Indigenous Perspectives on Forest Fire - Jade Haumann

Jade Haumann discusses forest fire science, historic and future management form an indigenous perspective.

Jade Haumann is a member of the Seneca Nation Wolf Clan. She is from the Onondaga Nation community and is a graduate student at SUNY ESF, formally studying fire ecology through a Haudenosaunee lens. Jade’s master’s work embodies her passion for advocating for Indigenous sovereignty, healing human-land relations, and her love for community. The goal of her work is to articulate past Haudenosaunee relationships to fire, with specifics of how, why, where, and when. Ideally, this work can serve as a resource to consult in making community decisions on how to address local climate change impacts.

Jade’s professional aspiration is to work with the Onondaga Nation community to help build plans for a prescribed burn team that can benefit all Haudenosaunee communities interested. As a student, she has dedicated much time and energy to traveling to other Indigenous communities and building relationships with fire practitioners outside the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to create a supportive network. Through studying behavior of wildland fire, Jade has also acquired her NWCG Firefighter Type 2 certification and has participated in controlled burns as far as Northern California. Fire holds a special place in Jade’s heart and genuinely enjoys sharing the often-untold story of fire’s nurturing qualities in caring for the land.