Abstract

Despite recent interest in the North American Holocene fire record, evidence for the deliberate burning of prairie by Plains hunter-gatherers has not previously been demonstrated. Through the analysis of phytoliths preserved in a sequence of dated paleosols in the Lauder Sandhills, Southwestern Manitoba, a local grassland fire record is reconstructed for the past   4000 years. Rather than suggesting climatic 'forcing', an apparent peak in fire frequency shortly after   2500 BP may correspond to the deliberate burning of prairie by Sonota-Besant hunter-gatherers. This practice, which is clearly documented in the historic record, may have functioned as a means of making bison herd movements more predictable.