Fire in the Woods: Images of Tribal Forestry in Eastern Washington - HistoryLink.org

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Fire in the Woods: Images of Tribal Forestry in Eastern Washington

By Jack Nisbet
Posted 6/12/2025
HistoryLink.org Essay 23302

David Thompson's Trade Route by Jason Blake, 2005, Courtesy Bennett Communications

View of Snake River at mouth of Tukanon showing Fort Taylor and Peaks Taylor and Gaston, by Gustavus Sohon, 1858, Courtesy Library of Congress

Mountain Trail Probably Approaching McGillivray's (Kootenay) River, by Henry James Warre, July 1845, Courtesy Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1971-86

Looking for a Ford, McGillivray's (Kootenay) River, by Henry James Warre, 1845, Courtesy Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1965-76-9

Falls of the Kootenay (ak-kaph-kleh) From Near the Trail, by James Madison Allen, 1857–1862, Courtesy National Archives (102278920)

Spokan Plains nears Plants House Camp, by Charles Wilson, May 22, 1861, Courtesy Royal BC Museum and Archives PDP03201

Spokane Falls, 1874-1890, Photo by Carleton E. Watkins, Courtesy Mammoth Plate Photographs of the North American West, Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Camp on the Spokane River, by Gustavus Sohon, September 6, 1859, Courtesy Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections

Four Ponderosa Pines in a Forest Near Spokane, 1915, Photo by Asahel Curtis, Courtesy Washington State Historical Society (1943.42.32934)

Mission Station of Walker and Eells, Spokane River, by Paul Kane, 1847, Courtesy Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas Bequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965 31.78.69

Deer Drive, Coeur d'Alene Lake, by Nicolas Point, 1840s, Courtesy The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada / Archives des jésuites au Canada, GLC BO-43.S7.3.61

Western White Pine, Pinus monticola, by Almyr Lambert, 1833, Courtesy A Description of the Genus Pinus, Vol. 3. George White; H. Weddell, 1837

Dwarf Mistletoe, Arceuthobium sp, byWilliam Jackson Hooker, 1829, Flora Boreali-americana, Vol. 1. London : H.G. Bohn, 1829

Columbia River 50 Miles Below Colville, by Paul Kane, 1847, Courtesy Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas Bequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965 31.78.4

Columbia River, the Grand Rapid, Colville, by Paul Kane, 1840s, Courtesy of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Toronto, Canada. ©ROM

The Kettle Falls, by Paul Kane, 1847, Courtesy Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas Bequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965 31.78.68

Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest have used fire to manage the land around them for thousands of years. The concept of reciprocal nurture, or "taking care" of a place so that the land could provide for the people in turn, has been part of this fire dynamic since time immemorial. In this pictorial essay for HistoryLink, Spokane author and historian Jack Nisbet explores tribal burning practices on the east side of the Cascades. Click on the image of the map above to get started.

More: Images of Tribal Forestry in Western Washington

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