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Omer C. Stewart, (edited and with introductions by Henry T. Lewis and M. Kat Anderson), Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002, xi + 364 pages (cloth).
Reviewer: Marc Pinkoski
University of Victoria
Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness, Omer Stewart's posthumously published opus on Indian fire burning practices, is a curious and fascinating book. Given the rise of uncontrollable brush fires throughout the world, the book contains a breadth of study on a timely topic that is unparalleled in either anthropology or environmental studies. The quite remarkable facts of the book, however, are that the bulk of it was written almost five decades ago, and that Stewart's demonstration of the humanity of Native Americans, through the technology and knowledge of fire burning practices, is a prescient depiction of Indian agency that many more recent accounts still do not recognize.
The book is divided into four sections. The first is a co-authored introduction written jointly by the editors, Henry Lewis and M. Kat Anderson. This introduction details the history of the book, and why it was originally rejected for publication. It also outlines a cogent argument for the continued relevancy of the material, dated though it may be, by presenting the text as a historic document. The primary function of the introduction is to situate the book within the anthropological and ecological literature as a forerunner to challenges of the perception that Native Americans were benign agents in their landscape, and emphasise that they were, and continue to be, makers of and participants in the environment. The editors offer as a final contribution of the book the necessity for management officials to reconsider the role of burning practices in...