(wind whistling) - we've en doing th for milnnia.

when i s millenn, that mns more an one. westernoncept o conservaon is th old. oft musi peop like mu and tse other nservatiists, opold, ty just tught nobo lived o her a wierness as a lderness that's n true. wee been ithis part othe couny fothousandof thousandof years we know hoto manag naral resoces, and we nd to talabout it we need e true histy of ameca. (soft orestral mic) - ife look athe quanda thate find oselves itoday thughout t west, we have er increasing size and scale and intensity of wildfire. humans have excluded fire from this natural system and havereated uatural nditionss a resu. fire is ourelationand we need to work with fire. - digenous people of ts countr foa very lg time, ey've been maging e land,

usg cultur indicator using cuural knoedge, ing tradionastories, ing presibed fir ing whathey knows go for the places. oft orchtral mus) (bd whistlg) - pa of what wronwith ameca that pele don't undersnd that ese fores that ty aspireo pre-eupean were rlly a result of nive amerans... derstandg thnatural cleshat occuout ther oft orchtral mus) (bfalo herrumbling - as far aindianeople, buffalin all tir histo, th were oueconomy,hey were o food, o clothin then kled to nr extincon.

so bnging the animal backnot onlyre they althy for eang but ao for our spiritlity and big partf our cuure, just makg us who again. it a healing in at way ao. (soforchestr music - rt of wh they didn understd, the orinal englisexpeditis, s that wt they we looking was in ture. it's nature in relationship with humans over 1,000 years. - [leaf]he facthat we're still re todayn any rm... is testament to aptationnd resience. rickets irping)

my name michael kotwa johnn. i'm member othe hopi tbe. wee locateup in norern ariza about miles northeasof flagsff. we le in whathey call semi-ar climate it's rht in thmiddle a big dught piod, what they call extreme drought. after grandfaer passe aw, i stard gettinseeds om diffent peoplout here, ani starteplanng. then what did was oped up mo fields, cause i nted to ant more d increa the supy oforn thate had. d you casee... so of our ans that i h planted. are ing pret good do here. they're stting to co up pret good.

these e calledatico. th're browlima bea. they'reoing prey good. ey look etty strg, 'causehere's smuch isture ithe grou. no irration, fks. oft instmental mic d you casee in ctain spo e corn istartingo come up fm abt a footepth. in aboua week, these ll reallbe showi rely good re. yoknow whai mean? ally goo 's a gooday toda beuse you n see from the little es, th've got ttle dew ops on them ght here the are ouchildren the hopway thes arour chilen. so tod it's a od day, becae i'a daddy.laughing) (soft instrumental music) (birds chirps) (metal clinking) i've had my own problems in my life like everybody else.

alcohowas my ailles he for theongest te, and found way to.. dispe of tt. bui founa way ou hereo deal wh that. en i wasittle boy, being opped ofout here spenng some mmers t here wh my grafather, i learned a lot. but as i got older and i went through all my lifecycle and all my drinking and stuff, i was able to come out of that. and only came out of that because i got back into what i really love and enjoy. and i feel like a lot of people out here, if they would get back into farming and learn from this, they wouldn't have near as big of a problem out here. (soft instrumental music) - trition tes us at we mu have co. corn habeen theain stapleor t hopi pele. yohave to ve three year supply corn.

the years'upply oforn, because ually a ought sts abt threyears and we'vhad some oughts o here. the adition s that thr fatheras a farr, an wouldake the kidsrow up fming. art themoeing, pnting with plantinstick. and ery kid ew up on e farm. today, no kid grs up on farm, cause thr parent stped farmg. if youon't farm angrow your fo, you lose yr indepeence. but if you're farming and growing your own food, you don't need the government. so you're independent. - the hopi farming, to me, the destruction, in just looking back at our history, was just the introduction of cattle. the federal government came in,

and they thought that we could use these cattle and as a way to... do better. what it started to do by bringing in these livestock animals, it started bringing in the concept of what they call privatization. so people felt like they owned it. it wasn't shared as readily as you would a crop, and therefore you had a concept of privatization, which, in my mind, broke down a lot of our society, a lot of our community bonds with each other. in a drought year like we've had the last two years, there's no way they can survive, so you wind up just drastically cutting back their herds, people selling their cattle. i'm out here just trying to not change the system, but i'm trying to hold on to the system that's been existing for over 2,000 years and to encourage people to keep farming. (cckets chping) so these are just some of the varieties that we raise. i uld haveo say th is pbably amica's origin sweet corn variety here,

beuse thisype of sd is whathey wou find some these prehisric dwelngs. is is red vaety. d this ia purple ke a viot variy. ese are st our be co varieti here. create out 42 dferent types ofishes fr hopi co, evything fm puddin to soup this iour blood in lot of way this isho we ar when i w at corneluniversi, en i tald about corn, theyaid that need 33 inch of nual rnfall a ar. okay? ey're plting depths we an inc r planti depths,ecause of t way ourorn is, cause th's where thmoistures at, n go anyere from two fe all theay up. over tim they'vedapted. they havwhat the ca a growi region called an epicotyl it's the initial growing point comes out, and it's elongated. it has an elongated epicotyl, so it comes up from that. whereas in hybrid corn, it'snly about probablybout an in growingegion. rs is abt two fe. it canrobably longer.

i wod imaginif i t it dowfour fee itould sll come . eans rtling) oft instmental mic) dry la farming mes that bically u don't e irrigaon. we don'telieve iirrigati. that why the varieti are sorought-terant, becauswe don't irrate. this iwhere i ve my bes. yocan see me of thbeans that aretarting toop up ouhere. ese whitlima bea. (digng) were caring itown to where itets moisre fi lima be seeds in tre or so these e like ser seeds yoknow? th've veryough. th're ke us, a so, cause th're likes, ey survi like us limiteamount owater, a loof nurtung, a lot caring, lot of cmunity blding. this is out a fo. convtional aiculture es to out righhere.

at's whayour plaer is desied to goown an ih. that it. igging) ouearly co, we putn early tooincide th ouhome dans. at'd be eet cornyellow co, differt variets. we d't get a rains he althe way om usuallfrom apr l the watill theonsoon, whicis the lt week ijuly. r us to ow thing with onlsix to 1inches of annl precipation is amazi. (soft muc) this yr i put about s fferent rieties corn. you'veot to gr them outvery yea you try go at lst onrow out ery year beuse the imate chges, and , unlessou do th, these plts won'tdapt, they won't change.

and when we're going through climate change throughout the globe, we need to have that biodiversity, beuse biodersity can react and can adapt, st like should,ut they kw how too that. those lile seedlgs know h to do tt. we ahuman begs are foetting h tdo that. these are the new geration. these have been geared to adapt to what they call climate change. (soft strument music) (rer babblg) peaking karuk lguage) this rig here is ourountry. this is ere we were bn and raed, justike our ng ago pele were.

r religi is rvival ithis place. living in th place f couness genetions, ousand oyears. 's harto say it's a religio it's rlly manament practices that have evolved in this place to survive. and fire, in our creation stories, the's alwa a recogtion th fire haalways bn here, it's alws been a part ofs. (soft inrumental mus) - e karuk ople havlived here f thousan of year and orns for nati people re were staple their le... their dt, that w deer me and all these pnts at are aund us that yld diffent edibl reurces thughout t year. in ordeto have ose sources a prediable tim a predictle quanty, in a pdictablerea, you eded to ve a hane on manipulati that vetation

inhibithe plant yodidn't wt there and toncouragend basicallfertiliz thplants tt you did nt there a lot the burng d been de by women from awo mile dius ound theillage se. and that was to produce a fine grain mosaic being oak woodlands and grasslands. - they put fire on the ground, underneath the trees to burn up old acorns and leaves and duff to make it easier to pick the acorns when they fall. so that oke, putng that smokup into e cano... ppresseshe bugs. what tse women esseially we doing besideenhancinfood source basketrresource all the things that you needed to survive,

at the same time, they were eliminating the risk of wildfire to their communities. fires don't burn in the black, where fire has already been. that's how you put out fires with backfires. when a wild fire hits it, it goes out, because runs t of fue when you have this constant, regular, low intensity fire being t on theandscape this counity sce, not fifightingorce, noanybody gog out there fight fe. nobody w fighting anhing. ey were rking wi fire to enhance resoues and protect thr communy. (sber music) - fire suppression a exclusion with first colonizion, diseases that decimated native pulations, that limited severely there number of ignitions

and the complexity of their stewardship anagroforery stems arnd fire e. and th you had settlent, whetr there s direct displacemt, nati people ing remod out of tir villas, put reservaons and otherancheri. th you hadhe desuction of thaculturalire regi. and thenollowinghat itial peod of colonizaon, then tre was a ve strong phasis on spressingll fires whether ey were ghtning orhey wererson orn-permitd ignitis, th were toe suppreed in thinterest of timberesourceand prottion ocommunies. (somr music) - [leaf]uppressi ldfire oany fire waa really policy ndat those ely first raers here they arrted peop, t people in il. so tho ceremonl practis, the rual fire thatas pt of ournnual worlrenewal remony was outlawed and people were put in jail for it. (spirited music)

- [narrator] wood for war! the navy nee wood. ey air fces needood for oop-caying glirs. we a need ouforests, but thforest he a cious publ enemy nber one! fire, ruless, devastatg forestire ping out hom destroyg criticalar materls, taking i annual ll of lis! [leaf] whave 100 yearof scari people out the il effts of re and h fire isvil. smey bear,ne of thmost effectivpropagan campaigns thathe world has er known, hadone suca good j of instiing fearf fire in t general popace. - [leaf] and now you have a condition where we essentially haven't had fire, and then with increasing climatic conditions of temperatures, densification and build up a fuels,

drout stress, high fueload, verdry fore, we see my nditionsn the we d particarly in lifornia and uthwest egon at now wre sayinwe're havi cattropc fires orires thaare larg in eent and verity more eensive andore damang th has evebeen in recded histy. buit's a built arnd fightg. fighting fir it's no a fit you cawin, and it's not something that people should be trying to fight. how can we engage with fire? how can we embrace fire as a partner? because that's what it is. it's the best partner we have. (clunking) hatterin

- myrandfath, he uld kindf know, "oh, feel li i'm gon burn tod. it fee right." i rember as kid growg up and beg like, s toy a goodurn day? and 'd be ke, "no,t's too t," or like,no, not t." anthen he'start feing like y could jt... he go out d he'd blike, think tay's a go burn da" and he'do out an 'd light fire. d then setimes i wouldn'to how heanted, so he'stop. anthen he'go back in aew more ys, maybe tried ain, and maybitas good, so he'go for i (light instrumental music) this is the panamnik tishawnik village area. we swim here. we fish here. we... we gather here ceremonially for the deerskin dances, for all e other dances

that we've all kind come to our whole lives. and this is l on youmind when y're stanng just inhis one ot. (laughing) (fire ackling) traditiolly, thiplace wod have bn burned. fomany reans, for thering, fobasket wving materis, cultul reason the larr picture theountryoday, with lot of ese larg wildfirehappenin yocan use ltal knowlge to dve a lotf these managent practes th tie dirtly into ptectn and wildre instaes. there's lot of history in the places, and the's a lo of htory in aces for my fily as wl. myister lis here at thend of throad the same resince whe my gndma wasaised and her parents lived.

i know that people on this lane, especially, are really excited for the burning to happen, because they did experience the dance fire back in 2013. was at msister'souse whenhe fire arted. were crking acos in her ling room d as sooas i wald ouon the pch, there s just le this wl flames ross thetreet. and it was already in the canopies of all the doug firs across the seet. (sombemusic) - was suca terrib year. we h like haly any rn, no snow g time bore. sot just tk off. i me strait at ourouse. is littlbitty biof clred landight her ishat stopd the fi from takingll theseer hous. a lot of people were like, "dang, if you guys hadn't cleared your property outefore the fire it probably woulve lost the whole neighborhood. and so wwere like weere real lucky becae the tre helped uso that athe timeoo, otherwiswe wouldt have bn ab to do iby oursees, beuse i walike nine mths pregnt

en we boht the prerty. (cckles) i wa't much lp to anybody athe time. so it's ally gooto e controed burns anthen, ye, one cr can take ce of a wle area, versus hing an ay ofirefights coming fighng a fir mean, wh it gets to at point yes, wgotta do buyou don'need to t it geto that pnt. (fircracklin personali'm a clinicalocial woer, ana lot ofhat i de with with aot of nave peopl we have a lot of trauma. we have really high rates of suide and dression, ana lot ofhat has do wh the sruption our cture andur regions anour way living. and a loof our proble that weave with t weathernd climate chan and evethin isecause othe sameisruptio thsame disption of trng to ma somethi fit a rtain ki of box. and i ink that how a lot of wtern culres haveeen with non-stern cuures,

and think th's how ty've kind of en with ture. and so ihink it'time to to arn fromach othe anmeld betr and bo to each her's knledge in ctain are. (riverabbling) - we useire for lot things ceremon crting a rple thatalls the saon up thriver. the p of bla mountain that wld burn f, it dras into t ca creek wershed. and so at that time of year, you're kind of at one of the warmest periods for the river temperatures, and so when you burn off the understory and the small plants you no longer have things using that surface water, so you have more cold water groundwater inputs into your streams. the smoke in the air reduces the heat,

the radiant heat from the sun on the water, and so that contributes to colder temperatures inhe rivers well. anso just ese littleinute chges thatappened sed on the han activy inhis cereny of lighng that untain actuallyas scienfically vad connecons to calng the fi up the ver. (soft sic) - r religi we actice ipic-ya-wh, translated as "world renewal". so the karuk people were fix-the-world people. toy, we'reonnao down a we're gna fish in ishpishi fas. it'sery... it's vy romantic i so people'eyes, very fstratingnd other. i'm bothf those. i love i that's way of fe, buthe heal of the ver runs pallel wi the health othe peop. we need to p to acti, the phical actns onhe landspe.

we'vgot to srt cleaninghe sacretrails. ancleaninghe forestnce agai erythinge don our wod e salmonenefits om. (st orchestr music) - in outribal cemony is tfix the wod. it's n just fixethis cre fix ouramily fix ouriver. weant to f the who world, because things e wrong re, th're wronon the other sidef the wod too. that's jt the wathe world rks onhe balan. son our tre, we kn that in f the wor ceremon pic-ya-wh, even small grp ofeople wi great ergy, great fos and pu thought can tually tgger the worl the ear,

and put back onts balan. (fire crkling) (wd whistlg) (chanting in foreign language) (steady drumming) (crowd cering)

(cm music) (wind llowing) - so we' broughtuffalo ba here atlackfeet i thinin 1974,e stted restoranimals ck to he. and therwasn't aeal big. inrest, ani guess becae buffalhad beenone from o cultureor so lo,

beg almostunted to nr extincon. so the bgest par why oureople... have nev seen th. softer thewere kild to neaexnction, maki way forattle fothis country,hings we lost. our ngge, our way of rigion... long lan ese anims here are myassion, inging tse anima back and turning at part of r cultur my namis ervinarlson, and i'm member o e blackft nation anpresidenof the tertribabuffalcounci i'm here today to respectfully urge passage of h.r. 5153, the indian buffalo managementct, toreate a rmanent trib buffalo storatioand manament proam with the deptment of thenterior. buffalo e sacred tomerican dians.

hiorical rords indate thatmerican dians relied heavily on buffalo for survival. buffalo provided us food, shelter, clothing and essential tools. in the early 1800s, the buffalo population in north america exceeded 30 million, and the american indian population was near seven million. the military systematically eliminated buffalo to eliminate the indians. in addition, westward expansion and the greed of non-indian buffalo hunters reduced the buffalo population to 500 and the indian population to 250,000 by the turn of the century. with confinement of indians to reservation lands, indians had lost their primary food source, lifestyle and independence. in 1991, a handful of indian tribes organized the intertribal bison cooperative to begin restoration of buffalo to indian tribes. today, t itbc is compsed of 6tribes

across 1states wh buffalo her, llective the larst herd ithe uned state e bualo are ry good stewards othe land they're turally miating anal. they don just totay in o area anoveraze. th're natully migring. they geenough rm to roa theyl move fm area tarea. thcattle a the oth animals,hey'll orgraze if you kp them oy one aretoo long soou don have to take carof them. th take ca of themlves. they're very har animals. and just haa real severeinter th past ye. a lot cattle re lost. but didn't se any buffalo that weher. they jt mainta, and theyl just tn their ads intohe stormnd go tot, and ty don't.