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

Appendix 3
Evidence of Indian Burning on the Ozette Prairies
of Olympic National Park
From Colson’s Abstract Field Notes and Newspaper Articles
Anthropologist Elizabeth Colson (1941-1944) interviewed Alice Kalappa (Makah) in the early
1940s about Ozette Settlements and Ms. Kalappa said: “They used to burn the berry grounds, after they
had picked the berries. And the cranberry marsh, they would burn that to have a good marsh to keep the
trees out. Now there are lots of trees on the marsh because nobody takes care of it anymore.”
“Old settlers say the prairies such as Forks, Quillayute, Beaver and Ozette, were Indian hunting
grounds. They believe the clearings were first caused by lightningset forest fires. Then when the ferns
grew up and become dry in the fall, the Indians set them afire. After a few years all the charred stumps
and logs were consumed and no second-growth trees had a chance to grow. Grass came up and the deer
and elk came there to feed. The Indians built platforms in the trees at the edge of the clearings and shot
the animals with bows and arrows as they congregated on the prairie” (Anonymous 1953).
“Explanations of small and large prairies in the peninsula area was given by Keller, who claims the clear-
ings were made by Indian fires. The Indians burned off the timber so they could more readily kill the elk
and deer by hiding in the timber along the edges of the clearing and shooting the animals with their short
range bows and arrows. Each year for years the underbrush was burned over so that eventually there was
a natural open meadow on which grass grew. There was no heavy underbrush or trees left in the tracts
and the game congregated there to feed” (Henson 1940).
“Although listed on the maps as ‘prairie,’ Ahlstrom stated his clearing was an area burned over
by the Indians before his arrival.... He back-packs his supplies in by trail from the end of the road where
Emil Pearson [sic] leaves them for him. Pearson [sic] takes his orders for supplies into Clallam Bay”
(Haugland 1946).
“There already was a clearing here when Lars came in 1902. The Ozette Indians, who had a vil-
lage on the ocean beach a mile to the west, had kept the area burned over for a cattle range. There was an
old native hut, too, in which Lars lived while he gathered material for his present home. He got along fine
with the Ozettes, and bought salvaged drift-boards and planks from them with which to build. And after
he got settled and had acquired four cows, he traded butter and garden truck with the Indians for fish
and game” (Bertelson 1948).
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