The Cultural Burning Revival
Over the course of 2025, the Mountain West News Bureau (MWNB) and Our Living Lands (OLL) rigorously documented efforts among the Indigenous Karuk of Northern California and the Washoe of both California and Nevada to revive millenia-old traditions of using fire to care for their ancestral territories. In a time of wildfire crisis, these Native traditions provide an effective and replicable solution, one that is already spurring reforms in other Western states. They also offer a compelling and provocative counter-narrative to the dominant suppression-first posture toward fire that has caused enormous ecological harm across the region and beyond. These inspiring efforts have not only meaningfully improved wildfire resilience in local communities, but have led to substantive, legislative wins for Indigenous sovereignty. With Native voices at its heart, our coverage highlights one of the key lessons that can be learned from these fire people – that a more balanced relationship with flame is not only possible, but that such harmony has a time immemorial history on the continent.
OLL is a collaboration of the MWNB, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media.
FOR JUDGES: The audio above is intended to represent the Cultural Burning Revival series produced by the Mountain West News Bureau and Our Living Lands in 2025. Click HERE for a list of links to all of the stories.