Forgotten landscapes : how Native Americans created the Pre-Columbian world and what we can learn from it / Stanley A Rice.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rice, Stanley A., 1957- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Antiquities.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--History.

North America--Civilization.

North America.

Physical Description:

v, 240 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Essex, Connecticut : Prometheus Books, [2025]

Summary:

"Rediscover the thriving civilizations of Pre-Columbian America and learn how Native ingenuity transformed the landscape into a flourishing world we can still learn from today. North America was not empty nor were its inhabitants savages when Europeans arrived in 1492. Quite the opposite, North America was thickly populated by indigenous people who lived in clean cities, had a thriving economy, and transformed the landscape into bountiful productivity. Forgotten Landscapes reveals the incredible extent to which Native Americans manipulated and shaped their surrounding environs through agricultural practices and urban engineering, resulting in one of the most prosperous civilizations of their time. Well before European contact, North American cities and villages were bound together by an intricate trade network. Today, Spiro Mound in rural Oklahoma is a few piles of dirt, not on the road to anywhere. But at the time of the Mississippian civilization, about a thousand years ago, it was one of the largest cities in the world. With the controlled use of fire, Native Americans had transformed thick forests into open woodlands and expanded the ranges of prairies. Through organized hunting, Natives controlled the populations of prey animals such as passenger pigeons, and when Native populations grew large enough, they developed agriculture including irrigated crops, and even orchards. In this fascinating and overdue book, author Stanley A. Rice shows readers the Pre-Columbian landscape of America that has been largely forgotten."-- Amazon.com.

Contents:

Introduction: The view from Mantle Rock

Welcome to America : before 1492

Forgotten fires : how natives used fire to manage the landscape

Masters of the hunt : how native hunting and fishing controlled animal populations

Farm or forest? Agriculture in prehistoric America

The blessings of water : irrigation in prehistoric America

Little paradises : orchards in prehistoric Native America

European diseases : the beginning of the end of Native America

A toxic paradise : the San Joaquin Valley as the ultimate white monoculture dream

Toward a healthier world, with a little help from your local natives

Epilogue: What we have lost, and what we can regain.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-226) and index.

ISBN:

9781493088669

1493088661

OCLC:

1499140748

Publisher Number:

90102160903