PRESENTATION: The First, Best Stewards - Aboriginal Fire and the Klamath-Siskiyous

Photos (from left to right): Inter-tribal ecocultural team employed by Lomakatsi completes restorative thinning to prepare an oak woodland for prescribed fire in south Douglas County. Following thinning of conifers, an understory burn conducted by inter-tribal fire crew in an oak woodland. Acorn grinding area in the Ajumawi Band area of the Ajumawi-Atusge Nation (Pit River Tribe), where active ecocultural stewardship continues.

The peoples native to southern Oregon and northern California have been using fire as an ecological caretaking tool since time immemorial. This panel will explore topics including the cultural landscape of the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion, fire ecology, indigenous stewardship practices, colonialism and its impact on the land and people, and climate change impacts. Learn how Native American tribes and tribal communities are leading landscape-scale ecological restoration partnerships in the region and incorporating traditional knowledge and ecocultural practices into restoration forestry work that sets the stage for carefully applied, controlled fire.

Panelists:

Dan Wahpepah, Founder/Co-Director, Red Earth Descendants, Aanishinaabe Kiikaapoa - Meskwaki

Margo Robbins, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Cultural Fire Management Council, Yurok Tribe

Elizabeth Azzuz, Board of Directors Secretary, Cultural Fire Management Council, Yurok Tribe

Richard F. O’Rourke III, Fire Coordinator for the Cultural Fire Management Council, Yurok Tribe

Doug Bird, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University

Moderator:

Belinda Brown, Tribal Partnership Manager, Lomakatsi, Kosealekte Band -Ajumawi-Atsuge Nation (Pit River Tribe)

Presented in Partnership with:

RED EARTH DESCENDANTS