Cultural Burning - Rekindling a Relationship with Fire -

On June 29, 2023, members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde led a cultural burn at our property, Smithfield Oaks. This event was both a training opportunity for Tribal youth interns participating in the Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program (TEIP), and also an opportunity to re-kindle the relationship between these oaks and fire, and the Tribes who have stewarded this land with seasonal burns since time immemorial. The video takes you on a journey on how and why cultural burning is used as a land management tool by the Tribes throughout the Willamette Valley, and shows you what this experience was like on June 29, 2023 at Smithfield Oaks.

Thank you to Brian Bull for producing this beautiful video, and thank you to the following groups and organizations that were involved in the cooperation and coordination of this cultural burn:

• Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
  
• Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program
  
• ​The Wagon Burners (formerly a part of Ecostudies Institute)
  
• Luckiamute Watershed Council
  
• Oregon State University Extension Service Fire Program
  
• Southwest Polk Fire District
  

Check out this video and other traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) resources:

Cultural Burning and TEK