Kansas Field Station hosts cultural burn 

Alex Moore | @alex_moore04

An indigenous cultural burn took place on Monday afternoon at the Kansas Field Station just north of Lawrence. Nearly two dozen volunteers from six different Native American tribes across the Midwest came together to participate in the burn.

Volunteers came from the San Carlos Apache, Navajo Nation, Wichita and Affiliated Tribe, Muscogee Tribe, Cherokee Nation, and the Oglala Lakota.

The fire served an important role in bringing nutrients back into the grassland in what is often referred to as a good fire.
“I am a good fire advocate,” Melinda Adams said, assistant professor of geography and atmospheric science. “I try to promote a lot of healthy fires, whether that’s prescribed fire, prescribed burn association, agency fire, and lots of people trying to return good fire to landscapes in a fire-suppressive world. It’s important for all of us to take responsibility in returning fire safely and communally.”

The cultural burn allowed people of indigenous heritage to reconnect with traditional cultural ways of caring for the land.

“Having the first ignition of the grass being with a bundle that also included some sage from our reservation,” Brett Ramey said, member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. “Having some of those medicine plants be part of that original ignition. To me, it’s just really significant as part of, like, not just what we’re doing, but the how we’re doing it, making sure we’re bringing in a lot of these other cultural layers.”