Maidu Tribe Returns to Its Roots of Ancestral Fire | KQED

"The Maidu tribe of Butte County-Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley, come together to conduct CAL-TREX prescribed burn training to relearn how to put helpful fire back on their native lands that have been devastated by recent catastrophic wildfires. Organizers say the training camp is designed to help restore fire-scarred lands and people. While other Northern California tribes have been reintroducing cultural fire for decades,"

"The burn was formally a training, with the goal of enabling the Berry Creek Maidu to reestablish their traditional relationship with fire. But it was more than that. Jedediah Brown, the tribe's historic preservation officer, described it as "a homecoming, a return of fire to the land and the people. [...] Through the continuation of this work, the relationship between fire, people, and place is renewed in the way our ancestors intended.""

The Maidu tribe of Butte County — Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley — conducted CAL-TREX prescribed burn training to relearn how to put helpful fire back on native lands devastated by catastrophic wildfires. Organizers designed the training camp to restore fire-scarred lands and people. Other Northern California tribes have reintroduced cultural fire for decades, but this is the first time since colonial contact that this group will apply cultural fire in partnership with local, state and federal agencies. The burn aimed to reestablish traditional relationships with fire and renew connections between fire, people, and place. Separately, AB 1804 would authorize state parks to work with libraries to provide library-checkout park passes and seek more stable funding for the program started in 2021.

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