Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England

Abstract

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. By William Cronon. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2003. 288 pages. $15.00 (paperback). William Cronon's work, Changes in the Land, is one of the foremost scholarly works in environmental history and an essential read for those studying New England. As a foundation piece, if not the cornerstone, of the discipline, this book sets forth the idea that cultural and social structures in colonial New England were shaped by the environment in such a way that it is necessary to study the land to understand the people. The twentieth anniversary edition includes a forward by John Demos, a notable interdisciplinary historian in his own right. The evidence of this book's worth begins in the preface as Cronon explains his methodology and the importance of understanding his use of terms such as Indian. Part I describes the common error of understanding the land as pristine before European arrival, and the root of that error in nineteenthcentury Enlightenment intellectuals. Henry David Thoreau, William Wood, and Benjamin Rush wrote in such a way that the environment was idealized. In addition, Cronon seeks to dispel the myth of the Indian as the original environmentalist and instead proposes that Indian populations did as much to change the land as European colonists but in different ways. Part II contains the majority of Cronon's argument. Chapters two and three set the stage for European arrival. Using the observations of individuals including John Smith, the land is described as a patchwork of environments created by Indian interactions with the land and natural formations. Cronon analyses the ways in which the Indian people of northern New England and southern New England adapted their food, housing, transportation, habitats, and other key aspects of survival and culture to the rhythm of the seasons and maintained a population that could be supported by the total annual resources. Chapters four and five deal with the European concepts of land use and ownership as well as how they affected the land. Not understanding the seasonal and migratory patterns of Indian populations, the Europeans developed the concept that Indians had not improved the land and therefore did not own the land. Creating stationary settlements, which cleared large swaths of farmland, changed the environment in such a way that over the ensuing decades - animal populations would also change - influencing the resources available to both Indians and Europeans. Cronon also addresses the fur trade, and while Europeans may have created the demand, both Indians and Europeans participated in the trade and its destruction of animal populations. …