The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ...

2) Each family had a part of a prairie where its members could go to dig roots. The prairies were burnt
and weeds were kept under control by means of fire (Ram Singh, p. 11). The Indians who dug roots in
prairies burned over such sites in order to give useful roots a chance to grow instead of weeds and ferns.
They took precautions not to burn the surrounding trees and bushes, and burned the prairies section by
section. Their methods of fire control were so effective that in the Olympic Peninsula, except for a small
area of forest near Little Prairie, none of the forest surrounding a prairie shows any sign of fire. (Ram
Singh 1966:112).
3) Bracken fern grows on the “prairies” and burned over places, especially in the middle upland area.
The burning of this fern year by year was what kept up these prairies and extended their area. The
Indians burned the prairies over for the purpose of clearing out the area so they could shoot deer and elk
when they came to feed on the young sprouts. The prairies, about ten in number, probably were started
as camping sites, which were gradually extended by the annual burnings (Reagan 1923:203).
4) The Indians burned the ferns for the purpose of clearing out the prairies so they could shoot the deer
and elk when they come to feed on the young fern sprouts (verbatim repeat of #3 above, Reagan 1934:56).
5) Thought they were going to burn the prairie because his father talked about it a lot and he was excited
and a little scared about a big fire, but there was no fire. They didn’t burn it that year. The whitemen
didn’t like them setting fires in the prairies. Later he saw them burning part of Sat’ayaqw (Quillayute
Prairie), but they only burned a small area, burned when the grass was damp and it didn’t make a big fire
(Bill Penn).
6) It was burned every fall to encourage further growth. Mark Willliams was trying to burn the prairie
(hokwalillowot, “burning the prairie) and get matches from a Whiteman. (Hal George, p.44).
7) Yes, they used to burn both prairies so they could get the little bulbs at the bottom like onions. They
would come up after the burn you see and burning (sic). But the principle reason they burned them was
to get the rabbits and things that lived around in this tall grass (Royal Pullen).
8) The Indians knew how to handle fire and it never got away (Mattie Howeattle).
There is now considerable interest in the aboriginal practice of maintaining the prairies by burning. There
seems little doubt that the prairies would not have existed if the native people had not burned them
regularly to keep them open. Both Swan [1861] and Frachtenberg [2:46] mention that the prairies were
surrounded by stands of great hemlock, suggesting that the prairies, as well, would’ve been forested with
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