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Fire & Traditional Knowledge

Native Americans have used fire for millenia.  Fire on tribal lands was, and continues to be, used to protect and promote the persistence of cultural values and resources. However, there are many challenges to managing fire for tribal resources, especially across jurisdictions.

The resources on this page address the various aspects of integrating traditional and western knowledge to manage wildland fire and fuels.

This hot topic was developed in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Podcasts

Apr 6, 2021 Episode 5: Fire in the woods
David J. Lewis, Amanda Rau
Mar 31, 2021 Montana Wildfire News - Fireline Episode 04: The Gift Of Fire
Sep 2, 2020 Podcast episode 4: Incorporating Traditional Knowledge into Fuels Treatments
Monique D. Wynecoop, Robert E. Keane
Sep 2, 2020 Fire Ecology Podcast - Episode 4: Incorporating Traditional Knowledge into Fuels Treatments
Robert E. Keane, Monique D. Wynecoop
Oct 28, 2019 Good Fire Episode - Fire Ecology and Indigenous Knowledge
Frank K. Lake
Apr 25, 2018 How Humans Can Provide Services for Ecosystems With Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Frank K. Lake

Storymaps

Garden Creek Fire - Confederated Tribe of The Salish and Kootenai Fuels Treatment Success Story
Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change & Concurrent Risks

Research Briefs

2019 Community conversations: applying traditional knowledge to fire management and research
Hannah Lopez et al.
2018 Tribal fire and forest management: Confederated Salish-Kootenai fire history, philosophy, and resource management strategies
Monique D. Wynecoop
2014 Traditional ecological knowledge: a model for modern fire management?
Gail Wells

Syntheses

2012 Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on cultural resources and archaeology

Publications/Reports

2021 Conservation of Earth’s biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Kira M. Hoffman et al.
2021 Native American fire management at an ancient wildland-urban interface in the Southwest United States
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Christopher I. Roos et al.
2021 Persuasion without policies: the work of reviving Indigenous peoples’ fire management in southern Australia
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Will Smith et al.
2020 Indigenous knowledge and seasonal calendar inform adaptive savanna burning in northern Australia
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Michelle McKemey et al.
2020 A review of Indigenous knowledge and participation in environmental monitoring
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Kim-Ly Thompson et al.
2020 Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research: a literature review
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
David P. M. Lam et al.
2020 Integrating tribes and culture into public land management
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
David Flores et al.
2020 Integrating tribes and culture Into public land management [Chapter 5.5]
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
David Flores et al.
2020 Goal setting and Indigenous fire management: a holistic perspective
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
William Nikolakis et al.
2020 Indigenous fire management: a conceptual model from literature
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
William Nikolakis et al.
2019 Sharing Multiple Perspectives on Burning: Towards a Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management Policy in Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Bibiana A. Bilbao et al.
2019 Spatiotemporal variability of human-fire interactions on the Navajo Nation
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Christopher H. Guiterman et al.
2019 Indigenous peoples and collaborative forest governance in northern forests: examining changes in policies, institutions, and communities — a selection of research papers presented at the ISSRM Conference
Conference Proceedings
2019 Getting back to fire suméŝ: exploring a multi-disciplinary approach to incorporating traditional knowledge into fuels treatments
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Monique D. Wynecoop et al.
2019 We’re Not Doing Enough Prescribed Fire in the Western United States to Mitigate Wildfire Risk
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Crystal A. Kolden
2019 Indigenous fire stewardship
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Frank K. Lake et al.
2019 Out of the Ashes: Ecological Resilience to Extreme Wildfire, Prescribed Burns, and Indigenous Burning in Ecosystems
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Cristina Eisenberg et al.
2018 When Scientists “Discover” What Indigenous People Have Known For Centuries
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
George Nicholas
2018 A Global Analysis of Hunter-Gatherers, Broadcast Fire Use, and Lightning-Fire-Prone Landscapes
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Michael R. Coughlan et al.
2018 Indigenous impacts on North American Great Plains fire regimes of the past millennium
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Christopher I. Roos et al.
2017 A Special Issue of the Journal of Forestry—Tribal Forest Management: Innovations for Sustainable Forest Management
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Michael J. Dockry et al.
2017 Participatory geographic information systems as an organizational platform for the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge in contemporary fire and fuels management
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Brooke Baldauf McBride et al.
2017 Returning fire to the land - Celebrating traditional knowledge and fire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Frank K. Lake et al.
2016 Opportunities to utilize traditional phenological knowledge to support adaptive management of social-ecological systems vulnerable to changes in climate and fire regimes
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Christopher A. Armatas et al.
2016 Taking Fire: Understandings of Indigenous Burning and Environmental Politics in Australia and the United States, 1910-2015
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Daniel May
2016 Weaving Indigenous and sustainability sciences to diversify our methods
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Jay T. Johnson et al.
2015 Whitebark pine workshop: science, management, and community
Technical Report or White Paper
Corey L. Gucker
2015 Traditional fire-use, landscape transition, and the legacies of social theory past
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Michael R. Coughlan
2015 Social science research on Indigenous wildfire management in the 21st century and future research needs
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Amy Christianson
2015 Forest site classification for cultural plant harvest by tribal weavers can inform management
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Susan S. Hummel et al.
2015 Tribal Engagement roadmap
Technical Report or White Paper
2014 Collaboration in national forest management
Technical Report or White Paper
Susan Charnley et al.
2014 Trust: A Planning Guide for Wildfire Agencies and Practitioners—An International Collaboration Drawing on Research and Management Experience in Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Technical Report or White Paper
Bruce A. Shindler et al.
2014 Spraycan: A PPGIS for capturing imprecise notions of place
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
J. J. Huck et al.
2014 Fire and tribal cultural resources
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Frank K. Lake et al.
2013 Culture, law, risk and governance: contexts of traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Terry Williams et al.
2013 Rethinking the study of landscape management practices among hunter–gatherers in North America
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Kent G. Lightfoot et al.
2013 Aboriginal precedent for active management of sagebrush-perennial grass communities in the Great Basin
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Kent J. McAdoo et al.
2013 The many elements of traditional fire knowledge: synthesis, classification, and aids to cross-cultural problem solving in fire-dependent systems around the world
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Mary R. Huffman
2013 Historical and cultural fires, tribal management and research issues in Northern California: trails, fires and tribulations
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Frank K. Lake
2013 Cultural impacts to tribes from climate change influences on forests
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Garrett Voggesser et al.
2012 Listening and learning from traditional knowledge and western science: a dialogue on contemporary challenges of forest health and wildfire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Larry Mason et al.
2012 A case for developing place-based fire management strategies from traditional ecological knowledge
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Lily A. Ray et al.
2012 National to local: a pre & post assessment of the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) landscape variables for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Dissertation or Thesis
Laurel L. James
2011 Working with American Indian tribes on wildland fires: protecting cultural heritage sites in northwestern California
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Frank K. Lake
2011 Traditional wisdom – protecting wilderness as a cultural landscape
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Alan E. Watson et al.
2010 Utilization of the Native American talking circle to teach incident command system to tribal community health representatives
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Brenda Granillo et al.
2010 Fire burners to firefighters: the Nez Perce and fire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Matthew S. Carroll et al.
2010 Fire, agency and scale in the creation of aboriginal cultural landscapes
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Andrew Martin Miller et al.
2009 Communicating about fire with tribal organizations
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Germaine White et al.
2009 Developing computer-based participatory approaches to mapping landscape values for landscape and resource management
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Stephen J. Carver et al.
2008 Living artifacts: the ancient ponderosa pines of the West
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Stephen F. Arno et al.
2007 Wildland fire management as conservation-based development: an opportunity for reservation communities?
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Kathleen Rasmussen et al.
2007 Traditional ecological knowledge: applying principles of sustainability to wilderness resource management
Conference Proceedings
Nancy C. Ratner et al.
2005 Culturally scarred trees in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana, USA- interpreting Native American historical forest use in a wilderness area
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Lars Ostlund et al.
2004 Private and tribal forest landowners and fire risk: a two-county case study in Washington state
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Matthew S. Carroll et al.
2003 Simulated indigenous management: a new model for ecological restoration in national parks
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
M. Kat Anderson et al.
2002 Biogeographic, cultural, and historical setting of the Northern Rocky Mountains [Chapter 2]
Technical Report or White Paper
S. Karen Dante-Wood
2001 Maintaining the mosaic: the role of indigenous burning in land management
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
R.W. Kimmerer et al.
2000 Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: methods and
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
H.P. Huntington
2000 Native burning in western North America: implications for hardwood forest management
Conference Proceedings
Charles E. Kay
1994 Fire regimes on andesitic mountain terrain in northeastern Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Stephen W. Barrett
1982 Indian fires as an ecological influence in the Northern Rockies
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Stephen W. Barrett et al.
1980 Indian fires in the pre-settlement forests of western Montana
Conference Proceedings
Stephen W. Berrett
Culturally peeled trees handbook
Technical Report or White Paper
Marcy Reiser et al.

Videos

Jun 12, 2019 Native Fire
National Interagency Fire Center
Apr 10, 2019 Fire For Life
Ron Goode
Dec 12, 2017 Tending the Wild
Jun 18, 2014 Braids of truth - An introduction
Jun 18, 2014 Braids of truth - Part 1: fire and forest management
Jun 18, 2014 Braids of truth - Part 2: climate change
Jun 18, 2014 Braids of truth - Part 3: collaboration challenges
Nov 7, 2012 The creator's gift of fire: traditional knowledge, responsibility, and world renewal
Frank K. Lake, Bill Tripp
Catching fire: prescribed burning in Northern California

Webinars

May 27, 2021 Collaborative Fire Management Case Studies from the Colville National Forest
Monique D. Wynecoop
Apr 27, 2021 Cultural Burning and Collaborative Fire Research and Management: Approaches for Respectfully Partnering with Tribes
Frank K. Lake
Apr 26, 2021 Wildfires and Air Quality (Part 2) – Smoke Sense and Smoke Ready Communities
Kris Ray, Ana G. Rappold, Mary Clare Hano
Mar 4, 2021 Native American fire management at an ancient wildland-urban interface in the Southwest United States
Christopher I. Roos, Chris Toya, John Galvan
Jan 12, 2021 Blazing the Trail: Celebrating Indigenous Fire Stewardship in Canada
Amy Christianson
Dec 3, 2020 Tribal Lands: Treaties, Federal Trust Obligation, & Opportunities for Cross-Boundary Collaboration
Alicia Bell-Sheeter, Lexie Rue-Harris
Nov 13, 2020 Introduction to Tribal Lands & Their Management
Julie Thorstenson
Jun 11, 2019 Tribal Resources for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments
John Ossanna
Oct 1, 2018 Viewing and Discussion of A Record of Change: Science and Elder Observation on the Navajo Nation
John D. Weiner, Shannon McNeeley, Dominique M. David-Chavez
Dec 19, 2017 A Climate Change Assessment of Vegetation, Fire, and Ecosystem Services for Tribal lands in the PNW
Michael Case
Dec 6, 2017 Using Narrative Stories to Understand Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the Great Basin
Tamara Wall
Dec 4, 2017 Returning Fire to the Land: Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire
Frank K. Lake
Dec 4, 2017 Returning Fire to the Land-Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire: Approaches for Management and Research
Frank K. Lake
Mar 12, 2015 Learning from our ancestors: combining ancient knowledge systems and modern science to achieve restoration
Serra Hoagland, Frank K. Lake
May 27, 2013 Incorporating tribal traditional knowledge and community values into wildland fire management
Frank K. Lake
Nov 14, 2012 Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on cultural resources and archaeology
Kevin C. Ryan
Aug 16, 2012 Indigenous fire knowledge and traditional fire systems around the world
Mary R. Huffman

Upcoming Events

Indigenous fire regimes and their ecosystem services under climate change
September 27, 2021

Past Events

Fire in the Crown of the Continent
March 22, 2021 to March 26, 2021
2019 Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation Science and Management Conference
September 13, 2019 to September 14, 2019
Working Across Boundaries to Implement the Cohesive Strategy in the Northern Rockies Field Tour
June 20, 2019
Second Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop
March 26, 2018 to March 29, 2018
Crafting Solutions for Wildland and Prescribed Fires Across Tribal and Nontribal Jurisdictions
May 19, 2014
Returning Fire to the Land - Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire
November 7, 2012 to November 9, 2012