Happy publication day, everyone!

Me in 2021: “The landscape needs less frequent wildfire [but] carefully planned, well-timed, appropriately scaled, deliberate, cultural fires are far too infrequent in Southern California chaparral… It is time to attend to & listen to Indigenous cultural practitioners, to cherish them, to pay them.”

“Fire was certainly the greatest tool used by the Kumeyaay & other tribes in California. Fire opened up land covered with the dominant chaparral. This allowed the transitional plants useful for foods and medicines to become available [and] attracted game animals used for food, clothing & utilities.”

Short 🧵

Somebody needs to tell Chris Rufo about the politically conservative defenders of Tribal sovereignty who work in the world of cultural burning. 🔥

Last week, Pope Leo XIV said AI = enslavement. AI is also colonialism, and colonization kills.

On Facebook, a powerful appeal to Christians and Jews from the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery and the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance @bhcwa.bsky.social m.facebook.com/story.php?st...

It would be great to see formal revocation of the Doctrine of Discovery as a next step. thegrio.com/2026/05/25/p...

According to this article, “Wildfires historically occurred on the Channel Islands only after a rare lightning strike.” OK, but wildfire is not the only kind of fire that historically occurred on the Channel Islands. Talk to the heirs of the people who burned there for millennia.

Alternatives to militarized suppression of organized crime could include: support for Indigenous youth educational programs, cultural revitalization, governance, and decision-making. Sustain traditional social control and local community surveillance programs. Let people determine their own future.

“We define ecocultural legacies as manifestations of traditional Indigenous stewardship practices [like trails & large, nut-producing trees] that are embedded in the structure and composition of ecosystems in complex ways…They are gifts left by the ancestors that help us understand how to live well”

Clustering homes is not only essential for preserving wildlife corridors (as this HCN article explains), it is also essential for reestablishing a fire-resilient, Indigenous cultural landscape as Michael Connolly-Miskwish explains in chapter 6, “Aaw e’Hunn” of *Landkeeping* (see my pinned post).

“‘We feel that in our DNA,” said Emily Burgueno, a California member of the Kumeyaay Nation, adding that ‘body’ and ‘land’ are the same word in the Kumeyaay language…’No one ever consented or supported the use of dynamite on the mountain,’ Burgueno said.” www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Among RLF’s recommended priorities for California’s next governor: “3. Accelerate Tribal stewardship and sovereignty.” www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ca...

“A really telling thing is, in the Kalapuya language, and in the Chinuk language, the word ‘ama’ is the word for ‘fire,’ and it’s also the word for ‘home.’ They are not two words, fire and home are the same thing for us.” — David Harrelson (Kalapuya) (1/2) osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/landkee...

🗃️ One thing the “AI will help you do research crowd” doesn’t understand about historical research is that we don’t (or shouldn’t!) rip documents out of their context in relation to other documents. 1/

“Cal Fire launched a tribal advisory council to bring Indigenous perspective into Jackson. But some local tribes say it’s not enough because they lack decision-making power.” dnyuz.com/2026/05/10/a...

What have Tribes heard about this around here? “the California Grizzly Alliance study identified three areas within the state that would likely produce fruitful results for reintroduced grizzlies [including] the southern Sierra Nevada, roughly from the Sequoia and Kings Canyon area to Yosemite…”

My comment is at the bottom of this FB screenshot.

Muskrats to Moose: “We Are Fire (www.wearefire.ca) shares current and wise practices and related resources on various dimensions of burning and habitat restoration for Indigenous Peoples and wildlife in the kisiskāciwani-sīpiy maskēko askīy (Saskatchewan River Delta).” (1/2)

Ursus Urbanus www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-n...

“Cultural burning requires comprehensive knowledge of natural systems acquired through generational knowledge-sharing, detailed observations, and experience, which is of equal or greater weight than Western science classroom learning and/or textbook readings on this topic.” (1/2)

“Tribal Nations have asserted that their rights to practice traditional stewardship on their ancestral lands were not ceded, and they have challenged agency regulatory processes that intrude on such practices [such as colonial firefighting qualification systems].” (1/2)

I'm happy to announce the publication of the Routledge Handbook of Environmental Anthropology (2nd ed), in which I co-wrote a chapter with Karuk ceremonial leader Leaf Hillman. (My photo is also featured on the cover of the book!) You can read our chapter here: www.academia.edu/165463210/De...

Day 3 of a local #Indigenous community creating a dugout canoe, now carving details of traditional foods & medicines like fiddleheads & sassafras ~ mishoons were traditionally made like this by many Northeastern groups:

“By restoring fire to the landscape, communities also restore stories, kinship, and stewardship practices that have been displaced by ­settler-colonial disruption.” (1/2) osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/landkee...

“the Hemish model of fire management reinforces major features and aspirational goals of contemporary fire management, but it does so by respectfully acknowledging the ecological heritage of Indigenous people while demonstrating the multi-century sustainability of these cultural fire practices.” 1/2

“We contrast the settler-colonial use of Fire as a weapon of colonialism—deployed to displace & oppress Indigenous Communities—with its contemporary reclamation by Indigenous Nations as a source of healing, reconnection & resurgence, affirming Fire’s central role in our resilience and renewal.” 1/2

Hello California Bluesky, Where can I find information on the positions of the gubernatorial candidates on Native American policy and the state's relationships with Tribes? What policies of the Newsom administration do they want to continue? What new policies would they like to propose?

“Spaniards commented that Kumeyaay people burned fields as soon as the harvest was complete; they did not really understand the reasons why… they ascribed burning to a way of hunting rabbits. That was true, but rarely the main reason for burning; it was just a fringe benefit that came with it.”(1/2)

“Fire practitioners fostered cultural landscapes dotted with a fine-grained, highly diverse mosaic of vegetation. That way, if any one crop (perhaps acorns) was scarce in a certain year, others (perhaps pine nuts) might be more abundant.” (1/2) osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/landkee...

“California has much more fire-driven forest loss than people understand. It’s happening more in high-elevation, climate-sensitive areas that protect our watersheds, and there’s almost nothing being done about it.”

“The Trump administration is trying to rewrite our history… Right now, long-term access to public information isn’t a guarantee.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

“My journey/work consists of working to heal the land with these two hands using fire as medicine and a tool and moving toward making and supporting spaces that uplift us in fire and as managers, as burn bosses, and as experts from our tribal communities.” (Ch 4, “Regeneration,“ by Marlene’ Dusek)

"Workshop participants spend hours carefully forming burn piles, watching them burn down, and mixing ash back into the soil. Within a month they can come back and see the dark, earthy soils supporting fresh buds of native, culturally important plants like sourberry, redbud, and Indian tobacco."(1/2)

Tony Marks-Block: What encouraged you to become an organizer around the issue of cultural fire revitalization? Margo Robbins: Primarily, for me, it was my need to have hazel to weave with, so I could make baby baskets for my grandbabies. (From Ch. 2, “Past, Present, and Future of Cultural Burning”)

Trump’s New Wildfire Agency Is Betting on a Risky Firefighting Strategy https://gizmodo.com/trumps-new-wildfire-agency-is-betting-on-a-risky-firefighting-strategy-2000749651

“With our lessons in cultural fire, we are refusing siloed, enclosed, misconstrued definitions of Indigenous landcare and environmental decision-making.“ (From chapter 1, “Rematriating Fire,” by @scholarmelinda.bsky.social et al.) osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/landkee... @osupress.bsky.social

So excited to be releasing this out into the world! Spectacular line up of contributors sharing their experiences and perspectives on cultural burning in a variety of places in the US and Canada.

Look what I found on my porch today!

I’m not actually in South Dakota right now, but I remember what it’s like youtube.com/watch?v=wr4C...

Join us for a conversation with @jdaldern.bsky.social and Theresa Gregor celebrating the release of their new book, Landkeeping: Restoring Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Ecological Partnerships, published by @osupress.bsky.social. Thursday, April 30, 2026, 12-1 pm PST RSVP: bit.ly/landkeeping

“For Indigenous Peoples, health is deeply tied to the health of the land,” said Roth. “It’s not just about access to clinics or medicine – it’s about clean water, healthy forests, traditional foods, and the ability to maintain cultural practices.”

“in December, the city council passed a law to phase out 7,000 vacation rentals on the island – 15% of the island’s housing stock – to house fire survivors and other locals… “Our vision is restoring relationship to ‘āina [land],… grounded in the real history of this place.”

If this is the ballclub’s next owner, all I can say is the Padres have come a long way from the old Ray Kroc days.

From the online etymology dictionary, www.etymonline.com/word/chaparral. *Chaparral* means a place populated by a *series of little thickets of shrubs,* not a region-blanketing, solid mega-thicket. To restore chaparral, restore these little thickets and the grass- and forb-filled gaps between them.

So much of this is applicable to the U.S. In particular, I hear many of these myths espoused by those who oppose Indigenous fire stewardship in the chaparral. It's great to see them debunked so thoroughly here. www.ilinationhood.ca/blog/indigen...