COMMUNITY NEWS
Amah Mutsun: When Fire Was a Tool
T
By Jondi Gumz
he evidence is in the diaries of missionary explorer Juan Crespi, who joined the Portola expedition in California in 1769, drew maps of the area and wrote in detail about what he saw. He saw indigenous peoples had burned the land frequently, noting this in his diary on Oct. 24, Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, from Palo Alto to Half Moon Bay. About Half Moon Bay, he wrote: “Rolling hills burnt off with very good soil, good spot for a town, however, there is not a stick of wood anywhere about here.” That’s one piece of evidence cited by researcher Rob Cuthrell, director of archaeological resource management for the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, to document how native people used fire as a tool to steward the land until the Mission leaders outlawed indigenous burning in 1778. More evidence comes from macrobotanical analysis of charred plant remains from archaeological deposits showing most seeds found were edible seeds.
Cuttrell was one of the speakers when the Amah Mutsun Land Trust hosted its first fire symposium on Nov. 19, an event on Zoom that attracted more than 600 viewers in the wake of the CZU August Lightning Complex fires that charred 86,000 acres and destroyed 925 homes in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, called fire a gift from Creator and “a tool to manage the landscape.” “Our people would burn that landscape (of coastal prairie),” he said. They would burn segments of land in a particular rotation, using lowintensity fires that were easy to watch over and that would not sterilize the ground. “The prairie had a lot of seed plants — fire was important to help seeds germinate,” Lopez said. “It would take care of birds and animals and people. Our diet was 40 percent seeds at times.” The second year after the fire, there would be tall shoots for deer and elk to
eat. The third year, bushy plants useful for basketry and traps. The fourth year, thicker plants used to make boats and housing. With the cycle complete, they would start over, once again burning the land to “balance and take care of the resources,” Lopez said. When burning was outlawed, shrubs started to encroach on the prairie, then other trees, then redwoods, he said. “There are very little grasslands now
on the Central Coast — the biodiversity is gone now,” he said. “Burning regularly rebuilds topsoil. The way we are talking about today will actually achieve that.” Kent Lightfoot, anthropology professor at UC Berkeley, said a 2007 study of Ano Nuevo presents “strong evidence of sustained cultural burning for many centuries, once every few years.” “Safe Fires” page 22
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