Wildfires can be devastating for communities and the environment, like those in . But fires also can be intentionally lit to benefit the ecosystem. These are known as prescribed fires.
Indigenous communities across the world founded the practice of prescribed fires in their respective homelands. And in our region, the Myaamia tribe was one of those groups.
Since local Indigenous communities engaged in this practice for centuries, some environments, like prairies, depend on fire, says Michael Gonella.
鈥淎ll these landscapes were managed by Native peoples, and fire was the main tool they used to manage the land, to keep it fertile, productive and good for hunting. The fire kind of resets it ecologically and revitalizes it,鈥� Gonella said.
Gonella is a professor of botany at Santa Barbara City College. He鈥檚 worked closely with Myaamia tribal members to identify plants referenced in historical documents about the tribe.
Most Myaamia people were removed from their homelands in the Great Lakes. And with that, they lost many elements central to their culture, including access to traditional plants and practices like prescribed burns.
That鈥檚 according to George Ironstack, enrolled member of the sovereign and scholar on Myaamia history at .
鈥淲hat settler colonialism does to a people includes this cultural suppression that sometimes even precedes a complete severing of our relationship with the land,鈥� Ironstack said.
Myaamia people have worked to revive parts of their culture. That includes the recovery of the place-based Myaamia lunar calendar, developed centuries ago in what is now Ohio and Indiana.
The calendar connects two months in the fall with burns. The first month is the grass burning moon or 鈥� Sept . 5 to Oct . 3 this year.
The second month is the smoky burning moon or . It鈥檚 Oct . 3 to Nov . 2 this year.
"We don't see ourselves as in control of the environment, but in relationship with these places, and that these places and ourselves as human beings evolved together through the use of fire.鈥�
The Myaamia used fires to hunt more efficiently, said Ironstack.
鈥淢y guess is, my ancestors were experts at reading their environment. And (they) wouldn't want to light a circle hunting fire in a place that would potentially trap them,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o they were probably reading the landscape to say, 鈥榦kay, this is a good space where you can safely control the fire to burn inwards in a circle and trap animals.鈥欌��
The best evidence of the Myaamia completing prescribed burns comes from and their translation documents.
But the oral histories of the tribe completing the practice have mostly faded, according to Gonella.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a few generations that there've been no burnings. So when I would talk to elders, most of the time they鈥檇 say, 鈥榦h, yeah, I think I heard maybe someone did that once a long time ago,鈥� as far as fire goes. So it was nothing very direct. And that is unfortunate that that's the case. A lot of the traditional knowledge 鈥� some of it does get lost,鈥� said Gonella.
Though, people in Ohio have made attempts to include local Indigenous community members in prescribed burns. Like Andy Sawyer, education outreach specialist for the Miami Nation at Miami University.
He invited Myaamia people out in his previous role with SunWatch Indian Village to burn the museum鈥檚 prairie. But Sawyer said no one was able to attend, given the short notice prescribed burns usually entail.
鈥淪ometimes it's a last minute call. You're kind of looking for just the right weather conditions, the right moisture 鈥� you don't want it to be too windy,鈥� Sawyer said.
The state limits who can do prescribed burns. The certification course has 25 spots and is offered only once every two years.
An Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said they don鈥檛 recall any prescribed burn applications mentioning cultural intent.
Ironstack said Myaamia people want to re-integrate the practice.
鈥淪o today, people call these things like forest management, prairie management or land management practices. That definitely comes from the perspective of humans controlling the environment,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hereas for our community in the past and today, we don't see ourselves as in control of the environment, but in relationship with these places, and that these places and ourselves as human beings evolved together through the use of fire.鈥�
And that鈥檚 a relationship that continues to evolve today as the Myaamia reconnect with their culture in Ohio.
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