The Cultural Landscape
In the Southern Appalachians, ecological and cultural history have been closely intertwined. Therefore, in order to more effectively document environmental change in the southern mountains, environmental historians must also investigate the two centuries of human history that preceded the eighteenth century frontier. Often celebrated for its unique natural history, the region isalso home to an equally unique cultural history. For more than 800 years humans have lived in permanent settlements among the mountains of Southern Appalachia. Of course, habitation of the mountain region began as early as 10,000 years ago when Woodland Indians first began roaming the upland forest. Largely nomadic, Woodland Indian tribes were relatively small in numbers, so their impact on the overall forest landscape was minimal. Evidence of their former settlements abounds, however. Freshly plowed fields continue to yield ancient spear and arrow points, signifying that small clans of hunters and gatherers had once called the mountain region home. The later Mississippians, Cherokees, and even Spanish, all made important contributions to the environmental history of the Southern Appalachians. The Europeans settlers did not inhabit an empty and unspoiled wilderness; rather, they reoccupied lands made vacant by two centuries of disease, famine, warfare, and natural resource extraction.
The mountains have also shaped the people and culture of the regionand continue to do so today. An environmental history of the Southern Appalachians allowsus not only to seethe full impact of human settlement on the mountain landscape, but also to document the role environmental forces in shaping human actions.
We have recognized five major periods of environmental change in the Southern Appalachians, each of which are explored in greater detail in the following sections:- What is Environmental History? : Defined in the vernacular, environmental history deals with the role and place of nature in human life.
- First Peoples : The first peoples to inhabit the southern Appalachians in permanent settlements were the Mississippians. From 900 to 1200 A.D., Mississippian civilization developed into a network of state-like chiefdoms that reigned over the entire mountain region.
- Cherokee Mountains : The invasion by the Spanish in sixteenth-century Appalachia greatly influenced the social and cultural transformation of the Cherokee Indians, the Native Americans most often associated with the southern Appalachians.
- Frontier Landscapes : Although the southern Appalachians were not settled in a fortnight, European settlement of the region began as early as 1745. Long hunters cleared the first overland routes into the region, and the fur traders and settlers followed afterward.
- First Forests : By the mid-1880s, after railroad lines had fully penetrated the mountain interior, much of the southern Appalachians had become the domain of a dozen or so large timber companies, owned almost exclusively by northern or foreign investors.The timber boom t
Encyclopedia ID: p1520
