Hĕde oḱo hedem ḱaw ya-paĭ-to nĕs

Jun Ueno Sunseri^1*Matthew Moore²Rebecca Allen³

• ¹University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
• ²Nisenan/Washoe Knowledge Bearer, Auburn, CA, United States
• ³The Sierra Fund, Nevada City, CA, United States

Catastrophic fire behavior in the Sierra Nevada range is increasing in tandem with worsening forest conditions related tonon-Native approaches to fire ecology and climate change. Among the myriad negative human and community effects linked to thistrend, lesser understood are the relationships between differing forest management strategies and impacts to Ancestral Places or'Esak 'Tima (Maidu and Nisenan for "places to learn") which are living locations and traces of Ancestral practices that are integral tothe health of Native Californian communities. Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, TEK specialists, and Tribal Leadership are on thefront lines of government-to-government negotiations of sovereignty, especially with respect to their communities' livingrelationships with Ancestral Places. These are sometimes located in places managed by other institutions, agencies, and landoccupiers and are most often far more than just dots on a map, but rather complex interconnected landscapes of Ancestralpractices. These Tribal perspectives on guarding Ancestral Places are linked to not only the uses of Cultural Fire, or wénném sa inecosystem restoration but also increasing aspects of the legibility and reincorporation of elements of Ancestral Places andPractices into healthy contemporary relationships with Tribal community members. These aspects of applied Traditional EcologicalKnowledge and practice are highlighted in the relationships between wénném sa, Tribal archaeology, and forest managementtechniques our coalition is researching in California and are part of how our partnership in community-accountable archaeologicalresearch supports restorative justice. We foreground the principles of guardianship in the forest to build datasets that willsupport community priorities for Tribal access, food and medicine sovereignty, and intergenerational knowledge transfer. Thesekinds of direct action guardianship and mandated research will serve as models for co-management policies in other forests.Central to our efforts is demonstrating a model of evidence-based practice in recognition that leaders in our rapidly changingecological reality cannot have a complete toolkit without them, especially if societies attempt to reconcile issues of racial justiceand sovereignty. Our partnership in this way connects heritage resource management to forest management and human rightspolicy while building communityaccountable research deliverables.