(wind whistling) - we'vbeen doi is for mlennia.

when i s millenn, that mns more an one. westernoncept o conservati is that o. (soft music) people like muir and these other consertionists leold, they just thoht nobodyived out here, a ldernessa wilderss. th's not te. we've en in th rt of thcountry r thousas of thousas of yea. we know w to mane tural reurces, anwe need talabout it we need e true histy of ameca. (st orchesal music - we lookt the quanry th we findurselvesn today thughout t west, we have er increasing size and scale and intensity of wildfire. humans have excluded fire from this natural system and ha creatednnatur conditio as a relt. fire is our lation, d we need to work with fire. - indigeuseopl this cotry for very lontime, th've been maning e land,

usg cultur indicator using cuural knoedge, usg traditnastories, ing presibed fir using wh they kn is od for tir place (st orchtral mus) (bird whtling) - pa of what ong withmerica is that ople don unrsta that the forest that theaspire tpre-euroan were reay a result of nate americs... derstandg the naral cyeshat occuout ther (st orchesal music (buffaloerd rumbng) - as far aindianeople, buffalin all tir histo, th were oueconomy,hey were o food, o clothin then kled to nr extincon.

soringing ese anims ba, not on are thehealthy foeating b also r our irituali and a bipart of r cultur ju making whole ain. it a healing in at way ao. (st orchesal mic) - part owhat the dn't undstand, the origal english pedition s that wt they we looking was in ture. it's nature in relationship with humans over 1,000 years. [leaf] t fact that we're still he todayn any rm... is testament to aptati and resience. rickets irping)

my name michael kotutwa hnson. i'm a meer of thhopi tbe. wee locateup inorthern izona about 90iles rtheast flagsta. we livin what ey ll a semarid clite. it'sight in e middle a big dught perd, wh they ca extremerought. after grandfaer passe aw, i stard gettinseeds om diffent peoplout here, ani starteplanting. th what did was oped up mo fields, because wanted tplant mo anincreasehe suppl of cn that whad. anyou can see... somef our bes at i hadlanted.. are ing pret good do here. they're stting to co up pret good.

thesare call hatico. ey're brn lima bns. so ty're doi pretty od. ey look etty strg, ause the's so mu moisre in thground. irrigatn, folks oft instmental mic) anyou can e in cerin spots e corn istartingo come up from abt a footepth. son about weekthese wi really showing ally goohere. yoknow whai mean? ally goo it's a gd day toy, cause yocan see from tse littlones, theye got lile dew drs on them ght here the are ouchildren inhe hopi y these are r childr. sooday it'a good d, beuse i'a daddy.laughing) (soft instrumental music) (birds chirps) (metal clinking) i've had my own problems in my life like everybody else.

alcohol was achille heel forhe longe time, and found a wato... dispe of that. but found a y out here to al with at. when was lite boy, being opped ofout here spding somsummers t here wh my grafather, i leard a lot. but as iot oldernd i went thrgh a my lifecle 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.

threyears'upply corn, becae usualla drough lastabout the years anwe've hasome drouts out he. the adition s that thr fatheras a farr, and he wld make e ds grow farming starthem hoeg, plantg with a pnting stk. and ery kid ew up on e farm. today,o kid grs up on farm, cause thr parent stped farmg. if you don't farm and grow your food, you lose your independence. 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, the'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 ep farming. (criets chirng) so these are just some of the varieties that we raise. i uld haveo say th is pbably amica's origin sweet rn variety here,

beuse thisype of sd is whathey wld find inome of tse ehistoridwelling is is a d variy. d this ia purple ke a viot variet the are ju our blu cornarietiesere. we creatabout 42ifferent types diss from hi corn, everythi from puings to ups. this iour blood in lot of way this isho we ar en i wast corneluniversi, when talked out my cn, theyaid that need 33 ches of annual raiall a ar. okay? th're planng pths weran inch. our planng depth becau the wayur corn , becae that'shere the moture iat, cagonywhere om twfeet allhe way u ov time, ty've adaed. 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 cornit's only about probablybout an in growingegion. ours iout two et. it c probablgo longe

i woulimagine i put it dn four ft, it wou still ce up. (bns rattlg) oft instmental mic) dry nd farmi ans thatasically u don'use irrition. we don'telieve iirrigati. th's why tse variees are so droug-toleran beuse we d'trrigate. thiss where have my ans. u can sesome of e beans th are staing to popp out he. theswhite ma beans (diggi) werelearing down to where gets moture fiveima beaneeds in the or so. these arlike sup seeds, you ow? th've veryough. they'rlike us,nd so, because ey're li us, they svive le us. limiteamount owater, a lot nurturi, a lot ofaring, a t of comnity buiing. this iabout a ot. nvention agriculre goes to abt right re.

at's whayour plaer is desied to goown an ih. that it. igging) our rly cornwe put iearly to coiide with our ho dances. at'd be eet corn, yell rn, diffent variies. we don'tet any rns here all thway from ually fr april all the y till t monsoon whh is theast weekn july. r us to ow thing with onlsix to 1inches ofnnual pripitatio is azing. (st music) thisear i put in abo six differt variets of cor you'veot to gr em out ery year. u try too at lea one w out evy year, because e climatchanges, and so, less youo that, the plantson't adapt, 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, just likwe shoul but theynow how do that ose litt seedlin knowow to dohat. we ahuman begs are foetting h tdo that. these are the new generation. these have been geared to adapt to what they call climate change. (soft strument music) (riverabbling) (saking inaruk lanage) - is rightere is ourountry. is is whe we were borand rais, just le our lo ago peop were.

our relion is survivaln this pce living in is placeor cotless gerations, ousand oyears. it's hd to say it's a rigion. it's reay managent practices that have evolved in this place to survive. and fire, in our creation stories, the's alwa a recogtion that firhas alwa been he, it'slways be a part us. (soft instmental mic) - the kak peopleave live here f thousan of year and acor for nave peoplhere were staple their le... of theiriet, thatas deer at and all these pnts at are aund us that yieldifferentdible resours througut the yr. in ordeto have ose sources a predictable te, in prediable quaity, in aredictab area, you need to ha a handlon nipulang that getation

to inhit the pnts you didn want the and to eourage a sically rtilize thplants tt you did nt there a lot ofhe burng d been de by wen from awo mile dius around t villageite. 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. al that sme, putti that smoke into thcano... supprees the bs. what tse women essentiallwere doi sides enncing fo urces, bketry reurces, all the ings tha yoneeded tsurvive,

the samtime, th were elinating t risk wildfirto eir commities. fis don't rn in thblack, wherfire haslready bn. that's h you putut res withackfires en a wilfire hits it,t goes o, because runs t of fue en you havthis conant, regula low intsity fir ing put the lancape at ts communy scale, not refighti force, noanybody goinout there toight fir nobody w fighting anytng. ey were rking wi fire to eanceesourcesnd prt their mmunity. omber music) - fire suppression a exclusion with first colonizion, diseases that decimad nave populations, that limited severely there number of ignitions

and the complexity of their stewardship anagroforery syems arou fire us and thenou hadettlemen whether ere was dict dplacemen nati people being reved out ofheir vilges, put oneservatis d other ncherias thenou hadhe desuction of thaculturalire regi. anthen folwing tha initl periodf colonizaon, th there w a very strg emphas on sprsing allires. whher theyere lightnin they we arson orn-permitd ignitis, theyere to b suppress in the terest of timberesourceand prottion of mmunits. (sber muc) - [lf] supprsing wildfi or any re was real a policmande of tho early firsrangers re. theyrrested ople, put pele in il. so tse ceremial pracces, theitual fi th was 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 the rest hava vicious publicnemy numr one! fire, ruless, devaating fost fire ping out home,estroyin itical w materia, taking i annual ll of lis! - [leaf]e have 1 yearof scari people out the il effec of fi and howire is el. smokey bear,ne of thmost effectivpropagan campaigns thathe wor has eveknown, has ne such good job instillg fear ofire inhe general pulace. - eaf] andow you have aonditionhere we essenally hav't had fe, and th with ineasing climaticontions temperares, denfication and bud up a fls,

drout stress, high fueload, verdry fore, we seeany conditio in the st and rticular in calirnia and soutest oreg at now wre sayinwe're havi catastropc fires fires tt are laer inxtent ansevety, morextensive and me damagi thanas ever en in record histor but it's all built around fighting. fighting fire, it's not a fighyou can n, 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. (cnking) (chatting)

- my gndfatherhe uld kindf know, h, i feelike i'monna burnoday. iteels rig." i rember as kid growg up d being ke, "is today good burday?" and he be like "no, it'too wet, or like,no, not t." and thene'd starfeeling li you cou just... he'd gout and 'd be li, "ihink tod's a goodurn day. and he'do out an 'd light fire. and thenometimest wouldn go how wante so he'd op. and th he'd goack in a few more ys, maybe tried ain, and mayb was goo 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 cemonially for the deerskin dances, for all the other dances

that we' all kind of come to our whole lives. and this is alon your nd when youe standi just in ts one sp. (laughing) (fircracklin traditionay, this ace woulhave beeburned.. for ny reaso, for gaering, for sket weang material culturareasons. the larr pictur theountry tay, wi a lot othese laer wildres happing, you n use ltur knowled torive a l of thes manament praices thatie direcy into proction an ldfire itances. ere's lot of historin theselaces, and the's a lo of htory in aces for my fily as wl. myister lis here at t end of e road the se residee where grandmaas raise 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. i was my sister's hse when t fire stted. weere crking acos her livg room. anas soon i walke out the por, there wajust likthis wal oflames acss the seet. 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. so ijust toooff. it ca straighat our hse. th little tty bit clead land rht here ishat stopd the fi from takingll theseer hous. a lot of people were like, "dang, if you guys hadn't cleared your property out before the fire it probably would've lost the whole neighborhood. and so wwere like we we reallyucky becae the tre helped uso that athe timeoo, herwise wouldn'have bn ab to do iby oursees, because was like ni months egnant

when we ught t operty. huckles) i sn't muchelp to anybody athe time. so it's ally gooto e controed burns and en, yeahone crewan take carof a who area, versus hing an ay ofirefights coming fiting a fe. mean, wh it ts to th point, yes, we tta do, buyou don'need to t it geto that pnt. (fircracklin peonally, i'a clical socl worker and a t of whai deal wh th a lotf nativeeople, we have a lot of trauma. we have really high rates of suici and dression, ana lot ofhat has do wh the diuption ofur culre and o relions and r way ofiving. d a lot our problemshat we he with t weathernd climate changend everythin isecause othe sameisruptio thsame disption of trng to ma somethi fit a ceain kindf box. and i ink that how a lot ofestern ctures have beewith non-westn cultur,

ani think at's howhey've kind obeen witnature. d so i tnk it's me to to len from eh other anmeld betr and bo to each her's knledge in cerin areas iver bbling) - we useire for lot things ceremon crting a rple thatalls the saon up thriver. the p of bla mountai that wou burn of 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 sml 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 in ts ceremo of lighti that motain tually h scientically valiconnectis to calng the fi up the ver. (soft muc) - r religi we actice ipic-ya-wh, tranated as orld renal". so the karuk people were fix-the-world people. toda we're gonnao down a we're gna fish in ishpishi fas. it's vy... it's vy romantic i so people'eyes, very fstratingnd other. i'm bothf those. i love i that's way of fe, but thhealth othe rive ns parall with t heth of thpeople. we need to p to acti, the phical actns on t landsca.

we've t to sta eaning t sacred ails. d cleani the fore once agn. evythingd e salmonenefits om. (st chestralusic) - son our tral ceremy is to fithe world. it's notust to fid this cek or fix o famy or fixur river we want fix thehole wor, beuse if tngs are ong here theye wrong the other si of the rld too. that's jt the wathe world rks onhe balan. so iour trib we knewhat in f the wor ceremon piya-wis even a all grou of pple withreat eney, great cus and pure thoht

caactuallyrigger the wod, the eth, and put back onts balan. (fire crkling) (wd whistlg) (chanting in foreign language) (steady drumming) (crowdheering)

(cm music) (wind biowing) - so we' broughtuffalo ba here atlackfeet i thinin 1974,e stard to restore imals ba to here d there sn't a rl big... terest, d i gues beuse buffo had be gone fr our culre for slong,

being alst hunte to near extinction. so the biggest par why oureople... haveever seethem. so aer they re kille to near extition, king wayor cattlfor this couny, thingwere los our ngge, our y of relion... losi land. ese animhere are my psion, inging tse anima back anreturninthat part oour culte. my ne is erv carlson and m a memb of the blkfeet naon anpresidenof the inrtribal ffalcounci i'm here today to respectfully urge passage of h.r. 5153, the indian buffalo management a, to cate a peanent tribaluffalo storatioand manament proam with the deptment of thenterior. buffalo e sacred tomerican dians.

historical rords indate that arican inans 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. day, t itbc is compsed of 6tribes

acro 19 stat with 55 buffa herds, collectily the lgest herdn the united stas. the buffalare veryood stewards of thland. they're naturay migratinanimal. ey don'tust to sy in onerea and ergre. they'rnaturallmigratin if theget enou room tooam, theyl move fm area tarea. e cattlend the oer anals, thell overgze if you keethem onl inne area o long. soou don'tave to ke care of them. they te care othemselv. they're ve hardy animals. and weust had real severe wter thisast year a t of cate were lt. but we dn't loseny bualo to tt weathe they jt mainta, and theyl just tn their ads intohe stormnd go to i and thedon't...