PMJA Entry - Series

Last year, 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 California and Nevada to revive millenia-old traditions of using fire to care for their ancestral territories. In a time of wildfire crisis, these traditions offer a compelling and provocative counter-example to the dominant suppression-first posture toward fire that has caused enormous ecological harm. These 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.

FOR JUDGES: The audio above is a combined file of the three features and two debriefs whose web versions are linked below.

WEB VERSIONS

The Washoe Tribe brings back cultural fire to restore forests, plants amid climate change

Courtesy of The Washoe Tribe

In northern California, the Karuk Tribe is burning its way back to a centuries-old relationship with fire

Murphy Woodhouse

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Boise State Public Radio

Indigenous people learned to live with fire. What can we learn from their traditions?

Murphy Woodhouse / Mountain West News Bureau

With reforms in place, California’s Karuk Tribe works to reestablish cultural burning as 'common practice'

Murphy Woodhouse

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Boise State Public Radio

Learning from Karuk burning practices

Murphy Woodhouse

/

Boise State Public Radio

*OLL is a collaboration of the MWNB, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media.