News From Native California - Spring 2015 Volume 28, Issue 3 | Page 26

a special tree, one for each child. What happens to the tree
happens to the child—therefore the child has a responsibility
to take care of the land.”

Fire on the Land
The controversy regarding how much fire the Indians used
on the land is a heated topic among scientists of various
disciplines. Ecological studies do not include human history, and older scientific reports focus only on fire suppression. However, many historical and literary works discuss
the ways Indians used fire and managed the land in different
times. In California, Indians dominated the land before 1850.
From 1850 to 1910, the Indian was still out on the land, now
as loggers, cattle ranchers, goat and sheepherders, and of
course still as gatherers.
In 1834, Bill Walker came through upper Yosemite and
described how open the forest land was, how easy it was to
travel through. He followed a trail that led his party from the
eastern side of the Sierra to the bottom of the western slope.
These trails were made by Indians. John Fremont spoke of
the beauty of the land and the Indian in 1844. In 1851, Jeff
Mayfield described the golden beauty of the San Joaquin

Valley in its richness of flowers, grasses, and majestic oaks. In
1868, John Muir described the openness of the land and how
it was like a Garden of Eden for the Native Americans who
lived out on the land.
Documents such as the Kinsman Diary of 1873–1894
include daily accounts of the local Mono Indians and their
fire activities. These can range from a simple