For thousands of years, California Indians used fire as a tool to manage natural resources. Across the state, Native Americans conducted cultural burns on a wide range of plants. The mosaic fire regimes created a diverse habitat that maintained meadows, coastal prairies and grasslands. Careful burning increased yields and seeds, led to new growth that was more suitable for basket making, and reduced the potential fuel that could be burned by wildfires. appeared naturally. But beginning with the conquest of Spain and continuing today in the form of the policies of the Forestry Service and CalFire, firefighting has severely restricted cultural deterrence. As a result, the forest has become very dense and we are now in a situation in Sierra Nevada where thirst is causing many trees to die. This massive tree death has brought the forest to a rapid level, where large-scale wildfires threaten to permanently transform Sierra’s forests. In this video, we explore how cultural burning is used today and what its lessons are for the future of the forest. We visit the area just south of Yosemite National Park where two tribes are working to bring fire back to the land, the North Fork Mono Tribe and the Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians.
Watch “Tending Nature,” a series that sheds light on how indigenous knowledge can inspire a new generation of Californians to find a balance between people and nature.
Co-produced by KCETLink Media Group and the Autry Museum, this six-part multimedia series and one-hour documentary is co-presented with California Continued, a state-of-the-art exhibition which can be seen at the Autry.