Indigenous people have a rich history of working with and understanding fire. Pierre Kruger remembers a time when burning was common and has countless stories describing the lessons learned. This is the first of three Fire-Keeper stories we will release during the course of this podcast series. These stories consist of traditional knowledge and describe an understanding of fire that may be different from what some have come to understand.
In this podcast, Pierre Krueger, a traditional fire-keeper and Penticton Indian Band Elder, remembers a time when burning was common and has countless stories describing the lessons learned.
Resources
An Indigenous burning story featuring Pierre Krueger: https://thenib.com/prescribed-burn-forest-fires/?fbclid=IwAR1eAANy5RBrRSdqBd-gojxUefSjMNbDsgmmL2UVMP5cVFGT19LlYeJ4IfA
Sponsors
The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science
Support from:
● California Indian Water Commission
● Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation
Quotes
3.19 - 3.24: “Fire is like a snowflake; there ain’t no two fires the same.”
Takeaways
Fire safety (02.11)
Pierre Krueger’s family members have been fire-keepers for over 10,000 years, and they practised different kinds of cultural burning all over the land. He narrates the story from the 60s when Pierre and his uncle surveyed the land during a wildfire to ensure safety and saved the lives of 70 to 100 settler firefighters by cutting down the trees that could have spread the fire. They were also asked to help put out the burning stumps and clean up the forest.
The journey of a fire-keeper (8.04)
Pierre shares that the first lesson in Indigenous burning is how to light a fire with what is available in the short window for burning, and that they don’t need matchsticks. Safety is the most important consideration in burning because losing one’s life from burning has impacts on reincarnation, he says. He highlights that fire-keepers are also responsible for taking care of the garden (mountains, valleys and water bodies).
Understanding fire (10.39)
Pierre recalls that in the 60s to the 80s, Indigenous peoples “were the best firefighters around”. They were dropped from moving helicopters onto steep hills since they were trained, experienced and knowledgeable in what needed to be done to control a wildfire. He explains the many reasons that fires are created - real estate, road development, clear-cutting - and how cleaning up after a fire is important.
“We don't have a fear of fire” (13.17)
A few years ago, Pierre and his son took a forest fire crew out to the forest and lit the backfire at their request. When the wind came in, Pierre warned the crew not to go ahead, but they didn’t listen and it led to casualties on the crew. Good firefighting “takes time and common sense”, he states. He has invited the Penticton firefighting unit to learn how to understand fires from the experience of the Indigenous peoples so that they don’t fear fire.
Fire-keeping in his blood (16.56)
Pierre was taught how to be a fire-keeper from childhood, with the ability to call on the weather being an important part of the teachings. He laments that the practice is slowly being lost because the younger generation is “becoming tunnel-visioned”. His vision is to teach many people about fire-keeping so that they can use technology to work with their enhanced knowledge and understanding of fire.
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