Canadian wildfires hit Indigenous communities hard, threatening their land and culture

EAST PRAIRIE METIS SETTLEMENT, Alberta (AP) — Carrol Johnston counted her blessings as she stood on the barren site where her home was destroyed by a…

Fires aren’t uncommon on Indigenous lands, but they’re now occurring over such a widespread area that many more people are experiencing them at the same time — and some for the first time _ stoking fears of what a hotter, drier future will bring, especially to communities where traditions run deep.

“We don’t just jump in the car and go to the IGA,” for groceries, Supernault said. “We go to the bush.” It’s not uncommon for Indigenous communities to evacuate repeatedly, Christianson said. A recent analysis of the Canadian Wildland Fire Evacuation database found that 16 communities were evacuated five or more times from 1980_2021 — all but two of them First Nations reserves, said Christianson, who participated in the analysis by the Canadian Forest Service.

“It’s going to take a long time,” said McMullen, calling it the worst fire season in Canadian history. “These are life-altering events.” Indigenous communities “really want to be leaders in managing fires in their territory,” including a return to preventive burning that was long suppressed by the government, said Christianson.

But it also wasn’t a total surprise, said Ratt, because summer heat is more intense and ice forms later in the winter and melts faster in the spring. That diminishes their ability to ice-fish and hunt for moose and beaver, which often requires crossing a lake to an island.

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