Indigenous fire stewardship: Federal/Tribal partnerships for wildland fire research and management

Over millennia, many indigenous and Tribal peoples in North America's fire-prone ecosystems developed sophisticated relationships with wildland fire that continue today. This article introduces philosophical, conceptual, and operational approaches to working with American Indians through research and management partnerships in the fields of wildland fire, forestry, and fuels, with applications to climate change and forest landscape restoration strategies. Of central importance are respectful collaborative relationships among the various parties (Tribes, agencies, organizations, academics, and citizens) that seek to integrate both indigenous and Western knowledge systems into environmental stewardship practices. Cultural fire regimes and indigeous people as fire depentent cultures is discussed.