Forgotten Landscapes: How Native Americans Created the Pre-Columbian World and What We Can Learn From It

Biologist Rice (Scientifically Thinking) pushes against the idea of North America as an unadulterated wilderness prior to European colonization in this expansive study. He highlights various ways in which Indigenous people intentionally reshaped ecological patterns well before first contact, and also argues that pre-contact Native Americans lived more sustainably than Europeans. Among his examples are Native Americans’ widespread use of fires to expand and rejuvenate prairies; their genetic engineering of crops that, when co-planted, are mutually beneficial (the most well-known example being the “three sisters”: squash, corn, and beans); and their ambitious irrigation projects in the Southwest. He also points to how the colonial era’s animal population explosions, such as its massive flocks of passenger pigeons, were likely the result of the falloff of Native husbandry; even the Little Ice Age, the colonial-era cold snap, may have been caused by the end of pre-Columbian controlled burns. While these claims have previously been made by others, Rice offers a fantastic synthesis of current thinking on pre-Columbian ecology, as well as an intriguing recap of how scholarship on the subject has evolved over time. He closes with a reflection on the harms of factory farming, monoculture, and pesticides, advocating for a return to pre-Columbian ecological principles of coexistence and integration with nature. The result is an alluring call for a more conscientious, less destructive relationship with the land. (July)