Before the Wilderness

Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians

Co-edited by Thomas C. Blackburn and M. Kat Anderson

An anthology of collected articles, Before the Wilderness describes how California Indians acted and continue to act as stewards of their environment. By burning, pruning, tilling, harvesting judiciously, collecting seeds from annuals, and irrigating, they were able to satisfy their food and cultural needs without exhausting the populations of plants and animals on which they depended. The articles note that Native management had important ecological outcomes: increased abundance of certain species, enhanced biodiversity, greater spatial and habitat diversity, maintenance of early-succession habitat types, and reduction of the risk of catastrophic fire. In exploring a spectrum of human interactions with nature, the book shows unequivocally that California Indians were food and fiber producers, not just passive collectors in their environments.

Distinguished ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner calls the book a “first” in literature pertaining to traditional land management systems of indigenous peoples. Anthropologist Albert B. Elsasser suggests that this volume “should stand for a long time as the definitive work on the issue of native Californians’ position on the continuum between hunting and gathering (foraging) and food-producing peoples.”