How Indigenous fire stewardship continues to shape North American forests

Indigenous knowledge and Western science are coming together to develop diverse, resilient and just fire restoration practices that support our forests, which are critically important in navigating a warming future with increased wildfires.

New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed about five centuries of data from tree rings, as well as traditional ecological knowledge from Indigenous communities, to show how Indigenous fire stewardship shaped North American forests and how contemporary Indigenous management can decrease wildfire risk, foster landscape diversity and support tribal sovereignty. The research was a collaboration between the University of Minnesota, tribal partners and others.

“Indigenous knowledge offers unique insights that reflect millennia of intimate engagement with local landscapes, while Western science can offer additional understanding of the emergence of climates and ecological conditions that are novel at evolutionary timescales,” said lead author Michael Dockry, an associate professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Their findings tell a more complete history of human engagement with the places commonly referred to as Wisconsin and Minnesota Points at the head of Lake Superior.

They found:

• Informed by oral histories, archaeological records and tree-ring data, the research demonstrates how Anishinaabe fire stewardship maintained ecologically and culturally significant communities of pine barrens along the shores of Lake Superior in central North America.
• The tree rings clearly show that the tribes were using fire across the landscape but that land loss during the treaty era (mid-1800s) coincided with a dramatic reduction in fire.
• The cessation of fires, driven by colonial policies that suppressed Indigenous practices, disrupted these systems, threatening their diversity and resilience.

“Braiding Indigenous knowledge and Western science highlights the need to reintroduce cultural fire to support these rare socio-ecological systems. This provides a globally relevant model to support Indigenous fire use that recognizes Indigenous sovereignty and land-tending practices to enhance landscape diversity and resilience in the face of climate change. We hope other areas build upon this work by empowering Indigenous fire use,” said Dockry.

The team is working with tribes in the Great Lakes region on a series of listening sessions to develop long-term research supporting tribal fire use practices to enhance forest management, landscape diversity, reductions in uncontrolled wildfire and cultural revitalization.

The vision is that collaboration among tribes in the region; University of Minnesota faculty, students and staff; the University of Wisconsin; Michigan State University; the US Forest Service; the Lake States Fire Consortium; local tribal colleges and others will transform prescribed fire training, support cultural fire use, and develop models for Indigenous and Western fire practices in the Great Lakes and beyond.