Letter from Virginia Simmons
Wildfire – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Your July issue included a timely article by Allen Best, with a mix of facts and opinions about the history of wildfire in Colorado. Whereas some of the opinions seemed well supported, I wish to point out one which set off some sparks in my head.
My issue is with an opinion ascribed to Jerry Chonka, a fire management officer for public lands around Gunnison. According to Mr. Best: “In Chonka’s theory, the Utes set fires to grasslands to encourage regeneration. Fresh grass drew bison and elk, and he also sees fire benefiting bighorn sheep, and hence the Utes. ‘It’s my opinion that this basin was a sea of grass, and the Indians managed it for buffalo.’ [Emphasis provided by Simmons.] He sees a similar fire regime in South Park.”
In my historical research and writing about Ute Indians and Colorado, including South Park, I have found no evidence that Ute Indians deliberately used fire to manage resources for wildlife, except to drive game. In fact, as I attempt now to picture Indians managing prescribed burns on grasslands on a scale large enough to benefit bison, I find the scenario very hard to imagine. In contrast, I can easily picture fires, set for many other purposes, that escaped and caused wildfires which improved some natural resources.
When theories are presented, they need solid evidence to substantiate them. To suggest that Indians were models for today’s theories about land management seems to involve more romantic, wishful thinking than useful information. Chonka’s opinion, reinforced by Mr. Best’s repetition of it, does not help objectivity in the history either of fire in the American West or of American Indians.
Virginia Simmons
Del Norte
