Indigenous Communities and Wildfires
BY BELLE HU '22
While COVID-19 wreaked havoc behind the scenes, the 2020 California wildfires took center stage, disrupting the lives of many on the West Coast and ravaging over four million acres. And though we all acted as if everything was perfectly normal and returned to our everyday lives, it was rather hard to ignore a glaring problem: California’s ineffective wildfire policy. In fact, the US’s traditional method of putting out fires has actually created a self-defeating cycle. While the last century’s fire-extinguishing efforts have successfully shielded plants from the flames, they have also allowed natural fires to ignite more frequently and ferociously.
Many point out that California’s wildfire policies have backfired (pun-intended), but scientists have looked increasingly towards an Indigenous technique, controlled burning, as a potential solution—that is, fighting fire with fire.
For generations, California’s Indigenous tribes held controlled burnings annually, a cultural practice meant to cultivate the land. These communities intentionally started fires to maintain ecosystem balance, shape prairies, clear dry thickets, and encourage new plant growth. However, when Western settlers arrived, they displaced Indigenous communities and prohibited their religious rituals; consequently, controlled burns largely disappeared.
With the rise of the Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s, the US Army introduced the concept of suppressing unwanted fires, spurred by the millions of acres of land burned during the 1910 Idaho and Montana fires. These new policies threatened to fine Indigenous communities and ranchers for burning their own lands. However, today, these policies of active fire suppression only allow dry vegetation to proliferate, exacerbating California’s wildfires. Scientists and policymakers argue that intentionally burning vegetation could be the most effective solution to lowering risks of wildfire, and legislation promoting the practice would reintroduce and bolster the importance of Indigenous culture.
Unfortunately, the shift in policies favoring controlled burning simultaneously suppressed the Indigeous spirituality embedded in the tradition. The new protocols actually contributed to the systemic erasure of Indigenous cultures, underscoring the true extent of the Native oppression in America. These policies, combined with the mass eviction of Indigenous people and the regulations imposed on Indigenous practices, heighten the colonialist, constrictive treatment of Native inhabitants, which is often forgotten or conveniently overlooked. Although superficially, society boasts of its mending relationship with Indigenous tribes, their exclusion from wildfire discussions emphasizes an underlying trend of violence, often invisible to the naked eye and thus all the more insidious.
However, that is not to say that progress is impossible. As we speak, steps are currently being taken to both mitigate the effect of forest fires and forge alliances with Indigenous communities, including the Forest Service’s recent partnerships with Northern California’s Karuk and Yurok tribes. This may be the best course of action—ceding authority to Indigenous tribes to manage or, at the very least, play a major role in fighting wildfires. Although it’s hard to reconcile centuries of Indigenous suffering, the federal government should strive to include and recognize Indigenous culture, starting with controlled burnings.
Many point out that California’s wildfire policies have backfired (pun-intended), but scientists have looked increasingly towards an Indigenous technique, controlled burning, as a potential solution—that is, fighting fire with fire.
For generations, California’s Indigenous tribes held controlled burnings annually, a cultural practice meant to cultivate the land. These communities intentionally started fires to maintain ecosystem balance, shape prairies, clear dry thickets, and encourage new plant growth. However, when Western settlers arrived, they displaced Indigenous communities and prohibited their religious rituals; consequently, controlled burns largely disappeared.
With the rise of the Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s, the US Army introduced the concept of suppressing unwanted fires, spurred by the millions of acres of land burned during the 1910 Idaho and Montana fires. These new policies threatened to fine Indigenous communities and ranchers for burning their own lands. However, today, these policies of active fire suppression only allow dry vegetation to proliferate, exacerbating California’s wildfires. Scientists and policymakers argue that intentionally burning vegetation could be the most effective solution to lowering risks of wildfire, and legislation promoting the practice would reintroduce and bolster the importance of Indigenous culture.
Unfortunately, the shift in policies favoring controlled burning simultaneously suppressed the Indigeous spirituality embedded in the tradition. The new protocols actually contributed to the systemic erasure of Indigenous cultures, underscoring the true extent of the Native oppression in America. These policies, combined with the mass eviction of Indigenous people and the regulations imposed on Indigenous practices, heighten the colonialist, constrictive treatment of Native inhabitants, which is often forgotten or conveniently overlooked. Although superficially, society boasts of its mending relationship with Indigenous tribes, their exclusion from wildfire discussions emphasizes an underlying trend of violence, often invisible to the naked eye and thus all the more insidious.
However, that is not to say that progress is impossible. As we speak, steps are currently being taken to both mitigate the effect of forest fires and forge alliances with Indigenous communities, including the Forest Service’s recent partnerships with Northern California’s Karuk and Yurok tribes. This may be the best course of action—ceding authority to Indigenous tribes to manage or, at the very least, play a major role in fighting wildfires. Although it’s hard to reconcile centuries of Indigenous suffering, the federal government should strive to include and recognize Indigenous culture, starting with controlled burnings.
