“We are returning it to that open walkable space that looks like it’s cared for and loved – not that overgrown tangled mess that we’re currently faced with.”
Margo Robbins
Yurok Cultural Fire Management Council
The Yuroks are the largest Native American people in California, but until recently they had few deer to hunt and little hazel from which to make the baskets that once played a major role in their culture. Even the fish in their river suffered from lack of landscape burning.
That changed when tribal member Margo Robbins began working with others to create fire partnerships. Her vision, good humor, and wisdom are on impressive display in a recent podcast.
The whole podcast is well worth listening to, but here are some summaries and excerpts:
The Yuroks were not too proud to study with state, federal, and Nature Conservancy fire managers who had more recent burn experience and credibility with regulators than the Yuroks. Even so, how likely was it that Native Americans might get authority to burn their own way? The answer seems to have had a lot to do with personal skills; it took vision and perseverance on Robbins’ part … and also on the part of the government staff folks. As Robbins describes the need:
“There is such a deficit of fire on the land that there is no way government agencies can ever catch up. We need to expand the pool who know how to do it safely.”
The Yurok trained, passed tests, volunteered with certified fire managers, and earned the confidence of decision-makers. Now, on tribal lands, the Yurok decide who’s capable of leading burns without day-to-day government approvals. They don’t wear special uniforms or clothes unless needed. A breadth of people, from young to elders, take part.
At some sites, which the Yurok know well, little control is needed:
“When fire gets to those shady damp places, it just goes out.”
When asked what the benefits have been, Robbins laughs merrily and reports:
“I love this question! We have seen such amazing changes on our landscape since we started burning, and it’s just been a little bit more than ten years. But all of the places that we’ve burned – there are deer there. Before we started, the young men would have to go off the reservation and risk big penalties for hunting off reservation, to bring deer home to feed their family. And now they just go to the places where we’ve burned, and they’ll bring home a deer. We have noticed differences in the water table, where before, towards the end of summer, things would be very dry. … The creeks are increasing their flows, so those burns that rely on wet, damp places throughout the year, they are becoming more plentiful. That’s huge.”
“We have so much hazel that we can invite our neighboring tribes to come and gather with us.”
She rejoices to see more babies carried in traditional hazel baskets, and a renaissance of functional and artistic basket-making generally, as well as people with fire management jobs, and a deepening of culture and meaningfulness. Fire empowerment has changed goals and initiative.
“We see people changing their lifestyles because they have an opportunity to do something so meaningful in the community that their old habits and lifestyles no longer suit who they are.”
Is traditional knowledge sufficient?
“Working with fire is a never-ending learning experience. Even if the knowledge of how our ancestors burned came to us fully intact, we would still have to adjust the way we do it because of climate change … and also because of the lack of fire being on the landscape for over 100 years, it is so very different … compared to what our ancestors did when they burned every year.”
About her longer-term vision, Robbins said:
“I see us with our partners taking care of our entire ancestral territory with fire. The Yurok people don’t own a lot of the land. A good portion of it is owned by Forest Service and Parks. So it’s important to partner with those other entities that have jurisdiction over some of the land. So I see those partnerships becoming more solid. Also with the Parks, we have a pretty good relationship with them now. We go down there and burn with them, and they come up and burn with us.”
Only 3% of Yurok former prairie survives with a big reduction of the elk that depend on it.
“I see herds of elk on our homelands. … I see our workforce and equipment increasing. I look forward to the time when we don’t have to get permits from CalFire. That the tribe establishes and claims their full sovereign authority over what we do with our homelands. So, yeah, big dreams! (laughs)”
It’s fun and an honor to be able to learn from such folks.
Photo Credits
First photo: Elizabeth Azzuz
Second photo: A still from "Fire Tender" - part of the "Local, USA" series
Third photo: KNAU News and Talk
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