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The traditional Native American way of controlled burns is becoming a forgotten solution while wildfire season is in full swing.

Every year from July to about October, California is wracked with wildfires, evacuations and homes burning to the ground. This year, California has been under siege from some of the most record-breaking wildfires. With panic spreading like ash in the air, it’s time to reintroduce the ways of Indigenous people and their cultural burns. 

Before mass amounts of people flooded to the Golden State, it was common for parts of the California land to be burned every decade — it was prepared for and even viewed as a cultural practice. While lightning strikes would contribute to setting forests on fire, Native tribes would burn the land to clear out dead vegetation and ultimately reduce the risk of an unintentional flame. 

Cultural burns were considered a necessity for Natives to live harmoniously with the earth, and their practices were tried and true for generations.  However, when the Indigenous tribes of Northern California near the Klamath Mountains were colonized, Natives were punished for their cultural burns. 

Outside of the United States, Northern Australia Aboriginals also contributed to the cultural burning of their own land. Before Europeans colonized Northern Australia, cultural burning was a practiced skill and a detrimental tool in helping the land heal and prepare for new growth. 

Seven years ago, a burning program was reintroduced to aboriginal populations in order to cut back on the effects of wildfires. Since then, researchers have identified that cultural burns reduce destructive wildfires by half and have lessened carbon emissions by 40 percent.   

For California, the conflict occurs when homes and communities are built on the same land that the Natives used to culturally burn. Now, Tribes are required to obtain permits before undergoing cultural burns. They are often denied these permits due to the concern of fires growing out of control and affecting the air quality. 

Yet, if we were to go back to the roots of the pioneers of this nation, we might find solutions to the fire problems California experiences each year. 

In combination with the California Agencies working alongside the U.S Forest service to clear out dead vegetation from 1 million acres of forest each year, adding controlled burns would help to lessen the flammable vegetation. This would also allow Natives to take back one of their cultural practices that was stripped from them through colonization and genocide.

Working in partnership with the Forest Service to reintroduce cultural burns could absolutely turn the tides for California and other West Coast towns suffering from wildfires. We’ve seen the positive impact controlled burning has had in Australia. It’s time we implement the same ideas and give Natives the space to reclaim a practice they held generations ago.