The Natural Heritage of Indiana

Native Americans lived in Indiana for more than 10,000 years. Except in limited areas around villages, their impact on the landscape was minimal. One exception, however, was fire, which they used to promote plant growth.

In the fall, when tinder was the driest, the Native Americans were said to set the prairies afire, and the horizon glowed at night from the flames of thousands of acres.

It was into this landscape, into this wilderness, that the first settlers rushed. In little more than a century, they transformed the land.

Check out the Indiana State Museum's exhibit "Footprints" ISM What was the area like 10,000 to 11,000 years ago? Where did the big animals go? And what can we learn from our impact on the past that will make us better stewards of our environmental future?

With Footprints: Balancing Nature's Diversity, presented by Central Indiana Land Trust, the Indiana State Museum will trace our state's natural history from the Ice Age to today and beyond, considering how humans and environmental changes have affected ecological diversity and the world we live in. Drawing from the museum's collections, the exhibit answers questions about Indiana's past, shows the animals' overwhelming size and number, and suggests what it might have been like to walk among them.
Explore the online exhibit »

Our Hoosier State Beneath Us: Newspaper articles about a variety of topics related to Indiana's Natural Heritage This series of 155 brief illustrated articles is part of a set of about 250 such articles produced by the Indiana Geological Survey between 1974 and 1984. The articles were distributed to and printed by newspapers all over Indiana. The topics range from coal to paleontology to people to geology. There is even a keyword search tool and a full table of contents. Browse Articles »

Early human impact on Indiana

Minimal impact by Native Americans was replaced with transformation by newcomers

NHI Documentary

NHI Project