Wilderness-adjacent residents throughout California are bracing for the threat of another dangerous wildfire season. Nowhere is this more acutely felt than by tribal members on Native American reservations, most of which are located within the state’s wilderness regions.
Wildfires tear across districts and jurisdictions which is why there is a coordinated, statewide effort among firefighting and public safety agencies. The San Manuel Fire Department, which stands among the top 1% of departments nationwide, not only protects our tribe, but we bring aid to neighbor cities and statewide when needed. Since 2003, we have handled nearly 50,000 calls with 35% being off our reservation.
But it wasn’t always this way and communities didn’t always coordinate fire response. For much of its history, San Manuel, like many tribal communities across the state, was “out of sight and out of mind” to emergency responders despite being directly in the path of annual wildfires.
Not too many years ago, jurisdictional uncertainty over fire department response to federal Indian reservations often delayed or prevented response to our reservation, just a few miles from downtown San Bernardino. Because of these uncertainties, San Manuel (and many other tribes) could not rely on emergency help; so out of necessity, we chose to be proactive to protect our land and our people.
Young tribal members dedicated time to be a part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs fire hand crews, fighting fires as part of Interagency Hotshot Crews. This foundation set us on the path to create our own on-reservation fire department. We saw the importance of becoming trained first responders and building cooperative partnerships with local, state and federal agencies to ensure our protection.
As a tribal leader and resident of the San Manuel Reservation, I am proud that my husband is part of the San Manuel Fire Department and that my grandson is part of the Fire Explorers program. As they don their uniforms, I recall how my home would have been consumed by the 2003 Old Fire if not for the selfless action of firefighters brought to our reservation through mutual aid.
It is this peace of mind that we want for our brother and sister tribal members across the state, and for our neighboring communities. The California mutual aid firefighting system provides a means for California’s tribes to stand side-by-side on the fire line with local and state fire agencies regardless of patch. However, there is a critical need for the state and tribes to forge even closer cross-jurisdictional relationships to build firefighting capacity as we move into a year-round fire season.
This spring, Governor Gavin Newsom began implementing a $536 million plan to prepare the state for a potentially historic fire season. In discussing the plan and innovative approaches to fire mitigation, the Governor rightly gave credit to tribes for a history of controlled burns that helped Native Americans keep their land healthy before settlers banned these practices. Now, the state is turning to our native communities for guidance on how to work more collaboratively in managing the ecological landscape.
Acknowledging our traditional knowledge for land management and wildfire abatement is indeed praiseworthy. However, it should be balanced with a conversation on the immediate need for more firefighters to protect California reservations that lie in some of the state’s most drought-stricken forests.
San Manuel Fire Chief Michael Smith, with other fire chiefs across the state, has sounded the alarm that the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the available pool of individuals to serve on fire crews, especially firefighting hand crews.
In a continued spirit of cooperation and collaboration, we are working with the County of San Bernardino to recruit more people into the fire service, particularly into hand crews. Through the California Tribal Fire Chiefs’ Association, we are advocating that tribal fire departments get equal access to grant-funded training and membership programs for volunteer firefighters. These programs support the safety gear and hundreds of hours of training needed for a firefighter to be response-ready.
As cities and counties across the state vie for more fire personnel, we encourage their leaders to coordinate with tribes, especially when personnel is limited. Fire doesn’t acknowledge boundaries between tribal and non-tribal land; therefore, we must work together so tribes are never again left to fend for themselves.
Audrey Martinez currently serves as the Tribal Secretary of the San Manuel Business Committee.
