Indigenous Peoples Day, which was observed this past Monday, is an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate Indigenous life and culture in its many forms. At the Fire Networks, we work to uplift Indigenous stories and follow Indigenous leadership in the movement for living better with fire. For this week’s blog, we’re highlighting a few newer resources on cultural burning in Northern California and Oregon. While by no means an exhaustive representation of the work happening in the area, these stories are powerful examples of Indigenous leaders working with fire in their communities.

Elements: New Video Series on the Klamath Tribes’ Environmental and Cultural Resilience

The Elements film series offers insight into the environmental and cultural work led by members of the Klamath Tribes in Oregon. Through the stories of Klamath Tribes members Anna, Charlie, and Shuína, the series brings to life traditional practices—like restoring fire to the land, protecting endangered fish, and keeping cultural traditions alive through art and storytelling. The series trailer is embedded below, and you can find the whole video series on the Nature Conservancy’s website here.

Using Cultural and Prescribed Burns to Protect Homes During the 2025 Butler Fire

When the Butler Fire approached the Salmon River in Siskiyou County, California this summer, local, community-based fire practitioners and partners took coordinated action to protect homes using a combination of cultural and prescribed burning. This unified community effort was supported by the wildfire’s Incident Management Team even during their active full suppression operation. The video below from the Karuk Tribe showcases the actions taken by the community. The direct link to the video can be found here.

Student Curriculum: Restoring Forest Health through Cultural Burning

The Yurok Tribe in California is a leader in implementing traditional cultural burning practices to help restore forest resilience. This video from PBS LearningMedia is part of a larger educational curriculum exploring how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) can inform modern land management. The direct link to the video and curriculum can be found here.

The Washington Post: How Indigenous practices can protect forests

This article from the Washington Post (see non-paywall version here) covers how the Karuk and Yurok Tribes in Northern California are combining cultural burning with modern forestry techniques to address wildfire risk and boost biodiversity. The article also includes short video clips, infographics, and photos to illustrate the work and highlight the people behind it.

What other resources, stories, videos, and articles do you want to highlight around Indigenous fire practices? Share them in the comments!

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