Tending the Wilderness

ecology--a fact that R are often curious about the origins of the ecosystems they are trying to restore. In North America they have often assumed that these ecosystems are "natural" and that their structures and functions were -and are -maintained through natural disturbance with little or no human influence. Cultural environments shaped by Native Americans are seen as limited to areas along river bottoms and adjacent to village sites that harbored domesticated plants such as corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. These were areas that were obvious to early settlers, missionaries, explorers, and later, discernable through methodologies used by archeologists and ecologists. These areas also somewhat resembled lands subject to forms of land management familiar to Westerners, including land clearing, planting in rows, and selection of one or a few favored domesticated species. The wildlands beyond the agricultural fields have been viewed as "pristine," despite the fact that large quantities of plant materials were gathered and managed by Indians for dyes, medicines, basketry, firewood, weapons, construction, clothing and many other items. The major focus in anthropology has been on plant manipulation for food viewed in isolation, not in a broader context of prehistoric subsistence systems and how these systems fit