NATIVE HEALTH IN NATIVE HANDS

N-shong konk' ~ “Good Fire” (CULTURAL FIRE)

The Kinest'e, now called Wailaki, are a tribe whose ancestral homelands are in Northern Mendocino, Southern Humboldt, and Southwestern Trinity counties. NHNH has been building collaborations with state and federal organizations along with local landowners to strengthen working relations and stewardship programs on Kinest'e ancestral homelands.

NHNH cultural burn crews steward low-intensity fire (N-shong konk’ or good fire) on the forest floor which reduces major fire fuels. The native practice of cultural burning and prescribed burning creates nutrient-rich soils and diverse habitat for plants and animals, also generating sustainable food sources for humans. Kinest'e cultural revitalization helps reconnect people with our environment. NHNH workshops, gatherings and media hearten Kinest'e People, regional Tribes and non-native communities to bring N-shong konk’ to the land with which they live.

N-shong konk’ (“good fire’) promotes traditional knowledge, lifeways and spiritual values as well as biocultural diversity and resilience to wildfire, drought, flooding & erosion. Indigenous Peoples of California have practiced cultural fire management since time immemorial. Millennia of Indigenous traditional fire regimes are thanksgiving for the forest, her foods, medicines and materials; this long history of Indigenous fire management produced and sustained many fire-dependent species, such as giant sequoias. Good fire is food for the forest - nourishment - feeds the hand that feeds us.

N-shong konk' ~ “GOOD FIRE” (CULTURAL FIRE)

Native Health in Native Hands (NHNH) partnered with local fire professionals on July 19th to conduct a prescribed burn in their ancestral homelands in the Briceland area. KMUD's Lauren Schmitt reports...