ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I review facets of historical ecology in archaeology and its applications to archaeologies of colonialism. I present a case study from southern Southwestern North America illustrating how historical ecology can be used to better understand Indigenous land use and knowledge in the colonial period. First, I review historical ecological approaches toward seasonality, animal agency, and deep time and how these approaches affect perspectives of Indigenous persistence and agency in the Americas. The case study uses carbon and oxygen isotope assays to study impacts of livestock on water and plant resources of the Sonoran Desert. The case study on historical ecology incorporates environmental proxies with local ecology and colonial labor demands of the Tohono O’odham. The review and case study demonstrate how enmeshed colonial developments were in long-term Indigenous relationships with local ecology and highlight the ways archaeology can be used to explore those relationships.
