Presents preliminary results of a two-year study examining the pattern of Indian fires in western Montana's lower elevation forests. Interviews and historic journals were used to reconstruct the characteristics of aboriginal burning. Fire scar data from paired stands indicate substantial differences in fire frequency between Indian habitation zones and remote areas before 1860. Fire frequency between the paired stands varied during the settlement period (1861-1910), and fire frequency has been markedly reduced in most stands since the advent of organized fire suppression after 1910.