Cultural Burning | Link TV
Cultural Burning
Episode 1
For thousands of years, California Indians used fire as a tool for managing natural resources. Throughout the state, Native peoples conducted cultural burns on a wide range of plants. Their fire regimes created diverse habitat mosaics that sustained meadows, coastal prairies, and grasslands. The careful application of fire increased fruit and seed production, caused new growth that was better suited for making baskets, and reduced the fuel load that could be burned by naturally occurring wildfires. But starting with the Spanish conquest and continuing today in the form of Forest Service and CalFire policies, fire suppression has drastically limited cultural burning. As a result, the forest has become incredibly dense and we are now facing a situation in the Sierra Nevada where drought is causing many trees to die. This massive tree mortality has brought the forest to a tipping point, where large scale wildfires threaten to alter the Sierra forests permanently. In this video, we explore how cultural burning is being practiced today and what lessons it holds for the future of the forest. We visit the area just south of Yosemite National Park where two tribes are working to bring fire back to the land, the North Fork Mono Tribe and the Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians.
Watch "Tending Nature," a series shining a light on how Indigenous knowledge can inspire a new generation of Californians to find a balance between humans and nature.
Co-produced by KCETLink Media Group and the Autry Museum, this six-part multimedia series and one-hour documentary special are presented in association with California Continued, a groundbreaking exhibition now on view at the Autry.
Related
-
Tending Nature Season 1 (Trailer)
"Tending Nature" shines a light on the environmental knowledge of indigenous peoples across California,
Related
-
Tending Nature Season 1 (Trailer)
"Tending Nature" shines a light on the environmental knowledge of indigenous peoples across California,
-
tending the wild
Cultural Fire on the Mountain: An Introduction to Native Cultural Burning
The park-like forests of the 19th Century Sierra Nevada were sustained by carefully planned fires conducted by Native people.
-
tending the wild
Untold History: The Survival of California's Indians
No matter what you learned in fourth grade, California Indians didn't vanish when the '49ers arrived.
- 1 of 2
- next ›
Full Episodes
-
Tending the Wild
tending the wild
E1: Cultural Burning - How Native American Peoples Use Fire to Rejuvenate the Land
Episode 1
Suppressed for over a century, indigenous cultural burning is still practiced today and holds important lessons for managing the threat of destructive wildfires.
-
Tending the Wild
tending the wild
E2: Keeping the River - How the Klamath River's Native Peoples Maintain Their Relationship With Salmon
Episode 2
The Yurok, Karuk, and Hupa peoples have maintained a close relationship with the Klamath River. They have secured traditional fishing rights and mobilized against the threats of dams and agriculture, setting an example for Native environmental rights.
-
Tending the Wild
tending the wild
E3: Weaving Community - How Native Peoples are Rediscovering Their Basketry Traditions
Episode 3
Despite barriers to access, traditional gathering and basket weaving is still practiced across California as a new generation is rediscovering and preserving its cultural heritage.
-
Tending the Wild
traditional ecological knowledge
E4: Decolonizing the Diet - How Native Peoples are Reclaiming Traditional Foods
Episode 4
The Chia Cafe Collective is working to revive Native food practices and raise awareness about the threats to native plants in Southern California.
-
Tending the Wild
traditional ecological knowledge
E5: Gathering Medicine - How Native Medicinal Practices Are Thriving Today
Episode 5
Native herbalism has a long history and continues to be practiced today. This video explores a holistic approach to health and how the environment can inform healthy living.
- 1 of 2
- next ›
Clips & Segments
-
Tending the Wild
The knowledge of native people about plants and their uses is open to everyone if they are willing to learn. Hoopa tribe descendant, Kat High, talks about the need to establish gardening areas in local communities.
-
Tending the Wild
Cahuilla Artist Gerald Clarke Jr. honors his Native American heritage as well as makes a comment about the alcoholism and diabetes that plague native communities. Meet Gerald Clarke Jr and his native weaving creations.
-
Tending the Wild
Herbalist Sage LaPena explains that a resurgence of traditional medicinal practices in Native communities and in popular culture often leads to a lack of access by Native communities to needed plants.
-
Tending the Wild
Craig Torres of Chia Cafe Collective talks about how educators train modern society to phase out the harmful elements of their diets.
- 1 of 5
- next ›
Articles
-
Tending the Wild
Tribe's vegetable gardens died during long repair dispute.
-
Tending the Wild
If you smell something burning this week as you visit Sequoia National Park, that might just be two centuries of cultural misunderstanding going up in smoke.
-
Tending the Wild
"Our tradition says that if we don’t catch salmon, they’ll stop coming back.”
-
Tending the Wild
Here's one answer to LA's "emergency" record snowmelt: give Native people access to their lands.
-
Tending the Wild
To call Native peoples the "original environmentalists" is to mischaracterize their actual relationship to the land.
-
Tending the Wild
The concept of wilderness as unpopulated land assumes Native people are either subhuman or nonexistent. It needs to be rethought.
- 1 of 9
- next ›
Upcoming Airdates
Tending the Wild
Tending the Wild shines light on the environmental knowledge of indigenous peoples across California by exploring how they have actively shaped and tended the land for millennia, in the process developing a deep understanding of plant and animal life. This series examines how humans are necessary to live in balance with nature and how traditional practices can inspire a new generation of Californians to tend their environment.
Popular Videos
-
A documentary about the burning of wood at an industrial scale for energy.
KCET Original -
In the new season, "Earth Focus" examines how communities are transitioning and adapting from different energy sources and how the laws of supply and demand affect the environment and people in different ways.
KCET Original -
"Broken Bread" showcases inspiring people who are making a difference in their communities through food.
KCET Original -
"Planetary" is a provocative and breathtaking wakeup call – a cross continental, cinematic journey, that explores our cosmic origins and our future as a species.
KCET Original -
Marc Cros, an elderly sculptor, seems to have reached the end of his life and of his art, until his wife gives shelter to a beautiful young Spanish political refugee named Mercè.
KCET Original
Expiring Soon
-
Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah talks about peace talks with the Taliban.
-
How do we make housing more affordable?
-
Leaving war-torn Syria, one family crosses Europe to embark on another challenging trek: starting a new life in Germany.
-
A radio host, a photographer, a Rabòday singer and a creole rapper showcase a hopeful image of Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating natural disasters.
- 1 of 7
- next ›
Discussion
Comments