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Traditional Knowledge Of Fire Use By The Confederated Tribes Of Warm Springs In The Eastside Cascades Of Oregon, Michelle M. Steen-Adams, Susan Charnley, Rebecca Mclain, Mark D. O. Adams, Kendra L. Wendel

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

We examined traditional knowledge of fire use by the Ichishikin (Sahaptin), Kitsht Wasco (Wasco), and Numu (Northern Paiute) peoples (now Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, CTWS) in the eastside Cascades of Oregon to generate insights for restoring conifer forest landscapes and enhancing culturally-valued resources. We examined qualitative and geospatial data derived from oral history interviews, participatory GIS focus groups, archival records, and historical forest surveys to characterize cultural fire regimes (CFRs) –an element of historical fire regimes– of moist mixed conifer (MMC), dry mixed conifer (DMC), and shrub-grassland (SG) zones. Our ethnohistorical evidence indicated a pronounced cultural fire regime in …