Daniella Ruth Lorincz Drader

 

 

THESIS: ‘Nez Perce Perspectives on Fire Management and Program Accessibility’ Daniella received her Masters degree in 2009

Research for this article was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Natural Resource Sciences, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University, with funding from the US Forest Service.

Indigenous land management and knowledge has been misunderstood for many years. The first European settlers to arrive in the Northwest thought that they were entering a pristine environment untouched by human hands (Shetler, 1982).

Native Americans were thought to live in harmony with nature, like animals, and have no need or apparent knowledge of how to alter nature for personal use. For many years, land management professionals, among other scholars, ignored the fact that Native Americans had significant impacts on the ground they inhabited (Stewart, 2002).

Fire management is a critical issue in the Northwestern United States. Property, among other valuable resources, is destroyed when fires burn out of control.

However, fire is also a natural part of the ecosystem (Agee, 1993).

In addition, fire has always been a part of Native American culture and practice (Williams, 2003). The Nez Perce people are no exception; fire use is embedded in traditional Nez Perce practices (Lewis, 1985; Stewart, 2002).

Fire management has been intertwined in Nez Perce stories, important rites of passage, and ceremonial gatherings of significance for thousands of years (McWhorter, 1983; Spinden, 2006).

“How the Beaver stole fire from the Pines” is one Nez Perce story that combines the cultural and ecological results of fire use. The Beaver in this story spread fire to other trees in order for all to stay warm in the winter. The Grand Ronde river landscape is considered a direct result of the Beaver’s journey. See story in Sidebar.

Indigenous land management and knowledge has been misunderstood and underutilized for many years and the inclusion of Nez Perce perspectives on fire management would go a long way in helping to decrease skepticism and promote cooperation and effective civic engagement.

Contemporary management approaches often do not account for historic, cultural land usages, such as burial grounds, ceremonial sites or gathering areas where fire was used to promote certain vegetation (Jonston, 2005).

The primary issue in Park management versus traditional Native land management means that contemporary Park managers plan in increments of decades (e.g., have goals to build roads or attract tourists) whereas Nez Perce and other tribes have used fire management to plan on the scale of generations.

The difference lies in a Native perspective of being integrated with nature instead of dominating nature. Native Americans believe that the decisions they make in cultivating the land directly reflects their spiritual relationships.

In essence, land suffers if Nez Perce do not hold it sacred and Nez Perce suffer if the land does not provide what they need to survive. The interwoven spiritual relationships with the environment attribute to Native American decision-

 

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