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Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources Paperback – October 10, 2013

by M. Kat Anderson (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 286 ratings
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A complex look at California Native ecological practices as a model for environmental sustainability and conservation. 

John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today—that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts.

M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.
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  1. Print length
    558 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of California Press
  4. Publication date
    October 10, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0520280431
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0520280434
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"This is a highly significant one might argue revolutionary book. It, and the author's previous research, has the potential to completely change the way western land managers relate to the land and the resources they are trying to regulate. Even more, it has the power to influence the way that all of us approach Nature and will reinforce the importance of Native Americans and the sophistication of their knowledge." Nancy J. Turner, University of Victoria

"Tending the Wild is an enormously rich and highly readable text on the remarkably diverse land management techniques practiced by California Indians over millennia. This book serves as an invaluable resource as we strive to conserve California's enormous cultural and biotic heritage in the new century. A triumph!" Michael H. Horn, California State University Fullerton

"Tending the Wild supports the little-known fact that Indian groups in California historically practiced a kind of "environmental bonsai" through their centuries long management activities. Kat Anderson's work is timely and will make an important contribution toward a better understanding of the historic ecologies of North America." Greg Cajete, University of New Mexico

From the Back Cover

"This is a highly significant―one might argue revolutionary―book. It, and the author's previous research, has the potential to completely change the way western land managers relate to the land and the resources they are trying to regulate. Even more, it has the power to influence the way that all of us approach Nature and will reinforce the importance of Native Americans and the sophistication of their knowledge."―Nancy J. Turner, University of Victoria

"Tending the Wild is an enormously rich and highly readable text on the remarkably diverse land management techniques practiced by California Indians over millennia. This book serves as an invaluable resource as we strive to conserve California's enormous cultural and biotic heritage in the new century. A triumph!"―Michael H. Horn, California State University Fullerton

"Tending the Wild supports the little-known fact that Indian groups in California historically practiced a kind of "environmental bonsai" through their centuries long management activities. Kat Anderson's work is timely and will make an important contribution toward a better understanding of the historic ecologies of North America."―Greg Cajete, University of New Mexico

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (October 10, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 558 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520280431
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520280434
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 286 ratings

About the author

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Kat Anderson

Kat Anderson

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Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
286 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book informative and insightful, highlighting a type of proto-agriculture that is superior to modern agriculture. They also describe the writing style as courageous and inspirational.

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ContentWriting style
22 customers mention "Content"22 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative, thorough, and interesting. They also say it has much to teach about building a more sacred society and highlights a type of proto-agriculture that is superior to modern agriculture.

"...People Buy This Book, You will love, learn and appreciate the gift!!" Read more

"...It's an essential book for pilgrims who strive to envision the long and rugged path back home to wildness, freedom, and sustainability...." Read more

"Anderson provides a very descriptive and well-researched account of California's flora, fauna and native inhabitants...." Read more

"...It is an amazingly detailed and researched book.The book squashes firmly the idea of innocent, unsophisticated savages roaming..." Read more

8 customers mention "Writing style"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing style insightful, thoughtful, and detailed. They also describe the book as a courageous and inspirational account of our ancestors.

"...were essentially Native American gardens.I also like very much the details, from tending to production of usefule..." Read more

"...Excellent read and overall information. Thoughtful" Read more

"...generation California farmer, I found this book to be a courageous and inspirational account of what our ancestors encountered on their arrival into..." Read more

"...A beautiful book 📖 that all should read. Respect the land and it will respect you back...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

KATIE MAE..RMKDRM
5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024
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thank you so much for writing this book for me! People Buy This Book, You will love, learn and appreciate the gift!!
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Richard Reese (author of Understanding Sustainability)
5.0 out of 5 stars A very important book
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2011
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"Nature really misses us," laments M. Kat Anderson. "We no longer have a relationship with plants and animals, and that's the reason why they're going away." Anderson is the author of Tending the Wild, in which she describes the relationships that California Indians have with the plants and animals, the rocks and streams, the sacred land which is their ancient home. It's an essential book for pilgrims who strive to envision the long and rugged path back home to wildness, freedom, and sustainability.

In medieval Europe, hungry dirty peasant farmers succeeded in painstakingly perfecting a miserable, laborious, backbreaking form of agriculture that depleted the soil, and produced minimal yields with erratic inconsistency. They were malnourished, unhealthy, and most of them died young -- whilst the lords and ladies, who claimed to own the land, wallowed in a rich sludge of glitter and gluttony.

When European explorers arrived in California, they discovered half-naked heathen barbarians who were exceedingly healthy, and enjoyed an abundance of nourishing wild foods that they acquired without sweat or toil. Clearly, these savages were people who suffered from a lack of civilization's elevated refinements: agriculture, smallpox, uncomfortable ugly clothing, brutal enslavement, and religious enlightenment from priests who preached the virtues of love, but practiced exploitive racist cruelty.

In 1868, Titus Fey Cronise wrote that when whites arrived, the land of California was "filled with elk, deer, hares, rabbits, quail, and other animals fit for food; the rivers and lakes swarming with salmon, trout, and other fish, their beds and banks covered with mussels, clams, and other edible mollusca; the rocks on its sea shores crowded with seal and otter; and its forests full of trees and plants, bearing acorns, nuts, seeds, and berries."

The greed-crazed Europeans went absolutely berserk, rapidly destroying whatever could be converted into money: forests, waterfowl, whales, deer, elk, salmon, gold nuggets. Grizzly bear meat was offered at most restaurants. There were fortunes to be made, the supply of valuable resources was "inexhaustible," and the foolish Indians were so lazy that they let all of this wealth go to waste.

There were 500 to 600 different tribes in California, speaking many different languages. In North America, the population density of California Indians was second only to the Aztec capitol of Mexico City. They lived quite successfully by hunting, fishing, and foraging -- without domesticated plants or animals, without plowing or herding, without fortified cities, authoritarian rulers, perpetual warfare, horrid sanitation, or epidemics of contagious disease. The Indians found the Europeans to be incredibly peculiar. The Pit River people called them enellaaduwi -- wanderers -- homeless people with no attachment to the land or its creatures.

The bulk of Tending the Wild describes how the California Indians tended the land. They did not merely wander across the countryside in hopes of randomly discovering plant and animal foods. They had an intimate, sacred relationship with the land, and they tended it in order to encourage the health of their closest relatives -- the plant and animal communities upon which they depended.

Fires were periodically set to clear away brush, promote the growth of grasses and herbs, and increase the numbers of larger game animals. Burning significantly altered the ecosystem on a massive scale, but it didn't lead to the creation of barren wastelands over time, like agriculture continues to do, at an ever-accelerating rate. California has a long dry season, and wildfires sparked by lightening are a normal occurrence in this ecosystem.

Nuts, grains, and seeds are a very useful source of food. They're rich in oils, calories, and protein. They can be stored for long periods, enabling survival through lean seasons and lean years. The quantity of acorns foraged each year was not regular and dependable, but many were gathered in years of abundance. A diverse variety of wildflowers and grasses can provide a dependable supply of seeds and grains.

The Indians tended the growth of important plants in a number of ways -- pruning, weeding, burning, watering, replanting bulbs, sowing seeds. Communities of cherished plants were deliberately expanded the size. The Indians were blessed with a complete lack of advanced Old World technology. They luckily had no draft animals or plows, so their soil-disturbing activities were mostly limited to small tobacco gardens, prepared with digging sticks.

Today, countless ecosystems are being ravaged by agriculture. A few visionaries, like Wes Jackson at the Land Institute, are working to develop a far less destructive mode of farming, based on mechanically harvesting the grain from perennial plants. This research is a slow process, and success is not expected any time soon.

California Indians developed a brilliant, time-proven, sustainable system for producing seeds and grain without degrading the ecosystem. So did the wild rice gatherers of the Great Lakes region. They built no cities, and they did not suffer from the misery and monotony of civilization. They had no powerful leaders, ruling classes, or legions of exploited slaves. They were not warlike societies. Their ecosystems were clean and healthy. They lived like real human beings -- wild, free, and happy.

Tending the Wild is an important book. It presents us with stories of a way of life that worked, and worked remarkably well. This is precious knowledge for us to contemplate, as our own society is rapidly circling the drain, and our need for remembering healthy old ideas has never been greater.

Richard Adrian Reese
Author of What Is Sustainable
31 people found this helpful
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Sean Dixon-Sullivan
5.0 out of 5 stars Traditional Ecological Knowledge, a critique of our modern ways
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
Anderson provides a very descriptive and well-researched account of California's flora, fauna and native inhabitants. She portrays natives as active managers of their environment. Through thousands of years of pruning, sowing, weeding, burning and sustainable harvesting, California had evolved into a lush, productive ecosystem. That is, until its destruction by Western settlers, and the starving and murdering of the native population from 310,000 down to 15,000.

But prior to that, during twelve-thousand years of human habitation, the oak-forests, salmon streams and shrublands had all adapted to human management.

That is why today, if we wish to restore ecological health and abundance, we cannot simply isolate nature into "preserves." That is merely another side of the same coin that had us pillaging and destroying nature in the first place: the coin that says humans are separate from nature. Instead, Anderson concludes, we must rediscover traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and reinstate native management practices.

The one issue I have with this otherwise very well-written and informative book, is one of her presumptions. She insists we "non-natives" help restore ecosystems, so that "natives" can return to gathering medicinal herbs, to making straw baskets, to living traditionally. I'm no expert on modern demographics, but I think it's a bit stereotypical to suggest a lifestyle to someone based solely on their ethnic background. I'm sure these days there are people of native descent would NOT prefer that lifestyle, and some people of non-native descent who would!

Anyway, such conclusions are part of the relatively tiny Chapter 3. The bulk of the book is chapter 2, which details the native management techniques, divided into sections such as basketry from grasses, arrows from trees, above-ground foods, below-ground foods, etc. Chapter 1 introduces the land and people prior to colonization, then gives a chronology of the colonization and degradation.

I highly recommend this book for any students of history, anthropology, agroecology or restoration ecology, or for anyone interested in an mind-opening critique of modern "civilization."
67 people found this helpful
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Donald W. West
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing volume and detail; a bible in the field.
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2011
Verified Purchase
Blown away by the 360+ pages of "Tending the Wild' by Anderson.
It is an amazingly detailed and researched book.

The book squashes firmly the idea of innocent, unsophisticated savages roaming
carefree in a garden prepared by nature in a balance that included not affecting
it in any significant way. Instead the book shows how better science, including
anthropology, paints a picture of Native Americans in California carefully and
industriously tending and improving their patch of "nature" to keep it
productive for the human harvest of plants, animals, and fungi. What we see now
as nature is the untended, weed-filled, stunted, and overgrown remnants of what
were essentially Native American gardens.

I also like very much the details, from tending to production of usefule
articles to cooking and eating. I am learning many new things! Right now I am
particularly struck by the various things used to season food for salt, sweet,
sour, etc.

Definitely will re-read and add some notes about things
that did not make the index. Over 100 pages of footnotes referencing
documentation! A huge amount of detailed how-they-did-it and why-they-did-it
information readily adapted to current "primitive" practices. Highly
recommended.
31 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

avid reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and interesting
Reviewed in Canada on September 17, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is a unique informative book that provides us a window into our collective past. That period of time when we were in transition from hunter gatherer to settlement style agriculture. There is a treasure trove of researched topics and with some speculation regarding what species of plant was being managed. There is some disturbing historical writings recorded of early settlers disrespectful and ignorant attitude towards the native Americans management practices. I do believe that all of us had ancestors in our not so distant past, who surely practiced very similar techniques. This book is recommended for people interested in early agricultural history, in agroforestry and permaculture.
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Clem
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
Outstanding - must be the definitive work on the subject.
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