SMOKE & FIRE SIGNALS
The first recorded use of smoke signals comes from the 3rd Century BC in China when an elaborate system of beacon towers was set up in conjunction with the “Great Wall”. Warning could be given along the wall of approaching enemies over long distances. The smoke (during the day) or the fire (at night) could be seen over 400 miles away.
Hollywood “wild west” movies frequently portrayed Indians signalling to one another with puffs of smoke from fires stoked with grass and generated by blanket-smothering (and also signalling with broken pieces of mirror salvaged from somewhere in some instances). The question arises (often the case for many things seen in such movies) as to how accurate these portrayals might be.
Painting by Frederic Remington
The journals of Lewis and Clark describe several occasions when they adopted what is suggested as the Native American method of setting the plains on fire to communicate the presence of their party or their desire to meet with local tribes. The more interesting question is whether sophisticated signalling beyond simple “I’m here” or “someone’s coming” messages have any tradition of use.
Ward Beers has compiled a comprehensive summary of the evidence for “line of sight” signalling among Native Americans in “Fire and Smoke: Ethnographic and Archaeological Evidence for Line-of-Sight Signaling in North America” for which the abstract reads:
“The use of long distance communication through signaling by the native inhabitants of North America is documented both ethnographically and archaeologically. While the use of long-distance and line-of-sight signaling may be most applicable to sedentary societies under stress, its documented use by nomadic and semi-nomadic groups indicates that use of such signaling systems may well extend back to the first appearance of humans in the Americas. The information in this article is the product of thesis research regarding line-of-sight communication in the Jumanos pueblo cluster of central New Mexico. Early on in the research the apparent lack of ethnographic or archaeological evidence for communication by visual means such as fires, flashes, or smoke raised the question of whether such communication was simply the product of Hollywood westerns. Continued research, however, revealed the sources in this article. While this article contains no new information regarding long distance visual communication in North America, and particularly the Southwest, my hope is that the compilation of information in one source may be of use to researchers in the future.”
You can read the full paper here (but you need to register if you want to download it):
http://www.academia.edu/6848514/Fire..._North_America
Mode of Signalling
There seems to have been no universal “language” for the meaning of smoke signals and the number or size of puffs of smoke may have been pre-agreed between the sender and receiver – perhaps even for specific occasions and circumstances. Signals would have been visible to friend and foe alike, so a cryptic meaning was in many ways desirable.
There were however some commonalities across many tribes in that – for simple messaging – a single puff of smoke was usually a call for attention, two puffs were usually a sign that all was well and three puffs were usually a warning, danger or distress signal/call for help.
Although messaging by smoke was not generally complex, puffs of smoke could be (and sometimes were) manipulated into spiral, zig-zag and other forms as well as bursts of different length. The colour of the smoke could also be altered to some degree according to what was being burnt.
Smoke Signalling by the Yamana/Yaghan People
In South America, it is also recorded that the Yaghan-speaking Yamana people of Tierra del Fuego on the southern-most tip of the continent used smoke-signalling for purposes such as advertising the presence of a beached whale. Wider notification that a plentiful source of food and other resources had arrived was needed quickly so that the carcass could be harvested before it began to rot.
They may have also used smoke signals for other communication purposes. The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan first named the region the “land of smoke”, later changed to “land of fire” (Tierra del Fuego), inspired by what he believed were many signalling fires spreading the (probably quite alarming) news of his arrival off the coast.
The first recorded use of smoke signals comes from the 3rd Century BC in China when an elaborate system of beacon towers was set up in conjunction with the “Great Wall”. Warning could be given along the wall of approaching enemies over long distances. The smoke (during the day) or the fire (at night) could be seen over 400 miles away.
Hollywood “wild west” movies frequently portrayed Indians signalling to one another with puffs of smoke from fires stoked with grass and generated by blanket-smothering (and also signalling with broken pieces of mirror salvaged from somewhere in some instances). The question arises (often the case for many things seen in such movies) as to how accurate these portrayals might be.
Painting by Frederic Remington
The journals of Lewis and Clark describe several occasions when they adopted what is suggested as the Native American method of setting the plains on fire to communicate the presence of their party or their desire to meet with local tribes. The more interesting question is whether sophisticated signalling beyond simple “I’m here” or “someone’s coming” messages have any tradition of use.
Ward Beers has compiled a comprehensive summary of the evidence for “line of sight” signalling among Native Americans in “Fire and Smoke: Ethnographic and Archaeological Evidence for Line-of-Sight Signaling in North America” for which the abstract reads:
“The use of long distance communication through signaling by the native inhabitants of North America is documented both ethnographically and archaeologically. While the use of long-distance and line-of-sight signaling may be most applicable to sedentary societies under stress, its documented use by nomadic and semi-nomadic groups indicates that use of such signaling systems may well extend back to the first appearance of humans in the Americas. The information in this article is the product of thesis research regarding line-of-sight communication in the Jumanos pueblo cluster of central New Mexico. Early on in the research the apparent lack of ethnographic or archaeological evidence for communication by visual means such as fires, flashes, or smoke raised the question of whether such communication was simply the product of Hollywood westerns. Continued research, however, revealed the sources in this article. While this article contains no new information regarding long distance visual communication in North America, and particularly the Southwest, my hope is that the compilation of information in one source may be of use to researchers in the future.”
You can read the full paper here (but you need to register if you want to download it):
http://www.academia.edu/6848514/Fire..._North_America
Mode of Signalling
There seems to have been no universal “language” for the meaning of smoke signals and the number or size of puffs of smoke may have been pre-agreed between the sender and receiver – perhaps even for specific occasions and circumstances. Signals would have been visible to friend and foe alike, so a cryptic meaning was in many ways desirable.
There were however some commonalities across many tribes in that – for simple messaging – a single puff of smoke was usually a call for attention, two puffs were usually a sign that all was well and three puffs were usually a warning, danger or distress signal/call for help.
Although messaging by smoke was not generally complex, puffs of smoke could be (and sometimes were) manipulated into spiral, zig-zag and other forms as well as bursts of different length. The colour of the smoke could also be altered to some degree according to what was being burnt.
Smoke Signalling by the Yamana/Yaghan People
In South America, it is also recorded that the Yaghan-speaking Yamana people of Tierra del Fuego on the southern-most tip of the continent used smoke-signalling for purposes such as advertising the presence of a beached whale. Wider notification that a plentiful source of food and other resources had arrived was needed quickly so that the carcass could be harvested before it began to rot.
They may have also used smoke signals for other communication purposes. The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan first named the region the “land of smoke”, later changed to “land of fire” (Tierra del Fuego), inspired by what he believed were many signalling fires spreading the (probably quite alarming) news of his arrival off the coast.
Comment