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Sheldon: Traditionally, tribes used fire for different reasons; however, somewhere through
the introduction of European settlers and the removal from our homelands, elements of
our traditional use were abandoned and practices were discontinued. We want to encourage the
development of traditional fire use through prescribed burns from you, the homeowner.
As we return to respecting fire, we see the benefits it provides.
The Elders you are about to hear talk about their knowledge and traditional uses of fire
among native peoples. To better understand fire adapted communities and modern uses of
fire, we begin by looking to our past. Mr. Scott: The fire was an important aspect
of developing our gardens, which was called a community garden. Sometimes these gardens
was vast tracts of lands that the tribal town members had to work. They were required to
work. And so everybody that were participants in these vast projects were also beneficiaries
of these projects. Mr. Buckner: When they burnt, in our ancient
ways, around the houses; they burnt out so that the rodents, that were there for their
housing area, so that they didn’t have to move so often. They also burnt around the
other things, the bushes that enabled the deer to populate, to come back, so they wouldn’t
have to go so far to hunt. The way I understood, that’s what they done, then.
Mrs. Harjo: (Speaking in Muscogee language) Here – this was always clear, a field, fire
never happened here and was rarely seen. In the “fall” my father would burn fields
for the following year to clean it up. I can remember a time when they did burn – we
made a “garden” for our home. In the “fall” my father would burn the fields for the following
year, to clean it up. Mr. Larney: (Speaking in Muscogee language)
Fire Benefits us in many ways. It provides light when electricity goes off. You can build
a fire to cook off of, but it’s something to monitor while using. If you have neither
gas nor electricity, you can always build a fire to cook. Fire has been around for a
long time and is here for our benefit. Mr. Buckner: Our fire sits on the treaty,
on a mound. And on those treaty mounds it is sacred to us that we think about Okfunga.
Okfunga gave us these fires. Totko is now what we worship, our spirituality is where
Okfunga lives. Our songs and stuff is sung around the fire to give, to let Hsaketumese
to know where we at, what he’s given us to carry on. That’s why it’s so important
to us in ancient times and today.