When sophomore Brandi Petitt attended the first class of the Native American Forestry course being taught for the first time this spring, she seriously considered dropping it.
The history major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was unsure about the forestry portion of the course, which presents both cultural history and natural resource perspectives of forest management dating back to before 1492. Three classes into the semester, she's glad she stuck around.
"The two topics mesh really well together," Petitt said, adding that normally forestry is not her favorite subject. "I think it's great the way Professor Demchik teaches the nature and timber aspect, then Professor Foret comes in with the history angle."
The course is the brainchild of forestry professor Mike Demchik, who said American Indian management of forests has been largely ignored by historians. Tribes have long used fire in the maintenance of forest and grassland ecosystems, he said.
"A lot of the forest history you see printed starts at the turn of the century," he said, "but there was an awful lot of intentional forestry by Native Americans before then."
Demchik team teaches the course with history professor Michael Foret, who focuses on the cultural lives of American Indian tribes, including the Menominee, from near Shawano, and others from throughout the United States.
"We tend to pigeonhole American Indians into certain categories," Foret said. "I think this is a great way to show that they are real people, not just stereotypes or plastic warriors or things like that. Our students are going to leave our course with a much better appreciation for the complexity and reality of Indians in America and in Wisconsin today."
Foret is using the written records and histories of North America's first European explorers, as well as using the visual evidence from illustrations done in the 1500s.
Demchik said tribes like the Menominee continue to use successful forestry management techniques. "They have about the same volume of standing timber now that they did when they got the reservation," he said. "They basically only harvest the equivalent of new growth."
The history and forestry majors in the class are divided into groups and are required to write 15- to 20-page papers on the forestry techniques of a specific American Indian tribe. These papers, like the paper on the Black Feet tribe Petitt will write about, will be compiled and kept at the UWSP library as well as at tribal college libraries throughout the state.
As Demchik and Foret iron out how best to present the material, they hope this is the first of many semesters the course is offered.
"This is not a one-time course," Foret said. "We plan on doing this regularly."Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
