A Northern California tribe works to protect traditions in a warming world (npr.org)

The Oak Fire, which burned roughly 20,000 acres west of Yosemite National Park last summer, was devastating to the area's Indigenous tribes — including the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation. The tribe is headquartered in Mariposa, California, a small town in the Sierra Nevada foothills close to the national park.

"It really hit our community hard," said Tara Fouch-Moore, a member of the Southern Sierra Miwuk's tribal council. "We lost 127 households."

Gegere Brochini and Fouch-Moore said traditional plants like elderberry, deergrass and sedge used in native cooking, medicine and basket-making were destroyed by the Oak Fire — along with more permanent physical structures, such as the many milling stations carved into the bedrock by ancestors.

The Miwuk people have used these indentations in the rocks to grind traditional medicines and foods like acorns for thousands of years.

"And to think that something that has withstood the test of time for millennia can be destroyed by one fire sweeping through, is a sign that something is changing, and something devastating is happening," said Fouch-Moore.

Cultural heritage and climate change closely intertwined

Indigenous communities have long understood cultural heritage encompasses more than historic buildings and museum artifacts.

"It's how we coexist with the land and manage it," said Aanthony Lerma, the Southern Sierra Miwuk's stewardship coordinator. "It's the native way of life."