Newsom Funds ‘Cultural Burns’ While Brush Clearing Fails

Since 2023, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has distributed the funds through its Tribal Wildfire Resilience program to tribal groups and affiliated nonprofits, according to New York Post.

The initiative operates under the direction of Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, who has characterized California’s founding as rooted in a “state-sanctioned policy of genocide” and claims the state has pursued “decades of land dispossession, discrimination, and disconnection.” Crowfoot stated the Newsom administration aims to return land to the “leadership of California Native American tribes.”

Separate Certification Standards for Tribal Fire Practitioners

The program has established a dual-track certification system for fire management that applies different standards based on tribal affiliation. Non-tribal fire bosses—regardless of whether they are white, black, Latino, or Asian—must complete technical certifications including a 40-hour burn-boss course and in some cases federal certificates.

“Cultural fire practitioners,” by contrast, receive certification through simple tribal recognition of “substantial experience” in burning for cultural purposes, without the same technical requirements.

Rituals and Small-Scale Burns

The cultural burns incorporate various ceremonial elements. Ron Goode, chief of the North Fork Mono Tribe, explained that practitioners begin with drumming, sage burning, and prayer. Participants introduce themselves to the land in a circle, believing the land listens to their incantations to understand their purpose.

Some tribal members use traditional elderberry fire sticks rather than modern lighters, along with dry branches and cottonwood bundles as kindling. According to one tribal chief, fire gives life to the land as a “living spirit.”

Goode acknowledged the limited scale of these operations, stating they never burn anything bigger than a big beaver hut.

Questionable Grant Allocations

While some funding appears directed toward legitimate fire management, examination of state grant records reveals numerous awards with dubious connections to wildfire prevention, as New York Post reports. These include:

• $1 million to help a tribe provide “forest-themed ingredients” to tribe-owned restaurants
• $599,000 for renovating land for a Native American summer camp
• $166,000 to pay tribal staff and members to observe spotted owl nests
• $746,000 for “food sovereignty” and a “Fire-Centered Climate Action Plan”
• $521,000 to help a tribe maintain “close kinship” with plants, animals, and “other natural relatives such as water and fire”

Missing Data on Program Results

In 2022, California projected that tribes and cultural fire practitioners would conduct 25,000 acres of prescribed burning annually by 2025. The state has not released any data documenting the tribes’ progress toward this goal.

For the Butte County Maidu Indians, the initiative appears focused on cultural preservation rather than fire management. Tribal member Magan Herrera acknowledged the program’s dual nature, noting they burn deergrass for basketry, not necessarily for wildfire resilience.

In a CalFire video, one crew member admitted that when they first started, they did not understand the work and thought it was simply cutting trees and burning, “but really it was much more.”

The expenditures come as California faces significant fiscal strain. The state’s massive spending on ceremonial and cultural activities under the guise of fire prevention represents a questionable use of public funds, particularly as the dry season approaches and genuine wildfire threats loom.

With information from New York Post