Fire has shaped this land since time immemorial. It has cleared undergrowth, renewed plants, opened canopies, and made space for animals to return. For Anishinaabe people, fire was never just a tool—it was a living relative. Like many tribes, Grand Portage is working to restore that relationship.
In partnership with North House Folk School, Grand Portage recently welcomed ecologist Ferin Davis Anderson (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) and cultural educator Hope Flanagan (Seneca) to share traditional teachings on fire, ecological restoration, and reciprocal responsibility to the land.
One way Grand Portage practices ecological restoration is through prescribed burns—low-intensity, carefully managed fires that mimic the natural role of fire in the ecosystem. The day included a guided walk through a burn site in Grand Portage, led by Erik Carlson, the Band’s lead fire technician. Carlson has long been involved in Grand Portage’s land stewardship, including coordinating burns and mechanical thinning.
This restoration work has shown good results. In recently burned areas, native plants are reemerging, pollinators are returning, and soil health is improving. As participants walked the land in Grand Portage, Carlson pointed out the difference between areas that hadn’t been burned and those where fire had been reintroduced. “You can already see the difference,” he said. “In the burned areas we’re seeing blueberry flushes, heart-leaf asters, and more light hitting the ground.” These are clear signs of fire’s essential role in restoring ecological balance.
That balance has been lost in many parts of the world—and the consequences are increasingly visible. “When we don’t acknowledge fire as a spirit, you start seeing things that we’re seeing now,” Anderson said, referring to the rise in large, destructive wildfires.
Flanagan reminded the group that fire, like all living beings, must be treated with respect. “That’s why we offer tobacco. That’s why we say thank you,” she said. “If you don’t honor a relative, they leave—and they take their gifts with them.”
Anderson emphasized that fire was traditionally used in deeply intentional ways—managing berry patches, clearing travel routes, and encouraging medicinal plants. It is also a sacred and essential component of many traditional ceremonies, carrying spiritual significance as well as practical purpose. “Our people used fire for travel, food, ceremony, and care,” she said. While colonization tried to erase these practices, the knowledge survived.
This work is about more than restoring ecosystems—it’s an act of reciprocal restoration: healing the land while also restoring culture. Just as fire revitalizes the earth, tending fire also revitalizes Indigenous knowledge systems and connections to place. With each carefully tended fire, relationships are rekindled and balance is restored. In Grand Portage, this work is ongoing. We are working to bring fire back to the land in a good way—rooted in ancestral knowledge and carried out with future generations in mind.