Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources

M. Kat Anderson

Published by University of California Press 2005

Tending the Wild

Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources

M. Kat Anderson

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520933101

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Contents

About this book

John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today—that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. 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. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.

Author / Editor information

Anderson M. Kat :
M. Kat Anderson is a Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis; Associate Ecologist at the Agricultural Experimental Station at the University of California, Davis; and a faculty member in the Graduate Group in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She is coeditor, with T. C. Blackburn, of Before the Wilderness: Native Californians as Environmental Managers (1993) and coeditor, with Henry T. Lewis, of Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness by Omer C. Stewart (2002).

Topics

Global History

History

Topics in History

Contents

Frontmatter

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Contents

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Illustrations

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Tables

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Preface

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Note On Languages, Territories, And Names Of California Indian Tribes

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Introduction

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Part I. CALIFORNIA AT CONTACT

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1. Wildlife, Plants, and People

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2. Gathering, Hunting, and Fishing

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3. The Collision of Worlds

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Part II. INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT AND ITS ECOLOGICAL BASIS

4. Methods of Caring for the Land

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5. Landscapes of Stewardship

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6. Basketry

Cultivating Forbs, Sedges, Grasses, and Tules
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7. From Arrows to Weirs

Cultivating Shrubs and Trees
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8. California’s Cornucopia

A Calculated Abundance
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9. Plant Foods Aboveground

Seeds, Grains, Leaves, and Fruits
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10. Plant Foods Belowground

Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes, Taproots, and Tubers
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Part III. REKINDLING THE OLD WAYS

11. Contemporary California Indian Harvesting and Management Practices

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12. Restoring Landscapes with Native Knowledge

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Coda: Indigenous Wisdom in the Modern World

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Notes

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Bibliography

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Index

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Language: English

Publisher: University of California Press

Copyright year: 2005

Pages

Main content: 560

Keywords: native knowledge; living sustainably; native land management; conservation efforts; traditional ecological knowledge; native americans; native cultures; indigenous peoples; environmental change; united states of america; native tribes; sierra miwok; valley yokuts; harvesting; tilling; sowing; historical sources; natural settings; american history; california; natural resources

eBook

Published: June 14, 2005

ISBN: 9780520933101