Brown Bag History: Anthropologist Sean Dunham

Learning from the Trees: fire history and cultural burning on Star Island

Sean Dunham, PhD RPA

Heritage Program Manager, Chippewa National Forest

The Chippewa National Forest is engaged in a collaborative partnership involving the Leech Lake Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Leech Lake Tribal College, and the University of Minnesota. We are exploring fire history across the Leech Lake Reservation and the National Forest.  The most complete part of the project so far is on Star Island, Windigoominis in Ojibwe, where we have a tree ring chronology that extends back to the 1670s.  The fire history is being collected through dendrochronology and the data is suggesting that the forest on Star Island, and in other parts of the National Forest, were created and maintained over time by Ojibwe people. This presentation will provide an overview of the project and where we are in the process to date.

Sean is the Heritage Program Manager at the Chippewa National Forest. His research interests revolve around the relationship between people, their culture, and their environment in the Northwoods of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Before his career with the Forest Service, he worked in the private sector as a heritage consultant working on a variety of heritage-related projects.  Sean holds a PhD in anthropology from Michigan State University.