecosystems with such sophistication for decades. Anthropologists dismissed 234 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:53.519 the idea that Native Americans were anything more than passive foragers. 235 00:17:54.440 --> 00:17:57.359 One forest re official scoffed, quote, it would be difficult 236 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:00.279 to find a reason why the Indians should care way 237 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:02.039 or another if the forest burned. 238 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:02.640 End quote. 239 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:07.839 Clearly he didn't ask any of the Indians, but the forest. 240 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:12.359 They told a different story. Fire scars etched into tree rings, 241 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:17.359 several centuries of regular, low intensity burns. Paulin trapped to 242 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:21.359 the layers of ancient lake bed mud shows transition from 243 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:25.039 dense forest to open grassland at times that correlate with 244 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:29.839 human habitation, and accounts from early European settlers speak not 245 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.839 of untouched wilderness, but of carefully tended landscapes managed never 246 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:39.200 by the plow, but only by the flame. One study 247 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:42.359 even suggests that the cessation of native burning after fourteen 248 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:46.599 ninety two helped to actually cool the earth when millions 249 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.920 of Indigenous people died from European diseases, their fires went 250 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:50.559 with them. 251 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:52.640 The forest grew back, and. 252 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:55.559 In doing so they pulled billions of tons of carbon 253 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:59.759 from the air. This reforestation may actually have contributed to 254 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:03.119 this so called Little Ice Age, a century's long period 255 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:06.839 of global cooling. It's actually kind of a scary thought, right, 256 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:09.839 The silence of extinguished fires, by the death of so 257 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:12.480 many people, might have been felt all the way in 258 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:14.759 distant Asia. 259 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:16.759 Fire was not merely a tool. 260 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:19.480 It was a form of knowledge, a way of living 261 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:22.759 with the land, not upon them. To quote again Stanley Rice, quote, 262 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:27.319 fires was always the servant, never the master end quote. 263 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:32.200 And in those controlled burns, those black and meadows, those 264 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:36.000 scorched oak groves bursting with new life, lies the memory 265 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:39.359 of a people who understood something this modern world is 266 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.720 just starting to relearn. We're just starting controlled burns on 267 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:46.359 a major level again here in the last century. It 268 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:50.519 took us that long to recognize what native peoples always knew. 269 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:56.920 Fire was essential to this land. For them, fire was 270 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:59.880 never destruction, It was restoration.