Day 1132: Fire ecologies
Apr. 26th, 2023 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeBefore I get any further in my day, I want to write about yesterday’s big event (besides book club in the evening, which was fun). I attended a panel discussion of the fire ecologies as practiced by our local Kalapuya people and also the Karuk people of northernmost California. This was very cool. One of the speakers was David Lewis, a Kalapuya anthropologist at Oregon State, whom I saw a year or two ago doing a talk of his own. He mostly focused on the water ecologies of the Willamette Valley, which had a lot of wetlands and in some places, year-round standing water until the white settlers drained it for agriculture. He also talked about the relocation of Native people throughout the state to the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations, which made them dependent on the white government because all of their ecological knowledge was now useless.
The next speaker was Joe Scott, whom I hadn’t previously encountered. Very cool! He’s descended from Rogue River people and affiliated with the Siletz nation (which is not in the Rogue area 150 miles south of here, but rather on the north coast of the state). He’s professionally concerned with teaching about indigenous use of fire as a cultural practice to maintain traditional knowledge – both for food sovereignty and other reasons. (Incidentally, it keeps the brush level much lower and dramatically reduces the chance of unmanageable wildfires, but that’s not their purpose.) Families in the past – and now again today – set fires around the base of oak trees to make the subsequent acorns more accessible, and also strategically at the time of year that trees are likely to become infested with moths, they light the fires at night and the moths are drawn in and die. They also set fires to hazel bushes so that the new growth will be long and smooth, perfect for cutting to make baskets.
Then we heard from Kari Norgaard – a non-Native sociology professor who’s been working with the Karuk people for 20 years – and one of her grad students, Amada Lang, who is herself a Karuk. One of the Karuk uses of fire was to create smoke that would cool the streams in the fall so the salmon could return! This happened by reducing both the sunlight and also the evaporation. They showed numerous photos of Karuk people practicing traditional use of fire, and contrasted the lovely green results with the horrible wildfires in the same area. We also learned about a recent event where the Karuk hosted some 50 indigenous women from around the world to share their cultural uses of fire.
The moderator was our friend and sort-of-neighbor Kirby Brown, who’s an English professor and Cherokee; his wife worked with J. for years. Also there was an exhibit opening with a reception directly afterwards, which I’ll need to make a point to return to see within the next week or so; I didn’t have time to stay yesterday.
The important takeaway message – besides that justice requires we help Native people carry on their traditions, and we all desperately need more traditional use of fire to clean up the forests, as they get increasingly dry and prone to wildfire – comes from Kalapuya storyteller Esther Stutzman, whose quote on one of the speakers’ slides was especially apt. Oh good, I was able to find it online – in a blog post by Madronna Holden, whom I met at an environmental philosophy conference years ago. When the pioneers came out west, they were inspired by the Manifest Destiny belief that God had created a paradise for them out here in the fertile and lovely Willamette Valley. As Stutzman clarifies, however (and Holden attributes the quote instead to historian Peter Boag): The first whites in the Willamette Valley did not tame a wilderness, they inherited a park.
(And that's a generous use of the word "inherited".)
The next speaker was Joe Scott, whom I hadn’t previously encountered. Very cool! He’s descended from Rogue River people and affiliated with the Siletz nation (which is not in the Rogue area 150 miles south of here, but rather on the north coast of the state). He’s professionally concerned with teaching about indigenous use of fire as a cultural practice to maintain traditional knowledge – both for food sovereignty and other reasons. (Incidentally, it keeps the brush level much lower and dramatically reduces the chance of unmanageable wildfires, but that’s not their purpose.) Families in the past – and now again today – set fires around the base of oak trees to make the subsequent acorns more accessible, and also strategically at the time of year that trees are likely to become infested with moths, they light the fires at night and the moths are drawn in and die. They also set fires to hazel bushes so that the new growth will be long and smooth, perfect for cutting to make baskets.
Then we heard from Kari Norgaard – a non-Native sociology professor who’s been working with the Karuk people for 20 years – and one of her grad students, Amada Lang, who is herself a Karuk. One of the Karuk uses of fire was to create smoke that would cool the streams in the fall so the salmon could return! This happened by reducing both the sunlight and also the evaporation. They showed numerous photos of Karuk people practicing traditional use of fire, and contrasted the lovely green results with the horrible wildfires in the same area. We also learned about a recent event where the Karuk hosted some 50 indigenous women from around the world to share their cultural uses of fire.
The moderator was our friend and sort-of-neighbor Kirby Brown, who’s an English professor and Cherokee; his wife worked with J. for years. Also there was an exhibit opening with a reception directly afterwards, which I’ll need to make a point to return to see within the next week or so; I didn’t have time to stay yesterday.
The important takeaway message – besides that justice requires we help Native people carry on their traditions, and we all desperately need more traditional use of fire to clean up the forests, as they get increasingly dry and prone to wildfire – comes from Kalapuya storyteller Esther Stutzman, whose quote on one of the speakers’ slides was especially apt. Oh good, I was able to find it online – in a blog post by Madronna Holden, whom I met at an environmental philosophy conference years ago. When the pioneers came out west, they were inspired by the Manifest Destiny belief that God had created a paradise for them out here in the fertile and lovely Willamette Valley. As Stutzman clarifies, however (and Holden attributes the quote instead to historian Peter Boag): The first whites in the Willamette Valley did not tame a wilderness, they inherited a park.
(And that's a generous use of the word "inherited".)
no subject
Date: 2023-04-27 12:58 am (UTC)What a wonderful event to attend, wow!
I especially was fascinated to read about the smoke helping the salmon. Indigenous people are so smart about their lands and their history and what has been passed down to them. May it all stay alive and thrive.
Thank you for sharing this!
no subject
Date: 2023-04-27 07:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-04-27 04:34 pm (UTC)